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What's more important? Doing a degree you enjoy or a degree that's respected/useful?

Opinions? :smile:

I'm torn between doing Psychology and doing English at university. Psychology as a degree I would enjoy a lot more but as it is not BPS-accredited, I would find it much more difficult in terms of getting a career in actual psychology.

English on its own I would probably enjoy less than Psychology, yet it would be much more useful in Psychology career-wise. I've firmed Aberystwyth and am going to study Psychology and English as a joint honours, yet I am unhappy with the course modules and considered going single honours instead.

Sooo what are people's opinions? Is it more important to enjoy the subject or more important to do a subject that inevitably leads to a good career? Obviously people pick courses that entail both these things :tongue: but I've found myself in a bit of a pickle with mine :s-smilie:

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Reply 1
Hmm thats interesting. I would say a degree you enjoy
Reply 2
enjoy
Let's face it, whatever degree you get, you're pretty ****ed for work until the economy gets better....whenever that may be. Might as well do what you enjoy in the time being! :smile:
Reply 4
enjoy
Reply 5
In today's climate, a useful degree.

Instead of an English degree, you could take up side projects instead that could give you that same feel. Blogging, writing, reviews, publications etc.
I'd say somewhere in the middle. There's no point doing a degree in something you'll never find a job with/something 'useless'. Nor is there any point doing a degree that's regarded well but that you hate.
So hence, somewhere in the middle.
Reply 7
I think something you enjoy. Your not guaranteed a job either way. :smile:
Reply 8
People on here are chatting ****.

If you did what you enjoyed you would have been taking an Alcohol degree in London Met.

Trust me fam.
Reply 9
There is no subject that 'inevitably leads to a good career'. If you know your next step/ which career you want to go into, do the one which is the most relevant. Otherwise do the one you enjoy.
Reply 10
Ideally both, but if it must be either enjoy or useful then I would say go for the useful one.
(edited 11 years ago)
Useful.

But that shouldn't stop you from pursuing interests outside the degree. For example photography is looked down by people, but you could always do it as a hobby, build up a portfolio and get recognised from there.
English with Psychology?
Go for something you enjoy.
Do something useful.
You don't have to get a degree to study something you enjoy. I did a law degree and hope to go into law, but I also love politics and read lots of books about it and I don't feel I need a degree to pursue that interest, for example.

If you're interested in something, study it yourself, the books and materials are still all there.
Reply 15
Original post by Jabberwox
Opinions? :smile:

I'm torn between doing Psychology and doing English at university. Psychology as a degree I would enjoy a lot more but as it is not BPS-accredited, I would find it much more difficult in terms of getting a career in actual psychology.

English on its own I would probably enjoy less than Psychology, yet it would be much more useful in Psychology career-wise. I've firmed Aberystwyth and am going to study Psychology and English as a joint honours, yet I am unhappy with the course modules and considered going single honours instead.

Sooo what are people's opinions? Is it more important to enjoy the subject or more important to do a subject that inevitably leads to a good career? Obviously people pick courses that entail both these things :tongue: but I've found myself in a bit of a pickle with mine :s-smilie:


Do Psychology. When I applied to uni I was torn between Economics and Politics. Economics is more respected and has better prospects. My family really wanted me to do that as well. So I did Economics, despite wanting to do Politics. Got to sort of christmas time in first year of my degree I realised I really didn't want to study this anymore, I didn't care if it was a respected degree, it was boring as hell.

So I dropped out and started first year again doing Politics the following year. It's much better to do a degree you enjoy. On my Economics course I was scraping passes, but in Politics I've just finished my first year with a 2:1, so it shows you do better at more enjoyable things.
Enjoy all the time
Reply 17
Original post by Jabberwox
Opinions? :smile:

I'm torn between doing Psychology and doing English at university. Psychology as a degree I would enjoy a lot more but as it is not BPS-accredited, I would find it much more difficult in terms of getting a career in actual psychology.

English on its own I would probably enjoy less than Psychology, yet it would be much more useful in Psychology career-wise. I've firmed Aberystwyth and am going to study Psychology and English as a joint honours, yet I am unhappy with the course modules and considered going single honours instead.

Sooo what are people's opinions? Is it more important to enjoy the subject or more important to do a subject that inevitably leads to a good career? Obviously people pick courses that entail both these things :tongue: but I've found myself in a bit of a pickle with mine :s-smilie:


A career you enjoy.

Just because you study a subject doesn't mean that you HAVE to work in that field. There are many people who have studied one subject yet got a job in another field which also allowed them to apply their studies
Reply 18
Thanks everyone :smile:

Just don't really want to end up doing a degree which won't really benefit me at all... :s-smilie:
Reply 19
At at my university (UCL) it is the consensus that, comparatively with A-Level Psychology, degree-level Psychology is not enjoyable. We spend most of the time writing lab reports in ridiculously scientific language for an experiment which goes something like: Wait for an hour whilst your participants sit at a computer pressing a key every time they see a dot on the screen. If you enjoy making something scientific for the sake of it, and making discoveries which mean nothing at all and were probably due to experimental error, then go ahead and do Psychology. But then again your course may be more interesting if it's not BPS-accredited.

I would encourage you to think about whether you *really* do enjoy Psychology, or you just enjoy it marginally more than English. For example, would you choose to read a University-level Psychology textbook over say, watching a movie/going out with your friends? If it's the former then by all means study Psychology because you probably do have a passion for it and will greatly enjoy your 3 years studying it. But take into account that you won't be able to study it to PhD level because it's not BPS-accredited (not 100% sure if this is true...), and it may not be much use in getting a career in something Psychology-related either (such as counselling or working with people with psychological problems).

If I were you I'd do the more respected course (unless it is really dreary, and imo English and Psychology are pretty level in terms of dreariness), which seems like English in this case. Most university courses are not exactly fun, so you may as well do the option which will give you the best prospects. Both English and Psychology are fairly generic courses (although I think Psychology has slightly better employment rates) which will allow you do your 3 years and then go into a career you will enjoy. Do you have any idea of what kind of career you would like?
(edited 11 years ago)

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