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Ask a York Student! (Psychology)

Hello! I am an undergraduate psychology student studying at University of York. I have just completed my second year, and have two years left as I am on the integrated masters course. I thought it would be nice to return to TSR to answer any questions prospective students may have. Feel free to ask me anything, from specific questions about York's psychology department to broader questions about what it's like being a student in York.

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Reply 1
@04MR17 Would you mind adding me to the "Ask a University Student!" master-list?
University of York
York
Reply 2
Aha, I wish. Sadly we only get trained in telekinesis. :P
Reply 3
Nope, just the ability to move objects with my mind. It's handy for putting rubbish in the bin at least.
Original post by Darelz
@04MR17 Would you mind adding me to the "Ask a University Student!" master-list?

Done :hat2:

Thread stickied too. :smile:


What are the biggest pros of being a student at York Uni and what are the biggest downsides?
Reply 5
Original post by 04MR17
Done :hat2:

Thread stickied too. :smile:


What are the biggest pros of being a student at York Uni and what are the biggest downsides?


I think some of the biggest pros of Uni of York are:
- There's a lot of support for various areas of university life. There are great talks about moving off-campus to give you all the information you need to know about renting for the first time, you can book appointments with careers for not just careers advice but also stuff like practice interviews (https://www.york.ac.uk/students/work-volunteering-careers/events/types/), and there are various well-being support services like Open Door (https://www.york.ac.uk/students/health/help/). I've always felt like there is support from the university for whatever issues I may face.
- I cannot be certain if this is true for all departments, but personally have found there are endless work experience opportunities! We have a careers gateway (https://york.targetconnect.net/home.html) which advertises work experience opportunities which are exclusive to UoY students. I also get endless emails from the psychology department advertising work experience opportunities, and our department's staff are very welcome for students to ask to get involved with their research.
- It's one of the safest universities. York has a generally low crime rate (https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/crime-rates-in-university-cities-and-towns/) and we have great campus safety support such as the Safe Zone app (https://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/sas/slaw/security/safezone/)

A couple of downsides:
- I'm dubious about YUSU. I don't know much about them, but what I've heard tends to be negative. They seem to play favourites with societies, and there was a lot of complaints about a certain referendum of theirs. It seems there's a general feeling of discontent for student unions across many universities though.
- You must learn to love geese and geese droppings. Especially the geese droppings if you're on campus East. :P
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 6
I just want to add that my favourite thing about my experience at UoY is how amazing the psychology department is, but I didn't include that in my answer since it's only relevant to people who want to study psychology at York.
Reply 7
Just a basic question, but do you know anyone/have any experience of people who live on Campus East but has lectures on West? The halls look so much nicer, but I'm a little worried about that...
I’ll be off to second year. Any tips for me?
Reply 9
Original post by Salieri
Just a basic question, but do you know anyone/have any experience of people who live on Campus East but has lectures on West? The halls look so much nicer, but I'm a little worried about that...

There are buses which go between the campuses regularly, so you don't have to worry about transport between the campuses. It seems to mostly be a matter of personal preference. If you're the kinda person who only gets out of bed 30 minutes before a lecture then definitely pick the campus where your lectures are. Otherwise it depends on what accommodation you want, how peaceful you want your campus to be (East is a bit quieter), if you want to have physically different locations for study and social life, etc.

Original post by nabilahhh
I’ll be off to second year. Any tips for me?


Are you a first year at Uni of York right now?
Original post by Darelz
Are you a first year at Uni of York right now?


No x
Reply 11
Original post by nabilahhh
No x


I'm not sure what exactly you mean by you'll be off to second year if you're not a first year here currently, but I recommend anyone going into second year makes an effort to start their assignments well ahead of time. It will make your life so much easier if you give yourself plenty of time to work on reading + assessments rather than doing it all the night before.
what is the psychology course like? are the tutors helpful? also, are you thinking of going into a psych career in future, and if so what kind of stuff do they do to prepare you (e.g placements)?
Bit niche but do you have any experience with their rowing club? Is it good?

Otherwise, on a scale of sheep field to Manchester, how rural would you rate it?
Reply 14
Original post by ephemeral02
what is the psychology course like? are the tutors helpful? also, are you thinking of going into a psych career in future, and if so what kind of stuff do they do to prepare you (e.g placements)?

I have really enjoyed the psychology course so far! In the first 2 years you cover a wide variety of areas in psychology and you get little choice about the content you cover. You don't get much choice in the first 2 years since certain content needs to be covered done in order to get a BPS accredited degree. I think it's actually helpful to be forced to cover a broad range of content as it can give you a better idea of what areas of psychology you're interested in and introduce you to areas you may not have otherwise considered. You do get some freedom in the group miniprojects you do in term 3 (in both year 1+2), so that's cool. Then in your 3rd year (and 4th if you do the integrated masters) you basically get free reign: you choose most of your modules, you get to pick any psychology topic for your literature survey, and you have fairly wide choice in topics for a research project you run (the limitation being you need a supervisor who has some knowledge of your chosen area). I'm really excited for my third year!

Every psychology student gets a personal tutor, who you can contact any time if you're struggling with the course for whatever reason. They're also supportive about personal issues: for example my tutor knew I had a rough time at the start of uni due to social anxiety, so she always asks about how I'm coping with my anxiety when we meet. I should note they'll refer you to someone else for primary support with significant personal issues though, as that's not their role. Your personal tutor isn't the only person you talk to if you're struggling with the course, many other staff are happy to talk to you. Also, the staff treat you as an equal rather than just a student. I've had friendly conversations and banter with several staff members, so it's always fun working with them!

I'm planning on a career in academia if possible, although I'm also interested about research in industry (the video game industry to be specific). Your personal tutor is in charge of making you complete a careers plan, which is about considering what career paths you're interested in and what experience you can get to prepare you for those careers. It's mostly going to be your tutor who will help you with finding experience if you need help... My tutor actually had to discourage me from taking on too many work experience opportunities because I was burning myself out though, aha. The psychology department also have several compulsory careers talks, which are designed to make you think about possible career paths and what skills employers value. Furthermore, we regularly get emails from the psychology department about work experience opportunities, which makes finding psychology related work experience much easier. If there's research happening in the department that you're interested in staff are happy for you to email them asking if you can help out with it. Another option is to have a placement year, which the psychology department will help you organise (I believe Dr Cade McCall is in charge of placement years). Of course work experiences don't fall in your lap: if you don't use the resources given or apply/volunteer for opportunities you see then you won't get experience. If you do proactively use the resources you're provided and apply/volunteer for experiences, you will find work experiences fairly easily... Maybe with it being a bit harder if you're interested in clinical psychology, since clinical is more competitive so more people are applying for clinical work experiences. To demonstrate how work experience you can find, here's the main work experiences I've had so far: an internship with DCLabs, who continue to contact me for casual work from time to time; I helped Cade with some research he's conducting on a voluntary basis in term time, which led to paid work as a research assistant with him last summer; being a student helper for our department on several open days; I visited my old high school as a student ambassador; I am currently a co-editor for our department's magazine (called PsychOut); I currently have a summer studentship with Cade.
Reply 15
Original post by lol.yolo
Bit niche but do you have any experience with their rowing club? Is it good?

Otherwise, on a scale of sheep field to Manchester, how rural would you rate it?

No idea about the rowing club, sorry.

I'm from South Lincolnshire and grew up on a farm so I might be biased, but I don't think York or the area around UoY is at all rural. There are plenty of green areas in York, but it's still a city. UoY campus is on the outskirts of York, so it's not crazy hectic with stuff the like traffic near campus. If you go into town there's plenty of services to entertain you, including clubs. Perfectly balanced in my opinion!
Original post by Darelz
I have really enjoyed the psychology course so far! In the first 2 years you cover a wide variety of areas in psychology and you get little choice about the content you cover. You don't get much choice in the first 2 years since certain content needs to be covered done in order to get a BPS accredited degree. I think it's actually helpful to be forced to cover a broad range of content as it can give you a better idea of what areas of psychology you're interested in and introduce you to areas you may not have otherwise considered. You do get some freedom in the group miniprojects you do in term 3 (in both year 1+2), so that's cool. Then in your 3rd year (and 4th if you do the integrated masters) you basically get free reign: you choose most of your modules, you get to pick any psychology topic for your literature survey, and you have fairly wide choice in topics for a research project you run (the limitation being you need a supervisor who has some knowledge of your chosen area). I'm really excited for my third year!

Every psychology student gets a personal tutor, who you can contact any time if you're struggling with the course for whatever reason. They're also supportive about personal issues: for example my tutor knew I had a rough time at the start of uni due to social anxiety, so she always asks about how I'm coping with my anxiety when we meet. I should note they'll refer you to someone else for primary support with significant personal issues though, as that's not their role. Your personal tutor isn't the only person you talk to if you're struggling with the course, many other staff are happy to talk to you. Also, the staff treat you as an equal rather than just a student. I've had friendly conversations and banter with several staff members, so it's always fun working with them!

I'm planning on a career in academia if possible, although I'm also interested about research in industry (the video game industry to be specific). Your personal tutor is in charge of making you complete a careers plan, which is about considering what career paths you're interested in and what experience you can get to prepare you for those careers. It's mostly going to be your tutor who will help you with finding experience if you need help... My tutor actually had to discourage me from taking on too many work experience opportunities because I was burning myself out though, aha. The psychology department also have several compulsory careers talks, which are designed to make you think about possible career paths and what skills employers value. Furthermore, we regularly get emails from the psychology department about work experience opportunities, which makes finding psychology related work experience much easier. If there's research happening in the department that you're interested in staff are happy for you to email them asking if you can help out with it. Another option is to have a placement year, which the psychology department will help you organise (I believe Dr Cade McCall is in charge of placement years). Of course work experiences don't fall in your lap: if you don't use the resources given or apply/volunteer for opportunities you see then you won't get experience. If you do proactively use the resources you're provided and apply/volunteer for experiences, you will find work experiences fairly easily... Maybe with it being a bit harder if you're interested in clinical psychology, since clinical is more competitive so more people are applying for clinical work experiences. To demonstrate how work experience you can find, here's the main work experiences I've had so far: an internship with DCLabs, who continue to contact me for casual work from time to time; I helped Cade with some research he's conducting on a voluntary basis in term time, which led to paid work as a research assistant with him last summer; being a student helper for our department on several open days; I visited my old high school as a student ambassador; I am currently a co-editor for our department's magazine (called PsychOut); I currently have a summer studentship with Cade.


thank you so much that's very helpful :smile: gl with the remainder of your time there!
Reply 17
Hi, I’m an international student and I’ll be starting Psychology this October. I would really appreciate any information about accommodation:smile: could you tell me anything about alcuin, halifax, vanbrugh, goodricke, langwith colleges? Have you heard any experiences about these colleges? Is it very inconvenient to choose accommodation on east campus for psychology student?
Thanks!:smile:
Original post by Darelz
Hello! I am an undergraduate psychology student studying at University of York. I have just completed my second year, and have two years left as I am on the integrated masters course. I thought it would be nice to return to TSR to answer any questions prospective students may have. Feel free to ask me anything, from specific questions about York's psychology department to broader questions about what it's like being a student in York.
Reply 18
Original post by ievagy
Hi, I’m an international student and I’ll be starting Psychology this October. I would really appreciate any information about accommodation:smile: could you tell me anything about alcuin, halifax, vanbrugh, goodricke, langwith colleges? Have you heard any experiences about these colleges? Is it very inconvenient to choose accommodation on east campus for psychology student?
Thanks!:smile:

I lived in Halifax in my first year. The good thing about Halifax is that it's close to the psychology department: it's about a 3 minute bike ride or 10 minutes walking. But if you keep in mind Halifax has a lot of the cheaper accomodation options, meaning you're sharing facilities between more people. I went for the cheapest possible accomodation, and I had to share 1 big and 1 small kitchen between ~20 people... It was grim, I wouldn't do that again. I don't know much about the other colleges to be honest, but they don't seem to be particularly different. I think the main thing to consider is how close you want to be to the psychology building and what sort of accomodation options you want (eg Catered or not). I think living on Hes East is fine if you can get up early enough to catch the shuttle between campuses... If you're a late riser I wouldn't suggest living that far from the psychology building.
Reply 19
Thanks! Do you remember when was the freshers week? Before or after moving into accommodation? Because I’ve checked that international/eu students can arrive on 27th September but I think that term begins from 1st October so what about freshers? Thanks:smile:
Original post by Darelz
I lived in Halifax in my first year. The good thing about Halifax is that it's close to the psychology department: it's about a 3 minute bike ride or 10 minutes walking. But if you keep in mind Halifax has a lot of the cheaper accomodation options, meaning you're sharing facilities between more people. I went for the cheapest possible accomodation, and I had to share 1 big and 1 small kitchen between ~20 people... It was grim, I wouldn't do that again. I don't know much about the other colleges to be honest, but they don't seem to be particularly different. I think the main thing to consider is how close you want to be to the psychology building and what sort of accomodation options you want (eg Catered or not). I think living on Hes East is fine if you can get up early enough to catch the shuttle between campuses... If you're a late riser I wouldn't suggest living that far from the psychology building.

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