Is Psychology at Cambridge/UCL competitive?

Poll

How competitive is Psychology? 1 Being the LEAST, 10 being VERY competitive.

If so, are there any specific entry exams for Psychology?

And can everyone please elaborate how competitive it is? (By voting on the poll above, 1 being the least competitive, 10 being VERY competitive)

Thanks =)

Cam more so than UCL

In terms of numbers UCL is more competitive. However, the level of applicants is probably higher at Cambridge therefore I'd say Cambridge (plus the amount of oxbridge rejects on the course haha). But both are extremely competitive for psychology and in general.

Some colleges at Cambridge ask for an entrance exam. This will be either the TSA or something more general like an essay on a politics article/quote.

PS. Are you aware that psych @ cam is PPS? It's quite different to all other psych degrees.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3

goussberry

Yeah - any subject, to be fair, is more competitive at Unis of that level! However, just have a look at their entrance requirements to determine how competitive it is - A*AA-AAA for UCL, Cambridge odn't offer straight Psychology but do PPS (Politics, Psycholgoy, & Sociology) which want A*AA as typical entrance requirement... So yeah, a lot more competitive than other Unis who want AAB or ABB

Reply 4

MoTheMedic

AFAIK, Cambridge do not offer straight psychology, it is combined with politics and sociology to form the course PPS.

Reply 5

AskingAquestion

Original post by Noodlzzz

Doesn't Cambridge do a course in Experimental Psychology?

Reply 6

Noodlzzz

Original post by AskingAquestion

Doesn't Cambridge do a course in Experimental Psychology?

You can do experimental psych via natsci but it's not quite the same as the first year is pretty much pure natsci. Oxford, however, do straight experimental psychology.

Reply 7

punctuation

Original post by Noodlzzz

PS. Are you aware that psych @ cam is PPS? It's quite different to all other psych degrees.

This. Cambridge doesn't offer a straight psychology course, and I don't think any other options for psychology within Cambridge would be BPS accredited, anyway.

I'd say UCL is definitely a better course, and has more competition (and higher offers) in that respect... but Cambridge being Cambridge would likely have more applicants per place.

Why not Oxford? This year they're first on the guardian league tables for psychology, and they offer straight experimental psych.

Reply 8

iammichealjackson

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Psychology_At_Cambridge

I wouldn't personally recommend psychology at cambridge yet (Im doing it), 2013 entry there is a new psychology course though.

Cambridge has got really good teaching, but you don't do pure psychology/there is too much focus on social and developmental psychology (which you might like!), and its not as scientific. You have to take sociology/politics which is actually quite good because it gives you a wider perspective, and you can take other really interesting papers (after 2013 there looks like there will be 2 psychology-based papers you can take, one "evolution and behaviour paper" and a biological anthropology paper which i love.)*

*comes from the PPS forum. I don't know if its true, but people who applied for deffered entry to 2013 were told this.*

Original post by MoTheMedic

AFAIK, Cambridge do not offer straight psychology, it is combined with politics and sociology to form the course PPS.

Not quite. You can take different modules and not do either politics/sociology, so its a little better than that.

If you want to know the answer to the question: of course they are! The stats are on the link I posted above.