Psychology, law or classics? URGENT

I really need to decide my uni course choice in the next day, my school is starting our applications now so I have to decide. I visited Edinburgh Unis open day, for all 3 subjects.

I like how law has a clear, stable career path, although I will admit that I zoned out a little during the taster lecture - this might’ve been because it was on EU Law and wasn’t the most interesting topic to me, but I will admit that it put me off a little.

The psychology lecture was really good, the head of the department was engaging and his lecture was quite interesting, but I’m slightly put off by career prospects - I’m willing to do an extra year to become a primary teacher, but if I didn’t and also didn’t want to become a psychologist because of the extra time it takes I don’t want to end up in mental health support jobs.

I only went to the classics talk and not the lecture because I’ve done classical studies as a subject in school, its super interesting but I’m put off by the limited career prospects again as I like to have a career to aim for but am not so sure with classics, like I could just keep that as an interest on the side yk??

pls help, i desperately need advice!

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

You can become a lawyer with any degree, and not all law degree graduates secure a training contract or pupillage on graduating (in fact, outcomes are rather poor in that respect).

You need a BPS accredited psychology degree to become a professional psychologist of any variety, however you don't seem interested in those career areas.

Note you can become a primary (or secondary) school teacher with any degree as far as I'm aware once you complete your PGCE and QTS? For secondary teaching your degree field will inform what subject(s) you teach although that is not necessarily the case for primary teaching I believe.

You can go into any of the same kinds of graduate roles with a classics degree as any degree holder can e.g. the civil service, the media, law, investment banking and management consulting, accountancy, and any of the general corporate based grad schemes as well.

Ultimately your degree is not what determines your career prospects unless you're aiming for a specialist field requiring a particular qualification for professional registration (e.g. psychologist roles). What determines your career prospects is what you do to make yourself employable by pursuing internship and work experience opportunities, developing relevant transferable skills by taking on leadership/committee roles in societies etc, and preparing for the battery of psychometric tests and assessment centre exercises and interviews you need to pass through to get a graduate role in the first place. None of that changes based on what degree subject you do, and for most employers and roles the degree itself is merely a tick box - does the applicant have a 2:1 or higher degree in any subject Y/N? If Y move to next stage of application. And beyond your first job your degree becomes largely irrelevant (unless again, you are in some specialist field like psychology, healthcare roles, etc).

Pick something you actually have an intellectual interest in for your degree, because it'll make grinding through the rest of the stuff you'd have to do on any degree to make sure you can land a job at least marginally less painful because you'll have something to look forward to (i.e. your lectures and the actual content of your degree).

Reply 2

UoL Students

Official Rep

Hello @ivoryyroses

It can be really stressful trying to decide what subject to study at university! However, I strongly agree with the other user that career prospects nowadays involve so much more than what subject you study. You will have to study this subject for at least three years and you want to make sure that it is content you genuinely enjoy! You can improve career prospects by getting involved at university and working on your skills.

You mentioned that you didn't love the EU law lecture and it may be worth noting that it is a compulsory module on every LLB course. If you wanted to see if you find other areas of law a bit more engaging you could attend some virtual events. For example, the University of Law have an upcoming virtual taster day for criminal law (Criminal law Taster). Although it is a different university, it might help you gauge your general interest in law.

Most people do not even know what career they want when they are applying for universities and a lot of my recently graduated friends are still not sure! I recommend studying the subject you enjoy the most as you will most likely perform best in it and will enjoy it.

I was stuck between law and criminology. After one year of studying criminology, I transferred to study law instead and Leicester approved my transfer. I know a lot of students who have done this. My point is that once you pick the subject, you are not stuck with it if you think you have made the wrong decision and there will always be an element of flexibility.

I hope this helps!

Claire
Law LLB Student

Reply 3

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post

by artful_lounger

You can become a lawyer with any degree, and not all law degree graduates secure a training contract or pupillage on graduating (in fact, outcomes are rather poor in that respect).
You need a BPS accredited psychology degree to become a professional psychologist of any variety, however you don't seem interested in those career areas.
Note you can become a primary (or secondary) school teacher with any degree as far as I'm aware once you complete your PGCE and QTS? For secondary teaching your degree field will inform what subject(s) you teach although that is not necessarily the case for primary teaching I believe.
You can go into any of the same kinds of graduate roles with a classics degree as any degree holder can e.g. the civil service, the media, law, investment banking and management consulting, accountancy, and any of the general corporate based grad schemes as well.
Ultimately your degree is not what determines your career prospects unless you're aiming for a specialist field requiring a particular qualification for professional registration (e.g. psychologist roles). What determines your career prospects is what you do to make yourself employable by pursuing internship and work experience opportunities, developing relevant transferable skills by taking on leadership/committee roles in societies etc, and preparing for the battery of psychometric tests and assessment centre exercises and interviews you need to pass through to get a graduate role in the first place. None of that changes based on what degree subject you do, and for most employers and roles the degree itself is merely a tick box - does the applicant have a 2:1 or higher degree in any subject Y/N? If Y move to next stage of application. And beyond your first job your degree becomes largely irrelevant (unless again, you are in some specialist field like psychology, healthcare roles, etc).
Pick something you actually have an intellectual interest in for your degree, because it'll make grinding through the rest of the stuff you'd have to do on any degree to make sure you can land a job at least marginally less painful because you'll have something to look forward to (i.e. your lectures and the actual content of your degree).