psychology in the future?

I’m in year 11 planning to take alevel bio, chem and psychology and I want to go down the psychology route. I have two main fields of interest which are clinical psychology and psychiatry. I’m aware that to become a psychiatrist you need to go to med skl, and the entire journey before you get the job is many years of studying (which doesn’t seem appealing to me) but for clinical psychology you need a degree in psychology. I’m just worried if I pick to do a degree in psychology I’ll regret not going to med skl and opening the opportunities to not just become a psychiatrist but also be able to switch to other medical field jobs just in case I have a change of heart. I’m open to other jobs within psychology and if anyone has advice or extra info on the jobs I would appreciate it!

Reply 1

Scotland Yard

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

20

Original post by Layna_

I’m in year 11 planning to take alevel bio, chem and psychology and I want to go down the psychology route. I have two main fields of interest which are clinical psychology and psychiatry. I’m aware that to become a psychiatrist you need to go to med skl, and the entire journey before you get the job is many years of studying (which doesn’t seem appealing to me) but for clinical psychology you need a degree in psychology. I’m just worried if I pick to do a degree in psychology I’ll regret not going to med skl and opening the opportunities to not just become a psychiatrist but also be able to switch to other medical field jobs just in case I have a change of heart. I’m open to other jobs within psychology and if anyone has advice or extra info on the jobs I would appreciate it!

To become a psychiatrist, that's 5 or 6 years of Medical school, 2 foundation years as a doctor in the NHS before embarking on your specialty training before becoming a consultant, which does last a long long time (a minimum of 6 years), so a minimum of 13 years.

To become a clinical psychologist, that's 3 years of your Psychology BSc and 3 years of your doctorate in clinical psychology before qualifying. Although between those two things there's always a break of many years in which you work to get experience, do masters, etc etc etc, but everyone does it slightly differently. It's harder to give a time to become a clinical psychologist because it's not as standardised as becoming a psychiatrist.

One thing to consider is that Medicine as a degree covers a whole lot more than psychiatry. In fact I recently went to a UCL psychiatry conference and I got the feeling that psychiatry is barely touched upon on a regular medical degree. So if you're not interested in all the other parts of the human body and diseases, then Medicine probably isn't for you.

But it's still early to decide, you're still in year 11 and have some time to think about it! The A levels you're applying to do let you go to either careers so I suggest you keep thinking about this for a long while and do more research to decide. Hope this was useful :smile:

Original post by Layna_

I’m in year 11 planning to take alevel bio, chem and psychology and I want to go down the psychology route. I have two main fields of interest which are clinical psychology and psychiatry. I’m aware that to become a psychiatrist you need to go to med skl, and the entire journey before you get the job is many years of studying (which doesn’t seem appealing to me) but for clinical psychology you need a degree in psychology. I’m just worried if I pick to do a degree in psychology I’ll regret not going to med skl and opening the opportunities to not just become a psychiatrist but also be able to switch to other medical field jobs just in case I have a change of heart. I’m open to other jobs within psychology and if anyone has advice or extra info on the jobs I would appreciate it!

Hi! I would say to not worry about it too much at this stage. I was interested in both psychology and medicine when I was in year 11 as well! Your a-level subjects are fantastic for applying to either a psychology degree or medicine. I would say that your options are always open even if you had a change of heart (as there is graduate entry to medicine, although it is said that it's a bit more competitive).

At this stage, I'd recommend trying to get some work experience in a hospital or possibly volunteering in sixth form, if that's available to you and if you haven't already. Getting some experience there might help you determine if doing medicine is the right choice for you!

There are also loads of resources online, I believe. There are free virtual work experience courses into medicine and an interactive platform called 'Observe GP' which gives you a bit of an insight. I'd recommend looking at this article from the Medical Schools Council.

Unfortunately for psychology, there aren't too many work experience opportunities due to safeguarding risks. But what I found that really helped, is using websites such as Prospects - they have a really in depth description of what psychologists do. There are some case studies on their website of how psychologists got to where they are.

There are also more and more routes into other roles in psychology! I recommend looking into these. They are sort of like postgraduate apprenticeships, so you get paid while you learn. You need to take a psychology degree beforehand, but there are trainee Psychology Wellbeing Practitioner roles and CAAP roles (Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology).

Let me know if you had any other questions!

~ Fatiha, Cardiff University Student Rep

Reply 3

anoni579

3

One thing I would add is that being a psychiatrist is not what a lot of people think it is. If you're picturing Freud-esque things like delivering therapy, CBT, psychoanalysis, etc and that is what you would really want to do as a career I would definitely recommend you look into becoming a clinical psychologist over a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists of course can also deliver such treatment but their main role is more usually to diagnose mental health problems, prescribe medication, and direct patients to clinical psychologists who will usually be the ones to deliver the therapy. Psychiatrists often oversee patients in a clinic but their training is medically based which is what allows them to prescribe medication. Personally while I considered going into clinical psychology for a while, I never wanted to be a psychiatrist after an old lecturer of mine went on a rant about how over-paid psychiatrists are when they often do not give much time to listen to the patients individual experience and often rush to prescribe medication without exploring therapy first.

Anyway, it really depends on what you are interested in- if medical school sounds good to you then why not go for it with psychiatry, but if your goal is to deliver psychological treatments then you will likely enjoy and excel far more going down the psychology route and specialising as a clinical psychologist.

psychology in the future?

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