Oxford Psychology and Philosophy

I got an unconditional offer from St. Hilda's for Psychology and Philosophy and I'm still considering whether to accept the offer, as I am quite concerned about the career prospects of graduates from this course. I am an international student, so I was wondering if I get to stay in UK to work after that as well. I guess employability is very important for me as i'm taking a loan to pay for the tuition/college fee which is very high since i'm an international student. Thanks!

Reply 1

DontWantYourBloodMoney

Oxford graduates tend to be pretty likely to get a job. Also psychology and philosophy offer many transferable skills, and so many firms will probably like you, that is if you do well and get a decent degree.

Reply 2

goose123

You could look up twenty graduate recruiting firms or companies you'd like to work for on google, and email them asking their opinions. You never know, someone might even sponsor you!

Personally though, I wouldn't say it's that employable a degree. I don't really buy into this "transferable skills" crap, I think it's just something arts students say to make themselves feel better about their lack of job prospects. There's no arguing that someone with a science or engineering degree is going to be in a much better position regarding jobs, since they have all the same "transferable skills" as anyone else, but can also do something useful.

I also suspect having an Oxford degree isn't as highly-regarded as people tend to think. The woman from Cambridge who did a talk at my college said employers tend to think an Oxbridge graduate deserves an interview, but, like the Oxbridge interviews themselves, everyone who gets an interview is on a level playing field after that. Being (potentially) the cleverest candidate doesn't equate to being best for the job.

What you could do though is use the long holidays to do loads of good work experience. I suspect your college could give financial support for this, so in this respect Oxford would be better for your career prospects than a degree from another university.

If you're very career-minded and also have a passion for, say, Chemistry, though, I'd suggest you reapply; if you were clever enough to get in for one subject, you could probably do it again for something else you're interested in.