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I Study Psychology at the University of Southampton - Ask Me Anything!

I'm Poppy, a 2nd year studying Bsc Psychology - feel free to ask me anything about the city, the course or university life in general! 🙂
(edited 4 weeks ago)
What’s your favourite part of the course?
Original post by Talkative Toad
What’s your favourite part of the course?

Thank you for the question! Definitely the lecturers and the range of topics we get to study. The staff are so friendly and helpful, and I love how psychology includes content that overlaps with other subjects, such as biology and sociology. 🙂
Reply 3
Original post by Uni of Southampton Students
I'm Poppy, a 2nd year studying Bsc Psychology - feel free to ask me anything about the city, the course or university life in general! 🙂

Hi! Southampton is my first choice to study psychology (hopefully starting 2025). What is night life and social life like? Is it more going out into town like to pubs or clubs or more based around the student union? What is the support like from tutors and lecturers going from school/college to uni? What is accommodation like or what was the best accommodation from your experience? And how lenient is Southampton regarding A level results? Sorry about all the questions! 😅
Original post by Ella Val
Hi! Southampton is my first choice to study psychology (hopefully starting 2025). What is night life and social life like? Is it more going out into town like to pubs or clubs or more based around the student union? What is the support like from tutors and lecturers going from school/college to uni? What is accommodation like or what was the best accommodation from your experience? And how lenient is Southampton regarding A level results? Sorry about all the questions! 😅

Hello @Ella Val, thank you so much for the questions and congratulations on your choice to come to uni! 🥳

1.

The night life here is really good and there is a lot of choice depending on what you enjoy. During freshers week, SUSU (the student union) hold various club nights in The Cube (which is our on-campus club room). These are fun and a lot of people usually go to them. About a 15 minute walk away from campus (and 5 minutes on the bus) there is an area called Portswood which has different cheap pubs and smaller clubs, like The Hobbit (my favourite), Jesters, Sobar, The Shooting Star, and The Broadway. They often have events on with DJs or live music. Sobar was really popular last year during freshers week. There are also bigger clubs near the city centre such as District, Trilogy, Orange Rooms, The Edge, Cafe Parfait, and Revolution bar. Each of them are most popular with students on certain days of the week because of the events they have on.

2.

There are a lot of nice things to do during the day as well, for example, we have lots of cafes near campus. West Quay and The Marlands centre are good for shopping and have different things to do like bowling, pottery, a Showcase cinema, ice skating and the Xmas market during winter, etc... There is a train station near campus so it can be nice to have a day trip to another city too, e.g. Winchester is so pretty at Christmas time. SUSU often run activities too like paint and sip sessions, rollerskating, quiz and curry, etc. You can check what activities and societies are on offer here.

3.

Overall, I'd say that the night life is definitely more focused on going out into town for most people, but it depends on what you enjoy, and a lot of people still do go to the activities that SUSU puts on, and the on-campus pub (The Stags) can get super busy especially when karaoke is on! As for social life, we have over 200 societies and they are a massive part of life at Southampton uni. There are also other things SUSU does which I haven't mentioned (the post would be too long otherwise 😅) so I'd recommend having a look at their website which I linked above.

4.

The support from lecturers all throughout uni is amazing. They are always happy to be asked questions, and we have spaces online to ask questions anonymously if you find it intimidating in-person. They also have open office hours where you can discuss things from the lecture. The tutors are also really helpful as everyone is assigned one and they meet regularly at the start of first year to help get you started. I'm not sure about other subjects, but in psychology, we have community events all throughout the year where you can meet with others on the course and talk informally with lecturers and students from higher years. I would have a look at the @uos_psyc_community account on Instagram if you're interested! In the library, there are writing cafes and maths sessions you can go to if you're struggling with that side of uni.

5.

For your question about accommodation, I can't speak too much on it as I commute in from my home in Southampton, but from what I've seen of my friend's accommodations, Mayflower, Wessex lane and Glen Eyre are all really nice. There are frequent buses from the accommodations and they are all located relatively close to campus. If there is ever a problem, reception can help resolve it. I stayed in Glen Eyre for a few days for a residential event, and it was really comfy and the building inside looks really nice and modern too.

6.

For A-level results, it really depends on the year. Most of the time you do have to meet your entry requirements. For some courses the grade can be reduced by one if you get an A in the EPQ, or if you get a contextual offer. Depending on the year, a few people may still get into the uni even if they didn't quite meet their entry requirements. But this only happens if lots of people that year who applied and didn't meet the entry requirements, and then the uni starts to look at personal statements to decide who to let in. But this is definitely not guaranteed and most of the time, you definitely do have to meet the entry requirements to get a place.

Hope this helped, good luck with your A-levels and let me know if you have any other questions!
(edited 3 weeks ago)
hi! what sort of things do you study? psychology is such a broad subject - what have you been doing so far, to give us an idea? also, what do you hope to do with your degree careers-wise?
Original post by Uni of Southampton Students
I'm Poppy, a 2nd year studying Bsc Psychology - feel free to ask me anything about the city, the course or university life in general! 🙂

interesting profession
Do you have any practical training now?
Original post by Uni of Southampton Students
I'm Poppy, a 2nd year studying Bsc Psychology - feel free to ask me anything about the city, the course or university life in general! 🙂

Hello Poppy!

What have been the most challenging parts of the course, or getting used to uni?

Thankyou!

Holly
University of Bath
Original post by starlight567
hi! what sort of things do you study? psychology is such a broad subject - what have you been doing so far, to give us an idea? also, what do you hope to do with your degree careers-wise?

Thank you for the question!

In my first year, my modules were research methods and statistics, the psychology of mental health, psychology of attractiveness, learning to learn (which was about how we learn and best ways to revise), individual differences (including personality and intelligence), behavioural neuroscience and introduction to psychology (which included a range of topics).

This year, my modules are cognitive psychology in education, clinical psychology, perception, developmental psychology, research methods, social psychology, health psychology and empirical studies.

Like you said, we study a broad range of topics, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy it! At Southampton, there is also lots of choice when picking optional modules. We get to choose one each semester (apart from the first semester of first year). My favourite so far has probably been psychology of attractiveness, and I'm looking forward to the developmental and the education module this term.

I'm currently looking into educational psychology career-wise, do you have an idea of what you might want to do in the future? 🙂
Original post by Priagenction
interesting profession
Do you have any practical training now?

I'm not currently doing any work experience, but there are lots of opportunities to gain practical skills! For example, some people choose to do a year in employment. There have also been opportunities for everyone in psychology to participate in collecting data and writing up an academic paper together with some of the staff. During this, we got to practice using the eye trackers which was fun. There is a voluntary internship scheme that we can apply for where you shadow a third year student and help them with their research for their dissertation.

Last year, I went to a local primary school and helped support children who struggle with maths as part of the student ambassador role, which anyone in the university can sign up for.

Hope this helped 🙂
Original post by University of Bath
Hello Poppy!
What have been the most challenging parts of the course, or getting used to uni?
Thankyou!
Holly
University of Bath

Hi Holly, thank you for your question!

For me, the most challenging part of the course was the statistics module as there is a lot of maths involved. Going to the seminars for this module really helped me as we are able to get 1-1 support from the lecturers and assistants, as it is such a small group compared to the normal lectures. The library also offers maths drop ins which I know has helped people who have also struggled. I feel a lot more confident in statistics now and all of the staff are so supportive!

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