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Maths and Psychology Degree - Joint Honours

Hi, I was just wondering if any one could give me any advice on studying a joint honours degree. I don't have a set career path but I know I love both maths and psychology and am studying them both at A level. Do you think they go together? And are Joint honours viewed as academic as a single subject because your not going to be studying a subject in as much as detail.

If I could get on a course which is accredited by the BPS would that would be a good choice? I am also thinking about trying to do a degree with a work placement year built in, so if anyone has any advice that would be great
Well, neurology is very mathematical as a medical specialty as I understand, and computational neurobiology and computational linguistics are neuroscience related fields which are very mathematically heavy. This isn't exactly psychology however, although it is related. The perception of joint honours depends on who is looking at them and for what purpose; for applying to jobs and such generally, it doesn't make a difference. A degree is a degree is a degree.

For e.g., professional accreditation, or preparation for further study and research, a joint honours may not allow you to fulfill all the requirements or leave you with a weaker knowledgebase making it harder to get into a given masters/PhD programme in one of the two individual areas; e.g. trying to go onto a maths PhD would be difficult with most joint honours maths that aren't with e.g. physics, as you often don't get the necessary depth and breadth. Similar for psychology. However for interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary programmes the ones mentioned above, this weakness becomes a strength.

So it entirely depends on how you approach it.
Original post by Charlotteellis3
Hi, I was just wondering if any one could give me any advice on studying a joint honours degree. I don't have a set career path but I know I love both maths and psychology and am studying them both at A level. Do you think they go together? And are Joint honours viewed as academic as a single subject because your not going to be studying a subject in as much as detail.

If I could get on a course which is accredited by the BPS would that would be a good choice? I am also thinking about trying to do a degree with a work placement year built in, so if anyone has any advice that would be great


1) Do they go well together?

Doing a dual honours degree is generally harder i think, as you're doing exams with people doing single honours and are for the most part studying one subject in greater depth. To some extent, if you study statistics on the maths course that will really help for your psychology research methods course and dissertation, and will help even more if you decide to go into fields of psychology/neuroscience research which are very quantitative.

You'll probably be much more employable on the general job market with those two degrees, however remember that you need a BPS accredited degree to become a professional psychologist (except in research).

2) Is it viewed as academic?
Definately, especially compared to doing psychology alone. I'm not sure how it compares to doing maths alone. The only downside is that you won't have as much breadth of knowledge in either subject. If its a good dual honours course, you should cover all the basics of psychology that you can self-teach any missing knowledge that you have if you need it later in life (e.g. for a phd). Doing a degree is mostly about learning skills than content after all. YOu can always do a masters if there is some area of maths/psychology that you really want to follow up on later (or as prep for a phd).

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