Would this make my PS seem &quot;off-topic&quot;?

Original post by angelmxxx

Do Cambridge still let you write an additional ps on their questionnaire? Some of my friends applied there 2 years ago and were allowed to write 1000 characters I think?

They do on your SAQ, yes. Mine still didn't really mention Soc & Pol though.

I want to do Psychology & Sociology in my first year and then specialise in just Psychology thereafter (you dont have to do all three subjects).

Reply 22

Original post by Minerva

Very likely. A PS with a lot of psychology in it will not help your cause with LSE at all, and vice versa won't help you with Warwick. I would strongly suggest you make up your mind - not now, nearer the time! - which of psychology or sociology primarily interests you. Remember too that social psychology is a specialist discipline within psychology and has little to do with sociology, so Loughborough won't go a bundle on a PS with sociology in it either.

Psychology isn't an insular discipline though, and neither is sociology, so both will have links and applications within social science and a whole host of other subjects.

The LSE sociology course says you can take optional modules each year, so the OP could take social psychology modules.

From the LSE website - social psychology section -

Psychology at LSE looks at human behaviour both in the context of evolution, health and development, society and culture and in relation to the economy, communications both interpersonal and mediated, politics and social organisations.

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/degreeProgrammes2011/socialPsychology/overview_and_features.aspx

Sounds like a perfect mix to me!

Reply 23

Pheebs1201

You have to remember though that the top unis like the ones OP have mentioned will be looking for utter dedication to their course and their uni, and if your PS is a jumble of two or three subjects then it will lessen their chances. Psychology is such a competitive subject, it is unlikely they will choose a candidate with a mixed PS over one with a dedicated Psychology PS.

Reply 24

synvilla

Original post by angelmxxx

Do Cambridge still let you write an additional ps on their questionnaire? Some of my friends applied there 2 years ago and were allowed to write 1000 characters I think?

It's currently set to 1200 characters, which adds up to about 2 paragraphs.

Reply 25

Original post by angelmxxx

Definitely not, with the 1000s of available courses out there universities know that their course is not going to be identical to other universities'. Even courses with the same name can be utterly different - especially in anthropology and other social sciences. Psychology can be an almost entirely biological course, or a very applied, social focused course. If they have optional modules then they will expect their students to have different interests and ideas, and pick the modules which suit them - if they didn't expect this, they'd have 100% compulsory modules!

With psychology, the majority of the modules are compulsory until third year tho, in order to gain accreditation from the BPS

Reply 26

Original post by xKTx

With psychology, the majority of the modules are compulsory until third year tho, in order to gain accreditation from the BPS

It depends on your uni - eg. Durham psychology students can choose 2 out of 6 modules from other departments in their first year, so the OP could do two-thirds psychology and one-third sociology. Then 6 compulsory Psychology modules in year 2, and 1 out of 6 of 3rd year modules can be from another department.

So it'd be 3/18 modules overall (1/6th).

OP, have you thought about the Combined Honours courses at Durham or Newcastle, or the Applied Psychology course at Durham (Stockton campus)?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 27

OP

Original post by xKTx

There are plenty of unis in london that do psych - ucl and royal holloway (altho I know that's not central) for example. Not sure if they do joint degrees tho

I can't apply to UCL anymore because I dropped Biology 3 months into the course (it was too challenging and I wasn't remotely interested by it) and they require at least one science A Level.
And Royal Holloway isn't really my thing. I suppose one could say I'm a bit of a university-snob; I'm only really willing to apply to "the top" universities...

Original post by linnie99

I wanted to do PPS as well so I have emailed both Cambridge and LSE about personal statement. LSE said that they understand the ps is not completely focused on sociology because there are a number of students applying to PPS as well. Cambridge said that you don't have to talk about all three subjects in equal amount in your PS because you can talk about them in more detail on SAQ. However, I don't recommend you applying for Warwick; my school has advised me that Warwick is very keen on focused/well written personal statements.
I ended up applying to Oxford for Experimental Psychology at the end because I still found writing the ps for PPS really difficult and I didn't want to risk anything for UCL which is my second choice. And I didn't do any 'traditional' sciences..apart from maths and further maths. Anyways... you have plenty of time to think about what you really want to do and whether or not you are ready to risk some of your choices. Have a look at Bristol-they have Politics and Sociology and Psychology and Sociology(I think).

I was thinking of applying to Bristol before, when I was only interested in straight Psychology. I've gone off it now, though. Don't think it's really my place.

And I really do have to stress, I'm not just looking to include Sociology because of Cambridge. I am just genuinely as interested in it as I am in Psychology.

So, really, it's Warwick that's the odd one out here and the one I should be looking to drop?

Original post by angelmxxx

Psychology isn't an insular discipline though, and neither is sociology, so both will have links and applications within social science and a whole host of other subjects.

The LSE sociology course says you can take optional modules each year, so the OP could take social psychology modules.

From the LSE website - social psychology section -

Psychology at LSE looks at human behaviour both in the context of evolution, health and development, society and culture and in relation to the economy, communications both interpersonal and mediated, politics and social organisations.

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/degreeProgrammes2011/socialPsychology/overview_and_features.aspx

Sounds like a perfect mix to me!

This is exactly why I like LSE. I'm really interested in Social Psychology.

Original post by angelmxxx

It depends on your uni - eg. Durham psychology students can choose 2 out of 6 modules from other departments in their first year, so the OP could do two-thirds psychology and one-third sociology. Then 6 compulsory Psychology modules in year 2, and 1 out of 6 of 3rd year modules can be from another department.

So it'd be 3/18 modules overall (1/6th).

OP, have you thought about the Combined Honours courses at Durham or Newcastle, or the Applied Psychology course at Durham (Stockton campus)?

Yeah, I have looked at Durham.. not sure if I'm that keen, but it's definitely a possibility. I definitely don't want to go to Newcastle, though.

Reply 28

OP

I'm getting mixed signals here. Hmm ...

To the people who are saying it's a bad idea because others with a more dedicated PS will look like stronger candidates:

The grades that my teachers are expecting me to have in Aug 2012 (A*A*A*), are higher than I require for my non-Cambridge courses (AAB-ABB). Of course, there's no guarantee that I'll get those grades, but it's highly likely since I am the kind of person who puts a lot of time and effort in to school (I have no life, I'm going to be honest). Would this level me up with other candidates, who may not be performing as well academically? I mean, this is with me assuming that most candidates will have chosen these universities because their typical offers match the grades they're expecting to get. Am I wrong here?

Not that it matters too much. To be honest, Cambridge is the only university I have ever been truly interested in attending and is probably the only one I'd ever go to (I know that sounds silly).

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 29

Original post by angelmxxx

It depends on your uni - eg. Durham psychology students can choose 2 out of 6 modules from other departments in their first year, so the OP could do two-thirds psychology and one-third sociology. Then 6 compulsory Psychology modules in year 2, and 1 out of 6 of 3rd year modules can be from another department.

So it'd be 3/18 modules overall (1/6th).

OP, have you thought about the Combined Honours courses at Durham or Newcastle, or the Applied Psychology course at Durham (Stockton campus)?

Quite a few unis allow you to take electives, but the psychology modules you don't tend to get a choice with, is what I meant

OP - good grades/predictions will help, but an unfocused PS could mean that you get rejected unfortunately. It's not worth the risk tbh

Reply 30

sc0307

8

Original post by xKTx

Quite a few unis allow you to take electives, but the psychology modules you don't tend to get a choice with, is what I meant

OP - good grades/predictions will help, but an unfocused PS could mean that you get rejected unfortunately. It's not worth the risk tbh

They should at least interview if they think he has the academic potential to succeed.

Reply 31

synvilla

Original post by genevie

I'm getting mixed signals here. Hmm ...

To the people who are saying it's a bad idea because others with a more dedicated PS will look like stronger candidates:

The grades that my teachers are expecting me to have in Aug 2012 (A*A*A*), are higher than I require for my non-Cambridge courses (AAB-ABB). Of course, there's no guarantee that I'll get those grades, but it's highly likely since I am the kind of person who puts a lot of time and effort in to school (I have no life, I'm going to be honest). Would this level me up with other candidates, who may not be performing as well academically? I mean, this is with me assuming that most candidates will have chosen these universities because their typical offers match the grades they're expecting to get. Am I wrong here?

Not that it matters too much. To be honest, Cambridge is the only university I have ever been truly interested in attending and is probably the only one I'd ever go to (I know that sounds silly).

Well, Cambridge don't discriminate applicants who only talk about one of the three PPS subjects.

Reply 32

Original post by sc0307

They should at least interview if they think he has the academic potential to succeed.

But not all unis interview - for a lot (especially psych) most rely on the PS

And for cambridge I know that's the case, but that's cos their course is rather unique

Reply 33

OP

Original post by synvilla

Well, Cambridge don't discriminate applicants who only talk about one of the three PPS subjects.

Yes, I am aware. But as I have stressed several times, the other courses I'm applying for involve both subjects. It seems silly to apply or a course then mess it up with regard to the PS, and equally it seems silly to apply to courses I'm not fully interested in just so I can make my PS good..

Reply 34

sc0307

8

Original post by xKTx

But not all unis interview - for a lot (especially psych) most rely on the PS

And for cambridge I know that's the case, but that's cos their course is rather unique

Which courses on average apart from medicine/pharmacy do unis interview more applicants?

Reply 35

OP

Original post by xKTx

Quite a few unis allow you to take electives, but the psychology modules you don't tend to get a choice with, is what I meant

OP - good grades/predictions will help, but an unfocused PS could mean that you get rejected unfortunately. It's not worth the risk tbh

How do you think I should approach it then? Drop LSE (which I'm really not keen on :frown:

) and just focus the entire thing on Psychology? Would focussing it almost solely on my interest in social psychology make any difference whatsoever?

Reply 36

It depends on the uni too. It tends to be more vocational courses. Teaching interviews everyone they think they might give an offer to. Engineering does I think too, but not all unis. Ucl tends to interview and it's the only one outside or Oxbridge I know of that tends to interview for psych

Also unis want to see you are dedicated to the course as well as having the academic potential for it

Reply 37

Original post by genevie

How do you think I should approach it then? Drop LSE (which I'm really not keen on :frown:

) and just focus the entire thing on Psychology? Would focussing it almost solely on my interest in social psychology make any difference whatsoever?

Focusing on social psych may disadvantage you at other unis, depending on whether they focus on that side of psychology or are more biological. Regardless tho, you're going to have to name either psych or soc throughout your statement and LSE won't want you always mentioning that word, and vice versa for psych unis. Durham is VERY competitive. You could email LSE and see what they say, but generally that uni is very oversubscribed. Best thing to do would be take 6 months to think about it, look around the unis and really research courses

Reply 38

Original post by genevie

Yes, I am aware. But as I have stressed several times, the other courses I'm applying for involve both subjects. It seems silly to apply or a course then mess it up with regard to the PS, and equally it seems silly to apply to courses I'm not fully interested in just so I can make my PS good..

I think people are forgetting the huge difference between an 'unfocused' PS and 'more than one subject' PS.

As you seem genuinely interested in your subjects and the ways in which they link, this seems like the foundations for a really really tailored, interesting and different (in a good way!) PS, which would be far more interesting than a bland 'I want to study psychology, only psychology, I never think about how psychology affects social science/what affects psychology, I just want to learn about the brain and our nerves' PS.

However, if you have no life then maybe don't apply to Durham - they probably wouldn't reject you because of it, but they do say on their website that they are looking for applicants who can contribute fully to Durham. That doesn't mean you have to be interested in music and sport and art and drama etc. but having something/things you are interested in and that develop your transferable skills is never ever bad - and also it's vital for jobs, all the questions on job applications are about teamwork, communication, leadership, etc.

Reply 39