High number reading Psychology?

Brb, discounting all opinions that I don't wish to believe.

Are you even at university? What experience do you have of the graduate market place?

That is irrelevant, You only have individual experience, you can't account for every single degree graduate out there.

And anyway, you are doing medicine, and how long did it take you to get that graduate offer?

I do know that the number of students for some courses, whether that trend continues across the board or not is to be seen, numbers have dropped drastically. I do believe that a lot may be put off by the £45K debt that 3 years of studying leaves you with (including maintenance and tuition).

Maybe when I apply for 2013 it might be a little less saturated than it is now. That might be just hopeful thinking though

Thank you Catoswyn.

You pretty much summed up my thoughts on the whole process. I'm not even due to start my access course until September but I have got myself a volunteer role with MIND and am looking at one for the Samaritans too.

I am determined to go far and I am prepared to do what it takes to achieve this. If people really feel a sandwich course is the way to go, I might just have to change my choice of Unis. Just when I thought I'd got my plan set in foundation too :P

I've found a Uni that offers a Sandwich course and it's Loughborough. I don't really know much about the Uni though, are you guys saying that it would be better to go to Loughborough and do a sandwich course than it would be to go to Nottingham? I think you are, hence Loughborough will now be my first choice. It would take my 50-1hr to get there as opposed to 30-40.

I tend not to place much merit in the Guardian league table, having some knowledge in statistics :P

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I tend not to place much merit in the Guardian league table, having some knowledge in statistics :P

Loughborough definitely do a pure Psychology degree, as I would definitely not want to fall into the trap of specialising too early, which is why I have avoided even joint honours degrees.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ssehs/undergraduate/programmes/psychology.html

Loughborough isn't a poor University by anyone's standards I don't think, the only thing that worried me was that Psychology came under the Sports, Exercise and Health faculty.

My 5 choices before today were Nottingham, Sheffield, Notts Trent, Sheffield Hallam and Lincoln.

Loughborough was the only course withing driving distance I could find. I live in Mansfield so Loughborough is just the other side of Nottingham so about 50 minutes. As it stands now I would say Loughborough, Nottingham, Sheffield, Notts Trent and Sheffield Hallam.

I want to say thank you so much Catoswyn! You've given me so much helpful insight and advice. I want to plan this far in advance because I want to do well. I would hate to miss an opportunity because I didn't research things well enough.

So yeah I will go and have a look around, but your advice on the sandwich course has made that the way to go for me I think.

I'll let you know how I get on in a years time when I will be getting my Uni offers about now! Haha!

I am currently awaiting entrance on to an Access course as I am a mature student, with a view to going on to read Psychology for September 2013.

However, after reading up as much as I can I understand what is expected of me on the Access course and going through to Uni - it's extremely competitive.

But everywhere I seem to look on this site, everyone is studying or going to study Psychology and it worries me that I will be at such a major disadvantage of being 32 when I graduate.

Is Psychology the most popular subject at the moment? Has it always been like this? Are there any other trends at work here such as students not realising what Psychology is like and changing their course shortly after joining?

I guess I was just set on what I wanted to study and am a little peturbed by the amount of others wanting to do the same subject and am now wondering whether I should have a re-think regards to this.

Any advice would be appreciated

The bonus you have as a mature student is that you know what you want to do after as you have experience of the job market. I think this helps when you graduate as your cohort want to travel, work in shops, drop out, be non motivated and fail to get jobs due to lack of maturity or instinct in the job market. The only thing I might suggest is that if you did want to go to do clinical psychology check out york and hull for psychology as they have a fast-stream into clinical straight from degree. (Courses with a years work experience doesn't really matter for a mature student)

goto nottingham for forensic... as you can make the contacts you need and if you want to be an ed-psych, you are already well advanced for that due to all your teaching experience!

I think places in the league tables mattering are myths also. Uni's are just businesses. You pay your money, turn up, listen, do some work and get a certificate in exchange.

When applying for uni and filling in the finance form make sure you have given any savings you have to family for safe keeping and stick big fat zero's in the boxes for how much you will be earning whilst at uni to ensure you get a big grant as opposed to a big loan as well as ticking that you will be 'away' from home even if you have your own home as its not your 'parents'.

Psychology's possibly the most transferable degree so you can use it for most things.

Thanks I very much appreciate your advice! I didn't know about York and Hull offering fast track for clinical - that's made me even more confused now but in a good way! I was very much set on staying local but I'm beginning to wonder now.

Personally, I wouldn't bother trying to chase a career in psychology. I’ve seen someone try and do it from close quarters and it's just so hard. The Prospects site says that the average age for getting on the 3 year clinical doctoral training programme is 26. So someone who started out at 18 could be 30 plus before they get their first professional job. Getting into educational psychology is even tougher as you’ll be up against teachers, who obviously have huge amounts of experience working with children. And of course there's so few jobs in the field in the first place. The vast majority of those doing psychology first degrees do not get a job in the field and have to use their degree to break into other careers such as HR or business.

But being older could be an advantage especially if you've already worked in say mental health care or with the prison service because you'll already have the extensive work experience that they usually require for the doctoral programme. If you don’t have that then it’s time to start putting together the experience. There’s always related alternatives such as social work or may be something in health care but even they are hard to get into now.

I'm basing my opinion on numerous career events, a lot of professional networking with psychologists and previous graduates as well as my own experience and the experience of my graduating cohort. You seem to be basing yours on idealistic university prospecti which are designed to sell university places.

I had my offer to study medicine shortly before I graduated. I don't see how that is relevant, though.

this is so irrelevant,

this is so irrelevant, but I love your blog. And the nagging woman comment is hilarious.