(URGENT)!!!! psychology degree or nursing?

at first, I was adamant to study psychology because I loved the subject as a whole, but then many people kept on telling me its not a stable subject career-wise so then I started to do some more research. I started liking the course nursing and I was quite surprised to find out you don't need to do a level sciences to do nursing. places like Kings and city uni of london don't require alevel science (can someone please confirm the requirements please bc im not sure ) so now I don't know which course to do
it'll be helpful if someone could outline the pros and cons of studying psychology or nursing

I study a-levels english lit, philosophy and gov and politics.

Hi Sophia! I am a Psychology graduate, having graduated from Cardiff University in 2018. I wouldn't worry about what A-Levels you have in regards to your future career. I did Psychology (A*), Biology (B) and Art & Design (A) for A-Level and found my Psychology degree to be very demanding, academically but I'm also glad I did it.

In my opinion...

Pros of Studying Psychology:
- Interesting
- You get a good grounding in many different skills; statistics (numerical skills) (which featured heavily in my course), research methods, as well as strong writing skills, analysis skills and of course, strong knowledge in many fields of psychology - social, cognitive, biological, decision making, developmental. I did decision making in my final year and loved it - linking it to marketing and economics.
- Can help you in your everyday life

Cons of studying Psychology:
- Statistics can be difficult if you don't like maths (I hated it and had to get my old GCSE maths tutor to help me out with it when it came to the exam - but then I got grips with it quite quickly)
- Having almost 'too many' but 'not enough' career options simultaneously - you touch on SO MUCH during the degree you could go into marketing, HR, support work, teaching, research etc. This can be quite overwhelming really if you're as indecisive as me! With nursing your career is kinda made up for you
- You're not qualified for anything afterwards - having little knowledge in a LOT of different areas. Ie; being a 'Jack of all trades' but a master of none


Pros of Nursing (I'm assuming MH?)
- Interesting
- Involves psychological elements
- You qualify with a core profession which is very valuable in this economic climate!! You can actually train to become a psychological therapist after being a MH nurse for a few years which is really good!! Psych grads don't have this privilege
- Rewarding

Cons of Nursing
- If you really don't know what to do; it will limit your future opporutnities to nursing
- Nursing is a demanding profession (but so are many others!)

I wish I had looked more into MH nursing when I was applying uni, but I was young and didn't know enough about the career market!!

Hope it helps

Hi Sophia

Deciding what to do at university is a big decision, so it's great that you're looking for advice on this, hope we can be of some help.

With psychology, you'll find that a lot of the roles in that area require further study. People who do psychology often go on to do a Master's in a specific branch of psychology, like clinical (the kind of psychologist you see on TV), forensic (criminal) or educational (young people). So benefit of doing psychology is that it leaves the door open to specialise in a range of areas. You can have a look at this article which outlines what options you might have after doing a psychology degree...

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/psychology

As for nursing, that's a bit clearer as it directly feeds into a job as a nurse. So the main question for that would be if you want to get into that job. In terms of entry requirements, there's quite a big demand for nurses at the minute, so universities might be a bit more generous with their entry requirements. The best way to find that out though would be to contact universities directly to ask them. The NHS actually have a useful page all about getting into nursing, you might want to have a look at that to learn more about it.

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/nursing-careers

Thanks - Mark

thank you very much for the information provided appreciate a lot!!!!!

may I ask whether you know how long it would take to become a clinical psychologist, and why many people study psychology at undergrad, but so few carry it on at masters?

1 in 4 people who get an undergrad degree in psychology go on to get a master's degree in Psychology. That's not few, very far from it.

A master's in clinical psychology, there isn't one that exists that is BPS accredited. People mostly do it to get juicier placements or beef up their CV in a hyper competitive field.

There isn't a fixed number to become a clinical psychologist. A ball park figure of about five years after graduating undergrad to start the clinical doctorate. Some more, some less.

ahhh right I see, but what do mean there isn't a clinical psychologist that isn't bps accredited?

thank you very much for the information provided appreciate a lot!!!!!

may I ask whether you know how long it would take to become a clinical psychologist, and why many people study psychology at undergrad, but so few carry it on at masters?

and for nursing do you know if I would have to do extra training after finishing the degree, or do I go straight into nursing?

many thanks sophia