Oxford vs Cambridge Psychology

Disclaimer: I dont know if anyone can see my username if you can see that please dont tease me I randomly make a name when I register an account here I am finding if I could change it immediately QAQ

Hi everyone! I am a student studying Y12 and I do IAL curriculum! Its my first time making a post so please let me know if I have violated any rules!
Recently I am thinking if I shall choose the pschology undergrad course in Cambridge or Oxford. Personally I prefer Cambridge due to a wide variety of choices in optional papers but I could get a research master degree if I apply to Oxford, which seems to be more beneficial if I want to pursue my future career as a psychologist and I want to stay one more year with my schoolmates(although this might be a meaningless point haha)...
May I know if anyone who study psychology could share the reason why you choose psychology course offer in Russell Group unis? I dont have that much confidence in myself so I believe that would be great if I could know more about other unis too!

Welcome to TSR!

If you want to change you user name, you should be able to do so by selecting "Customise by TSR", then "Account", then "Edit my login settings" from the menu. This link should also work.

(I can't answer your main question, unfortunately.)

Thank you for your help. AT least you have pushed my post to the top hahaha
I could only see delete account in that page ;(

Disclaimer: I dont know if anyone can see my username if you can see that please dont tease me I randomly make a name when I register an account here I am finding if I could change it immediately QAQ

Hi everyone! I am a student studying Y12 and I do IAL curriculum! Its my first time making a post so please let me know if I have violated any rules!
Recently I am thinking if I shall choose the pschology undergrad course in Cambridge or Oxford. Personally I prefer Cambridge due to a wide variety of choices in optional papers but I could get a research master degree if I apply to Oxford, which seems to be more beneficial if I want to pursue my future career as a psychologist and I want to stay one more year with my schoolmates(although this might be a meaningless point haha)...
May I know if anyone who study psychology could share the reason why you choose psychology course offer in Russell Group unis? I dont have that much confidence in myself so I believe that would be great if I could know more about other unis too!

What do you mean by "research masters degree at Oxford"? Both offer PhDs in psychology, and in any event it's completely normal (common even) for students to do their undergraduate degree at one university and postgraduate degree(s) at another. Note that both Oxford and Cambridge have quite "sciencey" psychology courses and so you'd usually be expected to be doing at least one STEM subject (not counting psychology itself) to A-level (if not quite possibly two for Cambridge). This may be a factor in which you would apply to.

Also note that if you want to do a BPS accredited degree, you will need to take specific options at either university - and that will mean that the content of what you study ends up being largely similar, as the BPS accreditation specifies which topics need to be covered to get that accreditation. Note that BPS accreditation is required if you wish to go onto a professional psychology role in e.g. clinical psychology ,educational psychology, forensic psychology etc. For academia though it's not necessary. Worth bearing in mind though as most will be offering BPS accredited degrees, the actual content is largely similar for the core modules, and so the differences will mainly be in the optional modules and what other facilities the university offers

Outside of Oxford and Cambridge, UCL and KCL in London have quite strong psychology departments, although like Oxford and Cambridge very focused on the experimental/scientific side (although I have heard UCL has issues with student support there). Outside of London and the RG, Bath has a very strong psychology course, and is better than most other RG psychology courses. Edinburgh has a good department too from what I gather, particularly if you're interested in cognitive science/neuropsychology/psycholinguistics and similar areas of overlap (Cambridge also does a lot of research in these areas but I don't know if they're as represented in the undergraduate degree there).

Note also that RG membership is not something that should influence your decision - it's a political lobbying group effectively and membership does not indicate anything about teaching quality for undergraduates. There are also some RG unis which are considered very strong and prestigious in of themselves, but are not especially well known for psychology - for example LSE (which has only had an undergraduate psychology degree for a few years now too).

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! The research master in oxford is the 4th year in undergrad degree, which my friend told me this term, so i just use it without hesitation. May I know what is the student support issue in UCL?

In that case it is something, if you're a home fees student then it's cheaper to do the 4 year MSci course than a 3 year BSc + 1 year MSc, if you're an international fees student I think it works out similar though.

Thats the point why I struggle between Cambridge and Oxford haha
it seems like having one year MSc will be better for me but tbh I am not really interested in neuroscience (my friend told me there are 50% neuroscience in EP in Oxford)

The thing is both Oxford and Cambridge (also UCL and KCL) are very heavy on the neurosciencey side of things as that's just what their departments focus on. If that is of less interest to you then you may want to look more widely at other courses.