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Psychology and Economics (personal statement) at st andrews

Hello everyone,

I was hoping to study financial econ at St Andrew's next academic year, but after quite a bit of thinking, I realized that id much rather study Psychology and Economics at the university.

It's quite rare to have that combination in a university that is as highly regarded as St Andrews, and I enjoy both economics and psychology as well, but I didn't mention any psychology in my personal statement.

I don't think I can afford writing about psychology because then I'd either need to delete a lot of my extracurricular stuff or completely reform my statement - making it vaguer in the process (all my other options are under policymaking and economics). I know I can relate psychology and economics in my personal statement but I don't know if it will make me a more attractive candidate for my other choices.

Even with my predicted grades, choosing financial econ would still be a very big gamble due to how competitive the uni is. I enjoy psychology a lot and I personally use it's approach when researching economics, that's why I'm really keen on picking it as a choice.

Do students who apply to this course write about both psychology and economics, or just focus on economics and hope for the best?

thanks for reading
Original post by ka1ks0w
Hello everyone,

I was hoping to study financial econ at St Andrew's next academic year, but after quite a bit of thinking, I realized that id much rather study Psychology and Economics at the university.

It's quite rare to have that combination in a university that is as highly regarded as St Andrews, and I enjoy both economics and psychology as well, but I didn't mention any psychology in my personal statement.

I don't think I can afford writing about psychology because then I'd either need to delete a lot of my extracurricular stuff or completely reform my statement - making it vaguer in the process (all my other options are under policymaking and economics). I know I can relate psychology and economics in my personal statement but I don't know if it will make me a more attractive candidate for my other choices.

Even with my predicted grades, choosing financial econ would still be a very big gamble due to how competitive the uni is. I enjoy psychology a lot and I personally use it's approach when researching economics, that's why I'm really keen on picking it as a choice.

Do students who apply to this course write about both psychology and economics, or just focus on economics and hope for the best?

thanks for reading

So you're looking to apply for September 2021 right? So I applied for econ and psych at St. Andrews and a few other places and I'm now in my second year of uni. If you like psych and econ, I would consider looking at some other courses that combine them as well. It often goes well with policy too.
In terms of your personal statement, I would suggest emailing the admissions team and ask them if you can send an additional personal statement directly to them if your other options are very different from the course you're applying to there. They might take a while to respond but it shows your interest and can help guide you in terms of your application.
St Salvators Quad, University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
Original post by ka1ks0w
Hello everyone,

I was hoping to study financial econ at St Andrew's next academic year, but after quite a bit of thinking, I realized that id much rather study Psychology and Economics at the university.

It's quite rare to have that combination in a university that is as highly regarded as St Andrews, and I enjoy both economics and psychology as well, but I didn't mention any psychology in my personal statement.

I don't think I can afford writing about psychology because then I'd either need to delete a lot of my extracurricular stuff or completely reform my statement - making it vaguer in the process (all my other options are under policymaking and economics). I know I can relate psychology and economics in my personal statement but I don't know if it will make me a more attractive candidate for my other choices.

Even with my predicted grades, choosing financial econ would still be a very big gamble due to how competitive the uni is. I enjoy psychology a lot and I personally use it's approach when researching economics, that's why I'm really keen on picking it as a choice.

Do students who apply to this course write about both psychology and economics, or just focus on economics and hope for the best?

thanks for reading

Luckily, St Andrews is one of the very, very few unis that not only accepts, but embraces subject mixing in this way, see my 2021 applicants thread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6431074

i assume from your spelling you are not a UK applicant?
Original post by A Rolling Stone
Luckily, St Andrews is one of the very, very few unis that not only accepts, but embraces subject mixing in this way, see my 2021 applicants thread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6431074

i assume from your spelling you are not a UK applicant?

For interdisciplinary degrees- unis in Scotland do have a more interdisciplinary approach but if you look around, there are some great courses in England too. I'm at UCL and I get to choose most of my modules this year- you should check out social sciences with data science or BASc. I also applied to Durham which has a joint degree programme - I think it was natural sciences with psych as the science and econ for humanities. For Bath, I applied to social sciences though it had more of a sociology and policy focus.

I'm not sure what unis you're looking at in terms of place, requirements etc. but I would suggest having a look at some of the courses I've mentioned and see if you can find others too- there are more "liberal arts" courses popping up but I don't think they have econ and psych as a combination. I'm sure if you do a bit of research, you can find more. I do believe that these degrees are going to be increasingly common, especially as the labour market changes, and as careers begin to look more like lattices than ladders.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 4
Original post by lionpunkgirl
So you're looking to apply for September 2021 right? So I applied for econ and psych at St. Andrews and a few other places and I'm now in my second year of uni. If you like psych and econ, I would consider looking at some other courses that combine them as well. It often goes well with policy too.
In terms of your personal statement, I would suggest emailing the admissions team and ask them if you can send an additional personal statement directly to them if your other options are very different from the course you're applying to there. They might take a while to respond but it shows your interest and can help guide you in terms of your application.

I didn't know emailing the admissions team was an option. thank you so much for your response
Reply 5
Original post by A Rolling Stone
Luckily, St Andrews is one of the very, very few unis that not only accepts, but embraces subject mixing in this way, see my 2021 applicants thread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6431074

i assume from your spelling you are not a UK applicant?

I study at a British school - my computer just autocorrects everything I type
Original post by ka1ks0w
Hello everyone,

I was hoping to study financial econ at St Andrew's next academic year, but after quite a bit of thinking, I realized that id much rather study Psychology and Economics at the university.

It's quite rare to have that combination in a university that is as highly regarded as St Andrews, and I enjoy both economics and psychology as well, but I didn't mention any psychology in my personal statement.

I don't think I can afford writing about psychology because then I'd either need to delete a lot of my extracurricular stuff or completely reform my statement - making it vaguer in the process (all my other options are under policymaking and economics). I know I can relate psychology and economics in my personal statement but I don't know if it will make me a more attractive candidate for my other choices.

Even with my predicted grades, choosing financial econ would still be a very big gamble due to how competitive the uni is. I enjoy psychology a lot and I personally use it's approach when researching economics, that's why I'm really keen on picking it as a choice.

Do students who apply to this course write about both psychology and economics, or just focus on economics and hope for the best?

thanks for reading


Actually dont do either; dont be obvious and boredom - its st andrews. they want you to be different, think creative. right about something really random at the beginning, you had an accident - you fell down the stairs, you fell in love blah blah but make it intersting...
and then come to aspects about psychology (everything is pychological, pain, love, disability, covid even) and economics is real about people, power and money/trade - and everything involves that too.. the power dynamics when you in hospital; the cost of nhs vs private insurance, how the move to ultea capitalism with brexit etc etc.. dont talk about psych and economics per textbook; just understand from a sociology point of view what both mean - people and power!
Look at this speech remixed for inspiration - youll understand
..and then only toward the middle end write a few lines about the course and why st andrews.. finish off again with how you want to make a change but in a funny weird way and link it back to the beginnning! Remember they read hundreds! of these and they dont read - they SKIMMMMM.

https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/we-arundhati-roy/
This a great remix of one the most powerful speeches from writer Arundhati Roy- probs more relevant now than ever..
if you dont understand the psychology and economics in this - you better off not doing the course :wink:
ps. the speech starts 3:53 mins in!

Hope that helps!
ps. forgive typos - typing quickly...
Reply 7
Original post by snoopydoopz
Actually dont do either; dont be obvious and boredom - its st andrews. they want you to be different, think creative. right about something really random at the beginning, you had an accident - you fell down the stairs, you fell in love blah blah but make it intersting...
and then come to aspects about psychology (everything is pychological, pain, love, disability, covid even) and economics is real about people, power and money/trade - and everything involves that too.. the power dynamics when you in hospital; the cost of nhs vs private insurance, how the move to ultea capitalism with brexit etc etc.. dont talk about psych and economics per textbook; just understand from a sociology point of view what both mean - people and power!
Look at this speech remixed for inspiration - youll understand
..and then only toward the middle end write a few lines about the course and why st andrews.. finish off again with how you want to make a change but in a funny weird way and link it back to the beginnning! Remember they read hundreds! of these and they dont read - they SKIMMMMM.

https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/we-arundhati-roy/
This a great remix of one the most powerful speeches from writer Arundhati Roy- probs more relevant now than ever..
if you dont understand the psychology and economics in this - you better off not doing the course :wink:
ps. the speech starts 3:53 mins in!

Hope that helps!
ps. forgive typos - typing quickly...

thanks a lot for the help! i really appreciate it
Original post by ka1ks0w
thanks a lot for the help! i really appreciate it

np; typos on my post as i typing quick but you got the point..
feel free to run the draft by me.. when done. pretty good at these things..(and get as many many ppl to look to it.. but pls stay away from a traditional statement).
Original post by ka1ks0w
Hello everyone,

I was hoping to study financial econ at St Andrew's next academic year, but after quite a bit of thinking, I realized that id much rather study Psychology and Economics at the university.

It's quite rare to have that combination in a university that is as highly regarded as St Andrews, and I enjoy both economics and psychology as well, but I didn't mention any psychology in my personal statement.

I don't think I can afford writing about psychology because then I'd either need to delete a lot of my extracurricular stuff or completely reform my statement - making it vaguer in the process (all my other options are under policymaking and economics). I know I can relate psychology and economics in my personal statement but I don't know if it will make me a more attractive candidate for my other choices.

Even with my predicted grades, choosing financial econ would still be a very big gamble due to how competitive the uni is. I enjoy psychology a lot and I personally use it's approach when researching economics, that's why I'm really keen on picking it as a choice.

Do students who apply to this course write about both psychology and economics, or just focus on economics and hope for the best?

thanks for reading

hey i’ve applied for financial economics at at andrews!
even if you don’t apply for the course directly, in first year you will pick up 3 subjects, where you could pick up the likes of psychology.

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