Biology / Psycholoy / Neuroscience

Both psychology and neuroscience at university level entail extensive lab work and experiments in most courses. Both subjects are highly biological as well, and in fact it is almost a secret requirement that an applicant shows they are aware of the scientific and biological nature of a psychology degree in their personal statement.

If you look around, there may be some psychology courses which are mainly theory and little/no lab work. These, however, are likely to not be BPS accredited, which means you will not be able to go on to become a professional accredited psychologist.

Edit: Perhaps if there are any BA Psychology courses about, this would indicate a theory-based course as opposed to an experimental course (which would be BSc)

Thank you. I'm willing to put up with the experimental side if it means it's BPS credited.

Thank you. I'm willing to put up with the experimental side if it means it's BPS credited.

Well okay, in that case I'd suggest searching about for cognitive psychology/neuroscience degree (or sometimes the two are combined for obvious reasons). Then it seems to satisfy your interest in psychology, neuroscience and biology at the same time.

Just be aware of the fact you will have to do experiments. These aren't, however, like those boring pointless A level biology experiments where you watch plants grow and write about the rate they've grown afterwards or anything. I haven't yet started my course, but I know it's going to be interesting experiments, using real people. Plus, the interest in the theory of neuroscience/psychology will probably mean you'll be genuinely excited to see the outcome of the experiments you carry out.

Also, not 100% sure but I think in neuroscience you have to handle real brains a bit, so as long as you aren't too disgusted by that it's fine.

I was in your position too but I'm now going on to study Cognitive neuroscience with psychology at the University of Manchester in September. Look in to it, it also opens a wide range of programmes should you want to do a post-grad..

I do Biology with Psychology and I usually do an 'experiment' (lab) once a week. However it's nothing like A levels, they're run really effectively, and the write ups are done within lab time rather than at home and you get your marks back instantly. Labs are actually a very nice way of building up credit so that you're not relying on the exam results 100%, and they're not as hard as essay coursework. Psychology labs are also usually on a computer or in the lecture hall and you have a week to produce an essay on it (however that's only 20% of my course so I don't have these that often).

For your personal statement, show that you have done reading around the subjects. I wrote about The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks, and in each of my interviews I spent probably the majority of the time talking about it, I also used references from it for part of my first presentation at uni (it's just an awesome book so read it). Look into the prospective jobs in these fields, but remember any degree helps you get any job unless you're looking at Medicine or Dentistry so don't stress the specificity that much

What do you mean by Neuroscience? Are you talking about attempting to decipher the structure and wiring of the brain to explain how it achieves its function and how it is susceptible to certain degenerative diseases, or are you talking about it from a Psychological viewpoint with a discussion about how little Jimmy over here can't think of anything other than 'doing' his own mother.