[Mum of 3]

Hi,

I have a daughter currently in year 12 studying Psychology, Biology, English Lit and French with expected A*, A grades.

At the moment she/we are busy looking at Universities for entry September 2013 to study Psychology.

We have attended Leeds and Nottingham Open days so far which have both been fantastic.

I am really looking for advice re courses as she really loves the neuroscience and cognitive aspects of Psychology. Nottingham offers Psychology with the cognitive neuroscience anywhere else any one can recomend?
She would really like to study at one of the Russell group universities.

My daughter also looked at just studying Neuroscience on its own but keeps swaying back to the psychology side as well.

I have a concern that Psychology seems to be such a popular degree to take these days.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[Gman Enquiries]

Hi mum of three. Me and your daughter are in the same boat.

I'd recommend psychology at Sheffield, one of the best courses in the United Kingdom. In addition to this, I would also recommend Bristol and Surrey.

Good luck.


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[Jackkkkk]

Bristol focuses a great deal on the biological/neuroscience side of psychology as the course is taught as a biological science. They also do post grad NeuroPschology which obviously influences the undergraduate teaching. thus you graduate from Bristol with a BSc in Experimental psychology.
Also Royal Holloway has just started a new course 'Psychology with Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience' - it looks really interesting and undergraduates have training on the MRI Scanner they have purely for academic psychology purposes !
Other universities that focus on the neuroscience side of psychology is Oxford, Nottingham (with Neuroscience), Sussex (with Neuroscience), Sheffield and Birmingham actually have a really good course that focuses a great deal on the neurosciences and options such as the the physiology and psychology of pain are available.
One thing to say is try and get your daughter to link any work experience or volunteering she has done to her personal statement and interest in the disciplines ! Also for places such as Bristol make sure her understanding that psychology is science is shown within the personal statement due to its high statistical and biological content good luck, if you have any other questions just ask


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[Noodlzzz]

UCL has the best neuroscience department in Europe. The psychology course allows you to do extra modules in any other subject, which include being able to do modules in neuroscience. Furthermore, the course itself is very biological based and neuroscience is touched on quite a bit throughout the degree.

[RobertWhite]

Psychology does have many graduates at the moment and so gaining a position as an actual psychology is very competitive. This is pretty much the same for most jobs though. If your daughter loves neuroscience/psychology then she should go for it. If she eventually wants to go into neuroscience though she'll need to do a pure neuroscience course or something else biological related. It is not possible to go into with psychology (from experience... )

[PhilipMiti]

I hope she choses neuroscience. As it is awesome. I haven't started it yet but hopefully in September i'll be off to Leeds University. Like you've said, i think psychology is very popular and this i assume does make the required grades for good universities a little higher. Luckily it doesn't sound like it'll be a problem for her. but for example Bristol University for 2013 typical offer:
For Psychology : A*AA - AAA ( Also there 1,298 applicants for 106 places)
For Neuroscience : AAB (There are 356 applicants for 38 places)

http://www.bris.ac.uk/prospectus/und...134/admissions (neuro)
http://www.bris.ac.uk/prospectus/und...247/admissions (psych)

Now, if i were her, i would do neuroscience allowing her to experience the biological/psysiological neuroscience aspects of her education. This means that when she gets past year 2 or three she can focus on what really interests her about neuroscience (the cognitive, psychological side). Do also bear in mind that she would very likely (depending on the course) be doing some modules in cognitive/psychology aspects of neuroscience anyway, so it's not as if she'd have to wait for ages to start looking at what interests her. She'd be learning some of it anyway. I know specifically, for example, that at Leeds (where i'm going), in the 3rd year you study some systems neurophysiology:

http://www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/admission...ence/index.php
If you click on the little tab which says course structure, you'll find it. Now if you have a look at this link
http://www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/admission...iles.php?tab=1 with the student profiles on it, you'll see what a student Clare Reeder thought about systems neurophysiology and she mentions the learning about the emotional system etc. In year one you study Foundations in Biomedical Sciences and The Biology of the Mind.

"This module will take you on a journey starting with the development of the nervous system early in life and finishing with neurodegenerative diseases that affect the elderly. On the way you will learn about the different parts of the brain and what they do, explore the workings of the brain including the senses, the control of movement and discuss higher cognitive functions such as sleep, memory and learning." - under the tab course structure/Neuroscience Year1/Biology of the Mind

Just as Noodlzzz has mentioned above, many (i'm positive) of the neurocourses will allow you to take a few optional modules with every year, and the psychology/psychology related modules are inevitable.
Finally, please consider what Jackkkkk has posted above. I think it's very very useful information and i think should make the decision much harder. But battle with them and good luck!!!!!!!!

[skotch]

If they're looking to go into Neuroscience, I would definitely consider UCL. It's Neuroscience department is considered one of the best in the world. It's Psychology department is probably the best after Oxford in this country.

Most of the stuff written above is very useful, accurate information.

[Noodlzzz]

(Original post by skotch)
If they're looking to go into Neuroscience, I would definitely consider UCL. It's Neuroscience department is considered one of the best in the world. It's Psychology department is probably the best after Oxford in this country.

Most of the stuff written above is very useful, accurate information.

Actually psych at UCL came above oxford (and every other university) in this years league tables

[skotch]

(Original post by Noodlzzz)
Actually psych at UCL came above oxford (and every other university) in this years league tables

Yeh, it's supposed to be incredible there. Thinking about going there to do postgraduate stuff next year. Torn between staying in Bristol to do postgrad or moving back to London (either UCL or KCL; KCL would be something in health psychology I think). While I think I would love a change of scene and there's so much going on in London and closer to home friends etc., I feel like 3 years in Bristol isn't long enough! Ah well, I guess I'll start making decisions once 3rd year has started!

[Introverted moron]

(Original post by Mum of 3)
Hi,

I have a daughter currently in year 12 studying Psychology, Biology, English Lit and French with expected A*, A grades.

At the moment she/we are busy looking at Universities for entry September 2013 to study Psychology.

We have attended Leeds and Nottingham Open days so far which have both been fantastic.

I am really looking for advice re courses as she really loves the neuroscience and cognitive aspects of Psychology. Nottingham offers Psychology with the cognitive neuroscience anywhere else any one can recomend?
She would really like to study at one of the Russell group universities.

My daughter also looked at just studying Neuroscience on its own but keeps swaying back to the psychology side as well.

I have a concern that Psychology seems to be such a popular degree to take these days.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Hi Mum of 3,

Most psychology courses do have quite a bit of neuroscience content integrated within them, being an experimental science with an empirical focus; for example, on the one at York, which is probably one of the best in the country for psychology, they actually have a strand dedicated to brain and behaviour while there'll also be some aspects of neuroscience on the perception and cognition strand. So your daughter can apply for psychology without necessarily compromising on the neuroscience.

Also, given her A-Levels, bear in mind that she may not meet the subject entry requirements for all neuroscience courses with their scientific grounding and this may severely restrict her choice of unis that she can apply to. Many neuroscience courses require 2 scientific A-Levels; these include biology, maths and chemistry. A few unis also count psychology as a science but there are also quite a few that don't. UCL are one of those that have become even stricter, requiring chemistry at A2-level while Manchester require 2 'hard' sciences which doesn't include psychology but they are willing to offer some leniency on this if predicted grades are sufficiently high. However, Nottingham required 'A-level biology and/or chemistry' when I applied for 2011 entry though I'm not sure how relevant this is to 2013 entry and Leeds similarly required biology or chemistry and one science or science-related subject (they were pretty generous with their definition of this, even accepting Computing and PE as science-related subjects!)

Also, if your daughter really can't decide, then Manchester (another Russell Group uni) is a great uni in terms of the flexibility it offers. It has a cognitive neuroscience and psychology course which comes under the Faculty of Life Sciences and with degrees from the Faculty of Life Sciences, you can transfer to virtually any of the other degrees within this faculty (including neuroscience) since the first-year in all their courses gives a broad grounding in the basic, fundamental concepts of the life sciences.
http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/under...eneuroscience/

The neuroscience course at Nottingham doesn't have a lot of psychological content other than the optional modules in the first year where you can choose to take a module from the School of Psychology and these are more or less limited to: Cognitive Psychology, Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience and Biological Psychology and The Psychology of Addiction......the second year doesn't look too good either - no optional modules and only one module that comes close to psychology (behavioural neuroscience). There's generally a lot of biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology (and genetics in the first year). So if it's psychology that she's after, the course here probably isn't for her.

.....and yes, you're right. Psychology has always been a competitive subject and increasingly so, it seems but your daughter seems very capable and I'm sure she will get offers wherever she applies.

[iammichealjackson]

To add to the person above, at my uni is the same as UCL as you definitely need chemistry to go down the neurosciences/natural sciences route, at least to modules on things like cells which doesn't require biology a level (but does chemistry). Its definately worth checking out the course structure of all the degrees and which optional papers you can take- you're daughter may find that she won't enjoy 1/2 of the first year if you have to do papers which aren't ideal. I did a module in biological anthropology which was really fun (and psychology related).

If you go to a good university, do plenty of relevant work experience during your degree and work hard to get a 2.1 then you are far more likely to have good job prospects!

Some parts of the league tables aren't a great indicator of teaching quality, for ecample the student:staff ratio- i know people at various unis who have multiple choice tests, or little "set" work to do in the first year, even at places like durham which on paper seem good.