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Feeling lost with UCAS

Hi I'm struggling right now. I'm in year 12 and I don't know what I want to do when I finish, I'm tied by so many subjects for after college and it's just getting me down knowing that I really need to decide soon but I don't know what I should do.

The jobs in my head currently are

- Nursing
- Social worker
- A police detective (after doing a degree in sociology)
- Paramedic
- Working with animals
- Clinical psychologist

I just need advice on what on earth do I do as I just feel helpless...

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Reply 1
Hello google Prospects and the job profile they do interviews with people in the jobs you may be interested in and also you can see what steps you need to take to for a particular career. They also have a career quiz that you can take which may narrow things down for you.

Your list is quite different areas so when you google do one at a time soo for example type- Prospects Social Work Profile or Prospects paramedic profile.

Also I think Police detective may have their own route to start off in the police force. You may need to start of as a police officer first but I’m not certain on this one so use prospects website to check this . Well done by the way and congratulations on your A Levels all the best to you
Original post by Keet
Hello google Prospects and the job profile they do interviews with people in the jobs you may be interested in and also you can see what steps you need to take to for a particular career. They also have a career quiz that you can take which may narrow things down for you.

Your list is quite different areas so when you google do one at a time soo for example type- Prospects Social Work Profile or Prospects paramedic profile.

Also I think Police detective may have their own route to start off in the police force. You may need to start of as a police officer first but I’m not certain on this one so use prospects website to check this . Well done by the way and congratulations on your A Levels all the best to you

Hi

I've done a lot of this already and I still feel lost with what to do. My issue is I did a BTEC so I've narrowed my choices into health and social care which is annoying as in some ways I do want to step back from that hence the talk of police detective. Do you know much about the route into the police force?
What subjects do you do and what are you looking at getting in year 13, and what did you get at GCSE?
Original post by TsRtSr1001
What subjects do you do and what are you looking at getting in year 13, and what did you get at GCSE?

I'm doing health and social care, I'm hoping to get three distinctions. Myy subjects at gcses were

Maths - 4
English - 6 6
Double science - 5-5
Geography - 5
History - 6
Health and social care - D*
Original post by Guardians0111
Hi I'm struggling right now. I'm in year 12 and I don't know what I want to do when I finish, I'm tied by so many subjects for after college and it's just getting me down knowing that I really need to decide soon but I don't know what I should do.

The jobs in my head currently are

- Nursing
- Social worker
- A police detective (after doing a degree in sociology)
- Paramedic
- Working with animals
- Clinical psychologist

I just need advice on what on earth do I do as I just feel helpless...

Hello! I did Sociology & Criminology at undergrad if you have any questions :biggrin: I personally would read up on uni courses, job availability, even wage if that is important to you (though would not recommend basing a career on the latter). Nursing can be quite hard to get into course-wise, not sure about social work though my mum is currently doing a degree in that. She is always complaining about the workload, lol, and there seems to be a lot of placement opportunities in that course. I have finished undergrad and I *still* don't know what I want to do, so I am just following what I like going into Masters :smile:
Original post by emiloujess
Hello! I did Sociology & Criminology at undergrad if you have any questions :biggrin: I personally would read up on uni courses, job availability, even wage if that is important to you (though would not recommend basing a career on the latter). Nursing can be quite hard to get into course-wise, not sure about social work though my mum is currently doing a degree in that. She is always complaining about the workload, lol, and there seems to be a lot of placement opportunities in that course. I have finished undergrad and I *still* don't know what I want to do, so I am just following what I like going into Masters :smile:

Hi! I'd love to ask some questions: (you don't have to answer them all of course :biggrin:)

What was the course like?

Was there lots of lectures?

What university did you study at as I've seen that Southampton I believe do sociology and criminology and it looks quite interesting.

What's your masters in? :smile:

Do you have any career ideas for once you've done your masters?

Good luck with your studies!
Original post by Guardians0111
I'm doing health and social care, I'm hoping to get three distinctions. Myy subjects at gcses were

Maths - 4
English - 6 6
Double science - 5-5
Geography - 5
History - 6
Health and social care - D*


I think a few of your options wouldn’t be feasible with your small number of GCSE’s and your choice of A levels, mainly paramedic and clinical psychologist, and idk if they will get you onto a sociology course. If they do, I’d suggest looking into a social worker (this is hard hard work) or animals, or possibly social care, as this sounds more like what would fit with you A level course. The police one seems kinda random on the list, and the paramedic and clinical psychologist both basically require a medical degree (paramedic not quite a medical degree) and A levels in bio and chem and psychology at at least an A, which from your GCSE grades you wouldn’t likely qualify for A levels in those subjects. If I were you, I would go down more of a sociology route, definitely look into nursing and social care as that is tough but often very rewarding. I hope this helps :smile:
Original post by TsRtSr1001
I think a few of your options wouldn’t be feasible with your small number of GCSE’s and your choice of A levels, mainly paramedic and clinical psychologist, and idk if they will get you onto a sociology course. If they do, I’d suggest looking into a social worker (this is hard hard work) or animals, or possibly social care, as this sounds more like what would fit with you A level course. The police one seems kinda random on the list, and the paramedic and clinical psychologist both basically require a medical degree (paramedic not quite a medical degree) and A levels in bio and chem and psychology at at least an A, which from your GCSE grades you wouldn’t likely qualify for A levels in those subjects. If I were you, I would go down more of a sociology route, definitely look into nursing and social care as that is tough but often very rewarding. I hope this helps :smile:

I thought this was the normal amount of GCSEs? I suppose my grades are not the best either? How come you say social work is hard hard work? And also I thought you could become a paramedic and/or a clinic psych with my subjects. Dammit :frown:
Original post by Guardians0111
I thought this was the normal amount of GCSEs? I suppose my grades are not the best either? How come you say social work is hard hard work? And also I thought you could become a paramedic and/or a clinic psych with my subjects. Dammit :frown:


That’s 7 GCSE’s I believe. I did 10 or 11 (can’t be bothered to count XD) and I think that’s roughly average. By hard I mean often long hours and a large work load. But still rewarding. You’d have to check each uni you like to see their requirements, but I know that they exclude quite a few unis. A friend of mine is a clinical psychologist, and that I believe requires a doctorate, often related to medicine I.e. do a psychology course and then get the medical training separate.
Original post by Guardians0111
Hi! I'd love to ask some questions: (you don't have to answer them all of course :biggrin:)

What was the course like?

Was there lots of lectures?

What university did you study at as I've seen that Southampton I believe do sociology and criminology and it looks quite interesting.

What's your masters in? :smile:

Do you have any career ideas for once you've done your masters?

Good luck with your studies!


I did my undergrad at Bournemouth, and I loved it. My A-levels were in Psychology, Sociology and Film Studies so there was a little bit of crossover in the first year.The modules were fascinating, and I even dipped a bit into Social Anthropology with my options because our faculty were really close and offered modules across all the sociology-type courses. Annoyingly (to me at least) they've now changed the course and there is even more available hehe. Generally speaking, for each unit every week I had a two hour lecture and a one hour seminar, so about 9 hours of contact time a week but the lecturers always had set drop-in office times too. For third year it was less because of the dissertation.

My Masters will be in International Security and Terrorism. After... I am not entirely sure but I can see myself heading into either a research role or as an intelligence analyst somewhere :smile:

If you have any more questions feel free to ask, but otherwise good luck with the applications :biggrin:
Reply 11
Original post by Guardians0111
Hi

I've done a lot of this already and I still feel lost with what to do. My issue is I did a BTEC so I've narrowed my choices into health and social care which is annoying as in some ways I do want to step back from that hence the talk of police detective. Do you know much about the route into the police force?


If you interested in policing there are degrees in this. I personally did a BSc in Criminology and Youth Studies and we did have policing and probation modules.
Original post by TsRtSr1001
That’s 7 GCSE’s I believe. I did 10 or 11 (can’t be bothered to count XD) and I think that’s roughly average. By hard I mean often long hours and a large work load. But still rewarding. You’d have to check each uni you like to see their requirements, but I know that they exclude quite a few unis. A friend of mine is a clinical psychologist, and that I believe requires a doctorate, often related to medicine I.e. do a psychology course and then get the medical training separate.

Oh right okay. Yes a doctorate is needed to become a clinical psychologist. Do you think the police detective is a stupid/random idea? Is it possible to become that in my situation?
Original post by Guardians0111
Oh right okay. Yes a doctorate is needed to become a clinical psychologist. Do you think the police detective is a stupid/random idea? Is it possible to become that in my situation?


It’s possible but it doesn’t really fit your subjects. If you really want that then go ahead and pursue it, but it can take a long time to reach that rank and some never do, but if that’s just an idea you fancy from TV shows etc then I’d advise against it. And you’d have to have all of the police training to become a regular officer then pass the detective exam, which is a lot but possible.
Original post by Guardians0111
Oh right okay. Yes a doctorate is needed to become a clinical psychologist. Do you think the police detective is a stupid/random idea? Is it possible to become that in my situation?

Sorry to cut in, but once you have an undergrad, it is well worth looking if there are any graduate schemes with your local police force. For example, this one from Kent: https://www.kent.police.uk/police-forces/kent-police/areas/kent-police/c/careers/police-officers/graduate-scheme/

(You do not necessarily need an undergrad in police related subjects to do this)
Reply 15
Original post by Guardians0111
Oh right okay. Yes a doctorate is needed to become a clinical psychologist. Do you think the police detective is a stupid/random idea? Is it possible to become that in my situation?

A police detective comes after many years of experience so it would be something you work your way up to. I’m not sure but you may also want to look at a course such as
BSc Criminological Psychology so look this up as it combines many areas together
Original post by emiloujess
I did my undergrad at Bournemouth, and I loved it. My A-levels were in Psychology, Sociology and Film Studies so there was a little bit of crossover in the first year.The modules were fascinating, and I even dipped a bit into Social Anthropology with my options because our faculty were really close and offered modules across all the sociology-type courses. Annoyingly (to me at least) they've now changed the course and there is even more available hehe. Generally speaking, for each unit every week I had a two hour lecture and a one hour seminar, so about 9 hours of contact time a week but the lecturers always had set drop-in office times too. For third year it was less because of the dissertation.

My Masters will be in International Security and Terrorism. After... I am not entirely sure but I can see myself heading into either a research role or as an intelligence analyst somewhere :smile:

If you have any more questions feel free to ask, but otherwise good luck with the applications :biggrin:

Were there students in your cohort who hadn't done a levels and in fact did a BTEC? Did they struggle? Ooh social anthropology sounds interesting :biggrin:.

That masters sounds amazing, can I hear more about it?

Original post by Keet
If you interested in policing there are degrees in this. I personally did a BSc in Criminology and Youth Studies and we did have policing and probation modules.

Are you now a police officer?

Original post by TsRtSr1001
It’s possible but it doesn’t really fit your subjects. If you really want that then go ahead and pursue it, but it can take a long time to reach that rank and some never do, but if that’s just an idea you fancy from TV shows etc then I’d advise against it. And you’d have to have all of the police training to become a regular officer then pass the detective exam, which is a lot but possible.

It's not just from a TV show, not that guilty :lol: I'll look into it more. I think it is something that I'd like to do though?

Original post by emiloujess
Sorry to cut in, but once you have an undergrad, it is well worth looking if there are any graduate schemes with your local police force. For example, this one from Kent: https://www.kent.police.uk/police-forces/kent-police/areas/kent-police/c/careers/police-officers/graduate-scheme/

(You do not necessarily need an undergrad in police related subjects to do this)

Thank you!

Original post by Keet
A police detective comes after many years of experience so it would be something you work your way up to. I’m not sure but you may also want to look at a course such as
BSc Criminological Psychology so look this up as it combines many areas together

I might do sociology and criminology :smile:
Original post by Guardians0111
Were there students in your cohort who hadn't done a levels and in fact did a BTEC? Did they struggle? Ooh social anthropology sounds interesting :biggrin:.

That masters sounds amazing, can I hear more about it?

I don't personally recall any, but one of my closest uni-friends came through a non-traditional route (I think she did an access course of some kind) and she ended up with a good grade. Yeah, the anthropology ones were interesting - there was one on international policy and intervention that was fascinating (probably my favourite module in terms of content).

My Masters was mainly picked because I liked the previously-mentioned policy module and a terrorism module that was one of my core modules in final year. It seemed like a perfect mix of that :biggrin: they've now changed the modules so it *isn't* a perfect mix, but oh well xD I will copy some of the course description from the website because they are far better at explaining it than I, hehe

"You will explore key issues and theoretical underpinnings of international security, such as international intervention,conventional and nuclear deterrence, insurgency and counterinsurgency, peacemaking, and peacekeeping. You will analyse terrorism as a political strategy and explore its contemporary significance and relative success.".

I am really excited for it and my undergrad has prepared me perfectly. However, my uni did have more of a focus on social work type careers because that is where the head of dept's interests lay.
Reply 18
Original post by Guardians0111
Were there students in your cohort who hadn't done a levels and in fact did a BTEC? Did they struggle? Ooh social anthropology sounds interesting :biggrin:.

That masters sounds amazing, can I hear more about it?


Are you now a police officer?


It's not just from a TV show, not that guilty :lol: I'll look into it more. I think it is something that I'd like to do though?


Thank you!


I might do sociology and criminology :smile:


No I am not a police officer I went into Youth Justice and now doing a PhD in psychology.
Could I do a degree in sociology and criminology and then become an intelligence analyst?

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