Psychology Applicants (2012 entry)

I'm applying in 2012... really excited even if the fees are a bit of a downer...
I'm predicted AAAa at A level at the mo, but hoping psych and maths will be bumped up to A* predictions.

Thinking of applying to Bath, York, Warwick/Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester

No offence, but you guys paying £9k a year for a psych degree are making a huge mistake. I paid £3k and I don't think it was worth the money.

Hey, maybe you could tell us a bit more? Why did you decide to study psychology in the first place?

Hi! I'll also be hopefully applying for Psychology course next year, my uni choices would probably be UCL, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews, Aberdeen. I'm trying to avoid the crazy tuition fees, although I would probably die at St. Andrews, since I prefer bigger cities. I'm hoping to get 39-39 in IB including bonus points.




Hey, maybe you could tell us a bit more? Why did you decide to study psychology in the first place?

P.S. your new to the psych forums obviously... GodspeedGeheneh is the resident psychology sceptic. But to be honest i don't know why he applied in the first place for psych if he thinks its such a bad degree.

Because I didn't know how good/bad it was without studying it in the first place.

Inb4 'should have done research'. I did. Ironically it was the skills that I developed in the degree that made me come to the conclusion that most of it is trash. Employment wise, it's not worth £3k a year let alone £9k a year, especially when it is at a god awful university.

In your opinion, does RHUL constitute as a 'god awful uni'?

Because I didn't know how good/bad it was without studying it in the first place.

Inb4 'should have done research'. I did. Ironically it was the skills that I developed in the degree that made me come to the conclusion that most of it is trash. Employment wise, it's not worth £3k a year let alone £9k a year, especially when it is at a god awful university.

How is most of the research trash? And have you just not enjoyed your degree, or do you not like it because you think the amployment prospects are bleak afterwards? I definitely don't want to become a clinical psychologist... so im not too bothered about that being hard to get to.

Anything outside of clinical/bio/cognitive is complete trash because it is nothing but uninformative, contradictory redescriptions. There are no paradigm shifts, just dead-ends. The equivalent of a paradigm shift in these areas essentially equates to a stagnating of interest until an alternative jazzier, newer redescription arrives, which ultimately progresses the field no further and is essentially really banal ideas dressed up with the latest lingo.

Career prospects are bleak. The single biggest sector of employment for psych grads is retail, catering and admin. For those who do want to go into psych, I can recall countless numbers of graduates who are still applying for 'psychology jobs' from aberdeen to cornwall with absolutely nada success.

Additionally, I hear rumours of trainee clin psychs losing their salaries during the doctorate due to poor funding. It's a bleak future.

And yes, I've pretty much hated every moment of the last three years. Utter waste of time.

Well if you've hated studying it then its probably given you an overly critical outlook on the subject... and really? Im mostly interested in the bioloigical and cognitive areas, but what areas should i try to avoid?

Other way around, bro. Critical outlook made me hate studying it.

Areas to avoid? All but bio/cog/clin. Unfortunately the BPS makes you sit through **** like "the I self, the me self".

Hmm so your saying that areas like developmental psychology and social psychology are bogus? Looking at the course structure for my insurance, it looks all pretty legit from what ive read:
http://www.york.ac.uk/psychology/prospective/undergraduate/course/

And what have you read?

Have you had a look round St andrews? I was going to apply just for the prestige, but when i went there it really brought home how it just wasn't for me...

P.S. your new to the psych forums obviously... GodspeedGeheneh is the resident psychology sceptic. But to be honest i don't know why he applied in the first place for psych if he thinks its such a bad degree.

I'm not from UK so I wasn't ale to visit any of the universities but yeah I'm almost positive I wouldn't like St. Andrews, but it's probably worth saving the 27k that I would pay at an English university. I was also thinking about applying to Cardiff (since the tuition fees have to be the same for the EU students as locals, I would probably only pay the standard 3k), and it seems like a really nice uni and city, but their IB requirements seem a bit too high.

Well ive gone through some social psych lectures online by UC berkelely and read up on social influence and social cognition half for a level. I've read in detail the Kruger and Dunning paper 'unskilled and unaware of it'. Obviously i don't know as much as you, which is why im asking you what is wrong about the research....

As that the Robb Willer lectures? <3