Psychology

[JeydinNewWon]

Right, so I'll have to consider that again. Thanks for the advice!

 

[DrDrLMG!]

I was asked in PM today why the UNSW Bachelor of Psychology has a higher ATAR requirement than the UNSW Bachelor of Psychological Science.

This was my response with the disclaimer that UNSW Psychology is not my specific area of expertise!!

"My very brief look (at the UNSW website) would suggest that the Bachelor of Psychological Science is a three year undergrad degree, while the Bachelor of Psychology is a four year honours degree. Given honours is an incredibly competitive course to move into at the end of a three year degree, I’d imagine the four year pathway is more competitive as the honours component is built in and doesn’t appear to require a seperate application.

For those wanting to become a practicing psychologist, honours is compulsory, regardless of pathway, so it’s historically crazy competitive. This would drive up the required ATAR for an embedded degree.

The four year degree would also be capped, I’d imagine, as the uni would have to be able to guarantee enough honours supervisors, whereas a three year bachelor doesn’t have a research component and so numbers wouldn’t have to be capped (especially if lectures are online).

(For those) considering psychology as a career, I’d highly recommend a four year course with honours if offered."

I also included this link in my reply where the need for a four year degree or a stand-alone honours as a fourth year of undergrad study is a requirement, so locking this in early is great (if possible).

Study pathways | APS

Unlocking the secrets of the human mind, the study of human behaviour and understanding why we do what we do is unique to psychology. These powerful insights have a wide range of applications, and can complement a wide range of interests. This is why psychology is a popular higher education...

psychology.org.au

 

[JeydinNewWon]

I was asked in PM today why the UNSW Bachelor of Psychology has a higher ATAR requirement than the UNSW Bachelor of Psychological Science.

This was my response with the disclaimer that UNSW Psychology is not my specific area of expertise!!

"My very brief look (at the UNSW website) would suggest that the Bachelor of Psychological Science is a three year undergrad degree, while the Bachelor of Psychology is a four year honours degree. Given honours is an incredibly competitive course to move into at the end of a three year degree, I’d imagine the four year pathway is more competitive as the honours component is built in and doesn’t appear to require a seperate application.

For those wanting to become a practicing psychologist, honours is compulsory, regardless of pathway, so it’s historically crazy competitive. This would drive up the required ATAR for an embedded degree.

The four year degree would also be capped, I’d imagine, as the uni would have to be able to guarantee enough honours supervisors, whereas a three year bachelor doesn’t have a research component and so numbers wouldn’t have to be capped (especially if lectures are online).

(For those) considering psychology as a career, I’d highly recommend a four year course with honours if offered."

I also included this link in my reply where the need for a four year degree or a stand-alone honours as a fourth year of undergrad study is a requirement, so locking this in early is great (if possible).

Study pathways | APS

Unlocking the secrets of the human mind, the study of human behaviour and understanding why we do what we do is unique to psychology. These powerful insights have a wide range of applications, and can complement a wide range of interests. This is why psychology is a popular higher education...

psychology.org.au

Damn Psychology is the new Medicine

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Damn Psychology is the new Medicine

Nah, on numbers, Clinical Psychology has been more competitive to get into than Medicine for years. There is a MASSIVE training bottle neck. If you can get into a four year undergrad straight up, that helps, but isn’t the whole story.

 

[JeydinNewWon]

I was asked in PM today why the UNSW Bachelor of Psychology has a higher ATAR requirement than the UNSW Bachelor of Psychological Science.

This was my response with the disclaimer that UNSW Psychology is not my specific area of expertise!!

"My very brief look (at the UNSW website) would suggest that the Bachelor of Psychological Science is a three year undergrad degree, while the Bachelor of Psychology is a four year honours degree. Given honours is an incredibly competitive course to move into at the end of a three year degree, I’d imagine the four year pathway is more competitive as the honours component is built in and doesn’t appear to require a seperate application.

For those wanting to become a practicing psychologist, honours is compulsory, regardless of pathway, so it’s historically crazy competitive. This would drive up the required ATAR for an embedded degree.

The four year degree would also be capped, I’d imagine, as the uni would have to be able to guarantee enough honours supervisors, whereas a three year bachelor doesn’t have a research component and so numbers wouldn’t have to be capped (especially if lectures are online).

(For those) considering psychology as a career, I’d highly recommend a four year course with honours if offered."

I also included this link in my reply where the need for a four year degree or a stand-alone honours as a fourth year of undergrad study is a requirement, so locking this in early is great (if possible).

Study pathways | APS

Unlocking the secrets of the human mind, the study of human behaviour and understanding why we do what we do is unique to psychology. These powerful insights have a wide range of applications, and can complement a wide range of interests. This is why psychology is a popular higher education...

psychology.org.au

Hi, LMG!

I was also asking this for a friend: she didn't get nearly as high the ATAR needed for the Honours course and I was just wondering how competitive is getting into the Honours year? And if you don't get into Honours year, does that mean you are stuck with a useless degree?

Nah, on numbers, Clinical Psychology has been more competitive to get into than Medicine for years. There is a MASSIVE training bottle neck. If you can get into a four year undergrad straight up, that helps, but isn’t the whole story.

Woah....really??

Are there numbers/statistics for this? Why exactly is it so competitive - even more so than Medicine?!!

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hi, LMG!

I was also asking this for a friend: she didn't get nearly as high the ATAR needed for the Honours course and I was just wondering how competitive is getting into the Honours year? And if you don't get into Honours year, does that mean you are stuck with a useless degree?

If you’re prepared to go anywhere in the country, then moving into an honours year is very competitive but often doable. An example: my good friend did 3yr undergrad in Vic, honours in NT, masters in Tas.

Keep in mind, too, that you don’t have to do a BPsych. There are many bachelor degrees that create a pathway to honours in Psychology. I did a BA with a double major in psychology and a minor in Sociology which also allowed me to do first year Law and Journalism. You could also do a BSc. Both of these generalist degrees are great options for a wide range of career paths, psychology, social work, physio, occupational therapy, speech pathology, teaching, etc, etc. It will depend what pathways are available at the unis your friend is interested in.

EDIT: and yes, I have seen numbers in the past, though I’ve not looked for quite some time. The increase in popularity followed the introduction of Medicare payments for Psychologists (Clinical Psychologists in particular). In order to be a Clin Psych, you must do a postgraduate degree, in order to do a postgraduate degree, you must do honours.

EDIT2: Keep in mind, medicine is only competitive because the places are so tightly capped. It’s the same for Clin Psych postgraduate degrees. The places are tightly capped, which forces up the competitiveness. For Clin Psych, it’s exacerbated by the fact that BA, BSc etc degrees often aren’t capped. So you have a potentially massive initial pool of people aiming for a handful of postgraduate places.

 

[rescuersy]

Psychology is a very good subject and profession to study at the university, not only for choosing a future profession, but also in order to understand complex life processes and mechanisms, as well as to understand people's behavior. Also studying the subject of psychology in medicine will at least help you a lot to find a common language with patients and clients and not only.

Also good psychologies articles to read before sleep every day.

 

[Kh4b1b]

What is the best pathway to take in psychology if your interest is in reading & writing, research (esp. philosophy of psychology & understanding humans), social interventions and community engagement that sort of stuff?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

What is the best pathway to take in psychology if your interest is in reading & writing, research (esp. philosophy of psychology & understanding humans), social interventions and community engagement that sort of stuff?

I did an undergraduate unit in Social Psychology as part of my initial double major so I’d look for unis that offer this sort of focus. You could then go into post graduate social psychology research (PhD, etc), and there would be employment opportunities in public health, government, policy, academia, etc. It might just take a bit of a look at the research topics on offer to guide your uni preferencing. Most unis have this info readily available online, I know I’ve looked it up previously for NSW-based unis. Good luck! It’s a super interesting area!