Is it too late for me to study psychology at Uni?

[Inappropriatefemale]

Hi

I am 38 years old and will be 39 by the time the new term at University starts, I am currently studying Beauty Therapy at college and I started in January of this year.

Whilst I am enjoying the course then I have realised that I actually don’t want to work in the world of beauty, I feel that there are far too many beauty therapists nowadays and I don’t know how they can all possibly make money, in Edinburgh alone then there are so many and lots of salons on the same main roads so what really makes one stand out from the next, the next course up from the one I am doing is makeup artistry or beauty therapy and I want to do neither, you can go on Facebook and see all the women that advertise makeup yet they don’t have the actual qualification so are self taught and call themselves members or MUA.

My true passion is psychology, I absolutely love it and especially criminology, I feel that I want to be absolutely true to myself and study something that would make me very happy and it’s something I am pretty good at, understanding others I mean, I often get asked for advice from friends and I think I give pretty good advice and I can always see both sides of an argument, which one of my friends doesn’t like but there are 2 sides to an argument so it is what it is.

I am unsure about how long I would need to study and so can anyone here tell me how long a psychology degree would take? As I say I am 38 and I don’t have much time left to change careers, I don’t have a partner so I have zero financial support, money is my worry if I study for 4+ years but I want to be proud of myself and believe me when I say I haven’t done many things in the past 10 years that I am proud of, I feel like I will always regret it if I don’t do it and I feel like I am wasting time going this beauty course, I like makeup etc but I don’t want a career or even a job in it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[bottleofbeer]

Yep, if statistics scare you give it serious thought! They terrify me

I'm finishing up my dissertation now and yesterday I was about to throw myself headlong out of the window writing my results up.

[LittleDragonGirl]

I completed a psych degree as a mature student and got a 1st, but I love statistics and did advanced stats as a masters and am hoping to do a phd and go into research.
But many of my friends did struggle hugely with psychology due to its mathematical and statistical elements, and not going to lie to anyone, they are not easy and can require a lot of time to get your head around. The only reason I enjoyed stats was because I spent weeks reading and learning about them along side completing the work using them.
I remember when I went to do Access to HE, and they basically told everyone who applied that if they weren't strong at maths, or really really struggled to go onto the social care pathway rather then psychology.
It's also not a easy degree to walk into a job with as ultimately a psychology degree alone does not provide you with a career although often the skills can be transferable into other sectors and I have known some graduates to get successful jobs in marketing departments etc.
If you want to go into forensic psychology (prison service, police) then you at least need a accredited degree and a accredited forensic psychology masters.
If you want to go Into clinical practice (assessment, psychotherapy) then you need a accredited degree, and either a clinical masters and clinical doctorate, or if you lucky to go straight onto doctorate, but it usually requires some years of experience which is increasingly hard to get.
Likewise educational psychologists (schools, children) require a professional doctorate and follow a similar pattern to clinical to qualify.
I'm not sure on counselling, but I know my local university does a accredited psychology and counselling degree which gives you the accreditation for psychology and the basic counselling qualification which can then be topped up with a counselling masters which BCAP qualifies you to practice as a qualified counsellor. But qualifying as a counsellor is hard as it requires a certain number of observed practice hours and personal reflection (going to counselling yourself). But I know some people who are on the counselling and psychology degree and they have said that they personally preferred it as it gives much more rounded knowledge on psychological issues rather then doing a pure counselling degree

[nakedavengerreturns]

@bottleofbeer quite right. My law degree was so so much easier than my psychology one!

[bottleofbeer]

Oh yeah, psychology has a bit of a chuckling behind the hands element like it's bollocks.

It is very, very hard. Seriously, if someone got a decent psych degree they are far from stupid.

[Milnes94]

As someone who has a criminology and psychology degree, Ive found it near impossible to get a job with anything remotely to do with it. If i were to go back i'd definitely pick something more practical e.g. nursing. Im a support worker on a ward now and they have students of all ages and staff are very supportive.

[pinkdressinggown]

OP, I think you've decided that a counselling course is the way to go over Psychology and I think that's the right choice. I would just add that you'd be in a stronger position if you applied for an accredited course, not just any counselling course.

The accredited courses mean that they are recognised by various companies who you might want to be employed by (e.g., NHS and most charities only employ people who have done accredited courses) and even if you want to do counselling privately, most people choose to have therapy from an accredited counsellor - they can search for one on a database and know that they have had the proper training. Sorry if you already know that - I don't mean to be patronising!

I would suggest finding out what type of counselling you would like to do and then find out who the registering body is for that type. Once you know that then you can search on their website for accredited courses and apply (you probably want to look at BACP - British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).

Anyway - good luck! I definitely don't think it's too late to retrain!

[Northernsoullover]

I just wanted to say you are never too old to do a degree. I'll be 49 when I graduate. I did it for employability too not just for the experience. Good luck.

[LittleDragonGirl]

you can also do a undergraduate degree in psychology and counselling again I know my local university offers one, so would assume others do to

[LittleDragonGirl]

Regarding your interest in crime, the local university to me (midlands) runs psychology and criminology, and forensic psychology degrees and friends have mentioned they do full modules on the forensic/criminology element each year and have really enjoyed.

[LittleDragonGirl]

Its never too late!

I have/had friends the same age and older then yourself who have completed a degree in psychology.

If you have no formal qualifications and can't afford to do a access to HE course then it is more then likely you will be required to do a foundation year with your degree. A lot of my friends have done psychology degrees at the same age with no previous formal qualifications and have done a foundation year, which they found useful as it brought them up to speed before starting level 4 (first year of undergrad)

[titnomatani]

I'm a psychologist OP. My initial degree took 3 years+3 years work experience in my chosen field (minimum requirement is two)+3 years doctorate (there's stiff competition for funded posts at the select universities that run them- for my course, there were 64 people applying for each of the 12 available places). A career in Psychology shouldn't be considered as a means of earning lots of money (it's not as lucrative as others out there). As for age, I'm a firm believer that it's never too late to do anything you really want to do. On my course, there was a lady in her late 50s who'd changed careers. She was amazing and her life experiences gave her (and the rest of us) massive insight into some of the topics covered on our course. Follow your dream.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I am a mature student doing a Psychology degree and there is very minimal content on crime. It is a very broad degree that touches on all areas of psychology (there are a lot) in quite a shallow way. There is a huge focus on statistics and research methods.

I did one and the maths was HARD. I had an A level in maths and struggled. It's a science. And the statistics!!!

If you're interested in people there are many subjects better suited. I know you don't fancy SW but child protection is such a tiny part of it. I never took anyone's children away and neither did any of my SW friends. You do get used to saying, when someone asks what you do, "social worker but not child protection" really quickly.

[nakedavengerreturns]

Hi OP I have a Psychology degree. I'm going to be honest. It's damn hard, intellectually demanding and there's is loads of very hard maths in statistics. A psy degree gets you nowhere in terms of a job but is a step along the line to being a psychologist which is even harder, very very competitive and you will be earning little to nothing for years.

After 6 years of getting nowhere with my psy degree I did my law conversion and am now a lawyer.

Please also note that psychology isn't much about what you have said you are interested in. It's a science and you seem to be more interested in the human help side. Have you considered doing a course in therapy or counselling? Less stringent entry requirements (unfortunately due to lack of regulation) cheaper and quicker but less job prospects.

[Ilady]

I know a lady who has a psychology degree and a master's. She worked in that area for a number of years and she now lectures. She knows someone who did a degree, master's and PhD in psychology and they got a poor paying job after all that. It took this person about a further 2 years to get a better paying job. The lady I know advised one of her children not to go apply for psychology as she knew the long term prospect s were not good even with a master's.
I would consider going towards general or mental health nursing as they would both give you job options after 3 to 4 years. Also most nursing student s can get work as care assistant s when doing their degree.

[bottleofbeer]

You can do loads with a crim degree..psych not so much.

[Inappropriatefemale]

Oh no to social work, I have dealt with social work myself due to my daughter and drug addiction and I don’t want to work in a field where I may possibly have to remove someone’s child, I just couldn’t, I know there other areas of social work to get into but generally they aren’t very well liked from many folks and I cannot do yet another job where I’m disliked simply because of what I do to make a living, I would probably be pretty good at it though considering all my life experience and so many social workers just learned from a text book and imho that’s not enough in certain situations.

[Inappropriatefemale]

Yeah I am going to do Advice, Guidance and Counselling again and this time I will finish it as I enjoyed it a lot and it will stimulate me in the way that beauty doesn’t, I seem to be the only one in the class that prefers the writing over putting on makeup, it would be great to know how to put makeup on professionally but I don’t want a career in it, for some reason these types of jobs have sky rocketed over the past few years, and unless your simply brilliant at it then I can’t see them all making decent money, far too much competition.

I have been through so much in my life with drugs, domestic violence, sex work, homelessness and so at least I’ll know what I’m talking about if/when I counsel people, or whatever it is that I’ll end up doing, so many folks have no first hand experience of drug addiction etc and they go to college/uni and learn from a text book and give their advice and unless they know what these things are actually like personally, then how can they possibly advise to the best that their client needs.

I will finish this current course I’m doing in beauty though as college is doing wonders for my self esteem and it’s best to finish what I started, though I can’t honestly see college opening again until after the summer.

Thanks for your advice.

[MrsCVorFluWhoKnows]

Yes would definitely advise Mental Health Nursing as a better option. Psychology you are looking at doing a degree (4yrs in Scotland) plus a Postgraduate specialism to get towards a job, very competitive.

If you are strong natured, good with people and unflappable, what about Social Work?

[DuesToTheDirt]

Psychology degrees don't have great job prospects. I think you'd be better looking at it the from the other side - what job do you want to do and what qualifications do you need to achieve that.

[cinammonbuns]

I meant mental health nursing is 3 years

[cinammonbuns]

From what you’ve said I would say mental health nursing would be a way better route than psychology. Most young people who do psychology do not get a job related to it and very low earning prospects for that course unless you do the degree then masters then PhD which could take 10 years.
You have said you aren’t interested in that.
Whereas mental health nursing is 2 years as far as I know, heavily psychology focused and if you passed you would be almost guaranteed an NHS job.

Also you would be able to receive a bursary as someone upthread said.

You would have to do a btech course I believe to get into the mental health nursing course though which would take a year or two.

[Inappropriatefemale]

I have a spare bedroom so I’m going to look into renting it out for extra money, that will help me massively.

[Inappropriatefemale]

Yeah psychology would be easier if I was younger but I don’t fancy being in my mid 40s before any decent career kicks off, no thanks, and especially as I am alone and would have nobody to help support me, sometimes it’s awful doing it all on your own all the time.

[Inappropriatefemale]

Yes I was told that many years would be taken up for psychology and I just can’t do this as it means many more years of making money in ways I don’t want too, I just wasn’t sure that my friend had the right information about studying psychology.

Human behaviour is an absolute favourite thing of mine and then writing is second, I will have to accept that psychology is just a subject I am interested in without me having to work in the field.

Funnily enough I started an Advice, Guidance and Counselling Course back in 2005 and this is exactly when I got into escorting, I was totally skint and so did what many others have done before me and started working, I ended up favouring making money rather than studying and I lost my place on the course as my attendance was shocking, I was 24 back then and thought I had all the time in the world to have a decent career yet here I am...

I loved A, G+C and there was sociology and psychology as 2 of the main subjects and I loved them and I was really pretty good at them. I think when college reopens then I will apply for that course, it will start this Aug/September but finish the course I’m on now.

[Beamur]

It's great to have aspirations and there are various possible avenues.
One slightly less positive note though, psychology has become hugely popular and consequently very competitive to get into a good university to study. Postgraduate is even fiercer.
My DSD is a psychology postgraduate, is an excellent student, but it's taken her 6 years of study and relevant work experience, £50k of debt to finally land her first full time assistant Psychologist job.
It's not fast, easy or cheap.
Her Mum strongly advised her to consider mental health nursing as it's a really good alternative and one of the few courses that attracts a bursary.
Good luck!