WWYD: OU Psych, ‘Vocational’ study, or just get a job and get on with it?

[Lavenderboo]

Sorry, bit long and rambling.

My DS is 3 months old and I?m going round in circles what direction to go in with my life when maternity leave ends.

I should have done a psychology degree (or at least something in mental health), as I love the subject but took bad advice and ended up doing a humanities degree, which to be honest never got me anywhere. So I decided to change tact and completed 2 courses of the OU psych conversion course.

I have put in a massive amount of effort and time to boost my chances of getting into a good phd course by doing loads of volunteer work in the counselling sector and did a shadow placement with a psychologist, and did a horrible, poorly paid job in children?s social care to get more background knowledge of the sector, make contacts etc.

However, the OU recently announced that the conversion course had to be completed by 2013 because the previous government decided in their wisdom to stop funding the OU?s conversion courses. I feel the rug has been pulled out from under me and would never have begun the course if I knew it was going to have a limited deadline. Truly depressing.

The OU advised I could transfer to the full psych degree, which I feel a bit resentful about as I?ve done my penance with a full degree and think they should have said this when I signed up.

Do I go hell for leather and try and finish the conversion course with a young baby, and risk getting a low mark and not getting BPS eligibility, and missing out on spending time with DS? I struggled with the last course?s exam because I was pregnant (though didn?t know at the time. Bloody morning sickness!).

Should I ditch the OU and train as a counsellor rather than counselling psychologist?
Or should I forget about studying ? its not exactly served me well so far.

Funds are limited now as are my partner?s patience with me stressing with essays and exams, and poor jobs.

All this and a little DS?I must be mad but all advice appreciated.

How many points have you got left for the conversion course? You seem to have already put in a huge amount of work towards your plans so it seems a shame to stop completely.

The only extra course you have to do for the full degree is SD226 Biological Psychology which is a 30 point level 2 course with no exam. A lot of people do this overlapping with other courses.

What courses have you done?

If you're bordering on the line of not getting a good enough mark to get BPS eligibility then you aren't going to get onto a PhD anyway, no matter how much work experience you have. There are thousands of psychology graduates fighting over very few post grad places.

If it's a counsellor you want to be then maybe you'd be better with a specific counselling course/qualification.

Thanks for your replies.

Ive done the child development course which everyone found a bit dull and Ive got 2 level 3 courses (60 points each) and a residential course left to do on the conversion.

What bothers me is managing studying while caring for DS. How do other people manage this and get good enough grades to progress onto MA/ phds?

At what point am I you just studying for its own sake if the aim is boast job prospects?

I agree there is no point in pursuing academic routes if I can't get onto a phd and yes, it might be better to go down the more practical path and seek counselling courses out.

It does seem a shame to give up. Im hoping that some of what Ive done so far can be transfered for whatever I chose....

It is possible to do the conversion course part time at several universities -
you need to have studied some psychology (the child development course would be enough). Perhaps this would be an option when your DS is a bit older. A 60 point level 3 course and a young baby is only for the very foolish brave! The Open university does offer its own MAs, I'm currently studying for the Psychological Research Methods one. Unfortunately you can't get BPS registration from the Masters courses you still need the required undergraduate courses.