should I swap uni course?

Hi everyone, I am currently studying undergratuade bachelors of science in psychology at the moment. I am currently in second year of my course. I've been getting on really well with the workload and I am enjoying the course so far but I have found that the option modules I did last year and this year were far more interesting than the core modules I ended up completing. Now I'm starting to question whether I should swap course programmes so I can continue studying that.

So last year I picked a forensic crime scene investigation module, which was really interesting and I found myself really involved with the learning materials in comparison to the comparative psychology core module - which i would do the bare minimum for to pass.

This year I chose two forensic modules - one was a forensic psychology module and the other one was forensic human identification. Once again these modules have really piked my interest in semester one. Now as I'm nearing the end of semester two and overall year 2, I'm getting overwhelmingly bored of the core psychology modules without any of the forensics work to do.

My uni gives me the opportunity to transfer over to a different programme if I choose to do so, and there are two forensic psychology courses to choose from. This is really conflicting for me because on the one hand I really do have a passion for psychology in general and love learning about developmental and social psychology in particular but then I am also swaying heavily into criminal psychology other branches of forensic psychology.

I have been researching information about both and from what it looks like, if I continue on with the plain psychology course I'm doing then I still have to do a postgraduate after this course in order to get any kind of clinical job. I am willing to do that but I would have to wait a significant period of time in order to pay for it and I'm not entirely sure how long that will take. However, if I were to transfer over to either of the forensic psychology courses I could find my way into other work that does not require a clinical qualification or a masters in psychology for the most part. i also do not believe it will cost me anything if I do choose to swap over.

the two forensic psychology courses are psychology with forensic and investigative psychology and psychology with forensic scene investigation just if you were wondering.

I am also worried that if I do swap over then my dissertation may not be able to be based on a research project because I feel that forensic psychology can be much harder to use in a research project.

I'm honestly so conflicted and I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be grately appreciated :smile:

Reply 1

eeeli

13

are the courses you're considering swapping to BPS accredited (and would swapping at this point keep that accreditation?). If so then there's probably little harm in swapping as the BPS accreditation means all the clinical/professional Psychology pathways would still be open to you. But it also probably means you'd be studying a lot of the same modules as on the pure Psychology degree because the BPS requirements cover quite a lot of general Psychology content, so that's something to consider - have a look at the specific modules if you haven't already and see if they're different enough to make it worth swapping. I would be cautious if the degree you swap to is no longer BPS accredited as that does shut a lot of doors in terms of future careers that you may not want to shut at this stage. This is all assuming the Psychology course you're currently studying is BPS accredited of course.

Reply 2

beepsych0206

OP

2

Original post by eeeli

are the courses you're considering swapping to BPS accredited (and would swapping at this point keep that accreditation?). If so then there's probably little harm in swapping as the BPS accreditation means all the clinical/professional Psychology pathways would still be open to you. But it also probably means you'd be studying a lot of the same modules as on the pure Psychology degree because the BPS requirements cover quite a lot of general Psychology content, so that's something to consider - have a look at the specific modules if you haven't already and see if they're different enough to make it worth swapping. I would be cautious if the degree you swap to is no longer BPS accredited as that does shut a lot of doors in terms of future careers that you may not want to shut at this stage. This is all assuming the Psychology course you're currently studying is BPS accredited of course.

Yeah they’re all BPS accredited so I’m not concerned about that aspect of switching courses, my programme lead also said that I am able to transfer over if I really want to because I have done the necessary modules this year to transfer over to either one

Reply 3

eeeli

13

Original post by beepsych0206

Yeah they’re all BPS accredited so I’m not concerned about that aspect of switching courses, my programme lead also said that I am able to transfer over if I really want to because I have done the necessary modules this year to transfer over to either one

Worth double checking with your uni, but if your main worry then is the research project you'd probably still get to do one on the other courses - BPS accreditation requires students to complete an empirical project. From the sounds of things its easy to switch courses, you'd be happier on the other course, and it won't affect your career prospects in a major negative way - obviously its your decision to make but from the sounds of things it might be a good option for you (if your tutors agree).

should I swap uni course?

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