Hey, thanks for the tag and I'm so excited to hear that you're interested in Psych with Ed! Are you looking at UCL or other unis?
I'm starting Graduate Entry Medicine in September, so not the typical route after a Psych degree, but I am considering psychiatry as a specialty because I've loved my degree. Regardless of speciality though, I do still think it'll be hugely beneficial as a Dr because both psychology and education can be related to almost every industry.
I can't speak for all uni's so this advice is all UCL specific, hope that's ok!
I would say that overall the degree is a fairly even split, although it can be tailored to one of the disciplines if you wanted through optional modules. For me I found 1st year quite education heavy, but 2nd year was psychology heavy because it contained all the BPS mandatory modules (this was my fave year). In 3rd year you have the most choice. So I did mostly psych modules (including a course on CBT, and criminal journeys), although my friend chose education modules (ones that focus on special educational needs). And another friend chose to do a language amongst other things, so it really is what you make it.
I definitely don't think you miss out on core topics, but obviously you can't do all the optional modules for both courses! This would be the same for any course though, you never get to do every module. There may be 15+ on offer, and you can pick 2 a year, course depending. Psychology has the mandatory BPS modules, so anywhere you go you will deffo do all of core psych (if the degree is BPS accredited- which is necessary for a career in psych).
The way it works at UCL is that Psych with Ed is its own course with its own modules. You do share some education modules with education students. Psych modules though tend to be just your cohort. I found this a huge bonus because it's such a small cohort (~45 people, compared to 200+ on typical straight psych/education courses), which meant it was a lot more personal and you build far better relationships with your lecturers (speaking from experience because I studied straight Psych at a different uni before leaving for UCL).
Workload depends on the year you're in and the modules you've chosen. I think it's perfectly manageable throughout the 3 years. There are obviously times when you have multiple deadlines in a month (beginning and end of terms usually), but on the whole the course team do a great job at spreading them out. And you
can be organised and get them done before that month, you know the assessment months before it's actually due. I found that I actually didn't have enough work last semester, but that was because I chose more credits in the Autumn term so I could work on my dissertation in Spring.
Hahaha, well, in my cohort there were I think 5 guys and 40 odd girls... I do believe that the year below me is more of an even split though, so it is a bit of luck (I don't know what ratio you would consider lucky
)! Straight psych and straight education have similar ratios- they all tend to be female heavy. Don't let that put you off though! We deffo need more males in both fields and I don't think any of them have had a problem with being the only few!
I hope that's helpful, and please let me know if you have any more questions!