HELP! HELP ME CHOOSE WHAT TO STUDY NEXT YEAR!

[peachyClair]

Hello

Just finished year 1 of my degree, doing religion and Philosophy with an elective in Psychology. Now, as you may remeeber have had issues witht he Lecturere, but had a begging letter from hiom in the week asking me to take next year (would be as a joint with RPS), also have found out a minute agop that my exam results were 'exceptional'.

Questions:

1. Academically, is a single more accceptable than a joint? I wouldn't mind doing further study down the line, when financially viable;
2. If I decide not to do a PGCE year at this stage at go to get a job whren I graduate, would a Psychology but help me seem more academic than pure religion? (It's comparative religions, BTW, not Christianity)

I have no idea at thia stage which route to take; have always had a love / hate relationship with Psychology, but whereas in PRS all of us doing well, in Psychology I'm top 5%

I've chosen.

I'm doing beginners French and 19th Century literature.

Other than that........... I don't know what to say. Sorry.

Where does your heart lead you?

What do you mean by academically more acceptable?

I mean, if I wanted to do a MA or something in the future

Do what interests you most.

Either will be fine for teaching. Doesn't make enough of a difference to do something you like less for a year. if you do an ma, what do you want to do it in?

I did a degree in religion with psychology (Edinburgh, 4 yr degree). Where are you studying?

I'm at Newport

Psychology is not taught in all schools, so you will be limiting your choices of schools if you go for that. It also tends to be taugght more as an A level rather than at ks3 and 4.

If I taught, it would be RE, no question. But every course I have looked at says 50% RE - related is enough, so I guess I'd still be OKay for that. I would really like to do Psychology, BUT if in ten years we came into enough money I would like to do further study in Islam- would someojne with a joint be able? I'd still sit all the Islam modules BTW, would probably drop Hinduism.

If you wanted to do further in-depth study in Islam, wouldn't you need Arabic? Do you have it?

not sure about point 2 but I have a joint honours degree and was told at the time (going back several decades..) that a joint was better than a single as it was in effect 1.5 times the work load of a single.. and it felt like it at the time... personally would not worry about this point -- a degree is a degree - it is the subject that counts..

I can do Arabic at cardiff apparently, and my uni is developing contrmporay Islam, which would be more about Islam and integration etc. That's more my field than pure religion, iyswim.

Then that sounds like what you should go for peachyclair. I think that you should study what you love. The studying will be easier and you'll be able to do a job that you love.

I have just e-mailed my lecturer with my concerns, I think if I can iron those out (basically because they were in different schools we ended up with clashing timetables last year and I am not going down that road again) then I might do Psychology, it's OK for teaching and I suppose it would be good if I ended up working for a Union, or with Asylum seekers- or even with integration projects?

oh fantastic then.

I used to work in part with asylum seekers, refugees, people from Africa/Asia. Arabic would have been soooo useful. Sadly I took Hebrew and Ugaritic and Ancient Egyptian. Bloody lot of good that did me. Wished about 400 times I had done Arabic. I can say about 4 words of Arabic and only thanks to my clients.

LOl at Ancient Egyptian! Not an awful lot of use for that atm, I would have thought!! .

My Professors are conversant in Arabic and Sanskrit I believe, but i think the Islam chap is more into the fundamentalism / Islam today thing. He's actually quite well known, (and moving in next door- maybe I can get a lesson or two? LOL)

I DO want the PGCE, but I might have to delay until Ds's are a bit older- the hours concern me somewhat. Ideally, I'd like to work with asylum seekers in amentoring capacity (have just beena ccepted as a Uni mentor) for a few years, then either go do an adult PGCE (I'd love to teach the access course one day), or secondary.

In all seriousness, and you obviously must make up your own mind, but I work in the voluntary sector and I'd have thought Arabic/Sanskrit would be far and away preferable to psychology for a job in a union, advice centre, or whatever. Unless you're ultimately going for something like clinical psychology, which I assume you're not? IMO psychology at uni level is kind of just showing you can study, doesn't teach you much about people skills which is what you really need, but languages are a skill for which there is a real demand.

ONOH, if you want to teach at adult level, I think there is quite a lot of call for psychology A level? no?

Thanks for that, worth considering. My background is charity sector (used to be an Organiser at home tsrat, and fundraiser at Macmillan) too. I think the Psychology is handy for stats, that's a big part of the course (half) but have to admit I am not sure about the rest. I might go have a chat with uni careers- i rpesume they exist, they don't exactly promote themselves!

yeah, stats will be useful, no doubt about that.

I think they're the best bit, tbh!