Medicine vs Psychology

Hi guys, I am struggling to make a choice about what degree i want to take. I'm stuck between Psychology and Medicine. Whilst I like the idea of both subjects I can't seem to pick one. I love psychology, its a subject that really interests me. But I'm not too keen on the opportunities presented job wise. I'm keen on learning and having the knowledge for my own benefit, but there's not job that really seems like it could use my skills to the best of my ability. And i have a feeling i would get bored working in research for the rest of my life.

I like the idea of studying medicine, I feel that being a consultant can utilise my analytical skills and critical thinking far better than working in a psychological field would. I really like Biology and Chemistry (chemistry in particular). And I would want to specialise in a field that some sort of psychological or neurological aspect to it. However, I desire knowledge and I feel that I won't learn as much studying medicine, or that studying medicine won't be as stimulating as studying psychology.

I have thought about doing an intercalation, but I'm not too sure how much it would help the situation.
I'm basically stuck between practicality (medicine) and the pursuit of knowledge (psychology).

Has anyone else been in this type of situation before? If so, which path did you choose?
Any advice on what to do?

(edited 7 years ago)

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Original post by namikazezoro

Best place to start would be to do some work experience for both, this will give you a realistic idea of the careers and help you make a decision.

Reply 3

InternationalXX

You could do Medicine and then go on to be a psychiatrist. I feel like this may be the best combination of the two subjects. Psychology doesn't really have amazing job prospects, and this is coming from someone who'll study Psychology this year.

Reply 4

namikazezoro

Original post by MoshBosh

Best place to start would be to do some work experience for both, this will give you a realistic idea of the careers and help you make a decision.

I sort of have an idea of what it would be like for both. I have abit of experience in both fields. Its still pretty difficult to choose though.

Original post by InternationalXX

Yeah, thats the option i was looking at, becoming a neurophychologist. But how much psychological knowledge would be involved? I'm not sure if the position would satisfy my hunger for psychological knowledge. I feel like learning psychology would be fun but after all the learning, i would get bored in a job. Medicine seems more challenging and whilst I'm interested, i feel like it wouldn't nearly be as interesting as psychology would be.

Reply 5

evantej

Original post by namikazezoro

I am training to be a speech and language therapist and we cover 'psychology' from a number of different perspectives. You will almost certainly learn some psychology as well though perhaps not as formally and in depth as you would on an undergraduate degree (which is not necessarily a bad thing I can assure you).

Before I started my degree I worked in a School of Psychology which offered a vanilla undergraduate degree and clinical and research degrees at postgraduate level. I looked after one the master's programmes and we had a medical student who intercalculated. That to me seems like the best option for you.

If you can get into a university which also offers a doctorate in clinical and/or forensic psychology you could easily get them to supervise you at master's level and give you an insight into what that side of things is like clinically.

If you go the vanilla psychology route then it limits your options later on compared to medicine in my opinion.

Of course a lot of this discussion is academic. You could always hedge your bets and apply for medicine but slant your personal statement towards mental health and have a psychology course as backup.

Medicine vs Psychology

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