Postgraduate prospects with joint honours

Hi,

I'll be doing a joint honours in psychology and philosophy at Bristol. I was looking into the postgraduate forums here, and a few people were saying a joint honours degree would not be as good as single honours for postgraduate application. In addition, since I'll be doing joint honours, I can't take any open units. I was thinking of possibly switching to single honours.

My question is, are postgraduate prospects truly hampered by joint honours degrees? Since this is a BPS accredited course, I would think this would not apply for a degree in psychology.

In any case, thank you in advance!

Reply 1

Jackkkkk

11

Original post by punctuation

Hi,

I'll be doing a joint honours in psychology and philosophy at Bristol. I was looking into the postgraduate forums here, and a few people were saying a joint honours degree would not be as good as single honours for postgraduate application. In addition, since I'll be doing joint honours, I can't take any open units. I was thinking of possibly switching to single honours.

My question is, are postgraduate prospects truly hampered by joint honours degrees? Since this is a BPS accredited course, I would think this would not apply for a degree in psychology.

In any case, thank you in advance!

Hi there again :smile:

I contemplated this for quite a while when I was applying. I love Philosophy and I wanted to take it on to uni in some form or another, however Psychology is my main interest. Anyway, when I applied I only applied for Psychology and Philosophy and Oxford and the rest (Bristol being my Firm), Straight Psychology.

I think that in theory it would have any influence on employers, post graduate applications, however psychology at Bristol is 'Experimental'. If you take Psychology and Philosophy you skip out some of the experimental methods in the second year, which means your statistic/research skills will be behind those on the 'Experimental', Straight Psychology course.

You can take open modules in your first year as you know, and I am just going to some philosophy in these. So in theory it shouldn't matter, but it may put you at a slight disadvantage. However on the post offer day they said if your are on the joint honours and want to change down to the straight psych course then this is normally fine after the first year :smile:

Reply 2

punctuation

OP

16

Original post by Jackkkkk

I think that in theory it would have any influence on employers, post graduate applications, however psychology at Bristol is 'Experimental'. If you take Psychology and Philosophy you skip out some of the experimental methods in the second year, which means your statistic/research skills will be behind those on the 'Experimental', Straight Psychology course.

Hi Jack! Thanks for the help. :smile:

However, I will have to refute you on this point, as the psychology and philosophy course is still BPS accredited, meaning the same courses are taken as the straight psychology. While straight psychology has an option of 40 credits of "open units" joint honours does not have any options for open units; instead, these 40 credits are taken by purely philosophy. As such, the psychology portion of both is exactly the same.

The issue I have with joint honours is that I would like to take some extra units outside philosophy, such as modern languages, but to do that with joint honours would be particularly difficult (in fact, I'm not even sure it is an option). However, the reason I would like to stay with philosophy, is that a) I really love philosophy and b) at the end of the three years, my degree is "psychology and philosophy" rather than just "psychology" which would set me apart from the straight psychology.

I'm confused about the nature of postgraduate studies in psychology for this very reason, as the "joint honours" aspect is quite different from other joint honours, seeing as it is still accredited by the BPS for graduate study in psychology. :dontknow:

Thank you again for your help!

Reply 3

Jackkkkk

11

Original post by punctuation

Hi Jack! Thanks for the help. :smile:

However, I will have to refute you on this point, as the psychology and philosophy course is still BPS accredited, meaning the same courses are taken as the straight psychology. While straight psychology has an option of 40 credits of "open units" joint honours does not have any options for open units; instead, these 40 credits are taken by purely philosophy. As such, the psychology portion of both is exactly the same.

The issue I have with joint honours is that I would like to take some extra units outside philosophy, such as modern languages, but to do that with joint honours would be particularly difficult (in fact, I'm not even sure it is an option). However, the reason I would like to stay with philosophy, is that a) I really love philosophy and b) at the end of the three years, my degree is "psychology and philosophy" rather than just "psychology" which would set me apart from the straight psychology.

I'm confused about the nature of postgraduate studies in psychology for this very reason, as the "joint honours" aspect is quite different from other joint honours, seeing as it is still accredited by the BPS for graduate study in psychology. :dontknow:

Thank you again for your help!

Sorry I probably didn't make my point very well. What you say is all very true :smile:

However you would not at all be able to do extra modules in other languages, like you said, as if you are doing Psych and Philosophy in the first year you already have to do one more module than the staright psych people who do 80 credits in psych and 40 optional. Psych and Philosophy do 80 psych and then 55 philosophy- Philosphy a and b then logic). So no room to do any more modules at all i don't think due to timetabling. And the of course it is about 60% Psych and 40% Philosophy in Y2 and 3.

I know you say it is still BPS accredited, but if say you are keen to go into something really research related I would expect someone who has had more mathematical/research training to be accepted (just the impression I get but of course its not strictly true :smile:

)

So to summarise in answer you questions:
1) optional modules - they were rather explicit at the open day that joint honours student can't do any outside of there specified degree. So you would have to switch in order to take other modules.

2) Graduate study - As you say the joint course is still BPS accredited, but I get the impression that if you want to go into research straight psych would help you more due to the extra research and stats modules etc. However it is BPS accredited so in Theory you should be fine. If you wanted to go into something such as Organisational and economic psych or social (which Exeter specialise in at Post Grad) - the joint honours would probably help :smile:

But ofc it is BPS accredited so SHOULD hold the same respect as a straight psych degree :smile:

Once we/you are at bristol more clarification will be given. They seemed to be reasonably flexible about switching courses from Psych to Joint and vice versa.

Reply 4

iammichealjackson

18

If you want to do a PhD then you'll probably have to do a masters beforehand anyway, so you'll "catch-up" in whatever subject your masters is in anyway. You may be less prepared before your masters, but if you show that you're good at BOTH psychology and philosophy- i can't see how that would ruin your application!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5

punctuation

OP

16

Alright, thanks to both for your help! I've decided I'll do at least the first year as a joint honours (as it doesn't count toward the degree). I'll talk to some of the people in the psychology department about postgraduate options; if I find the work load too much, or anything of that sort, I'll switch over second year. :smile:

Postgraduate prospects with joint honours

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