Question about psychology at UWS (1 Viewer)

thiri

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Hi all,
I was wondering if there is anyone who is currently doing Bachelor of Psychology or Bachelor of Arts with a key program in Psychology at UWS and if you are doing either, how are you finding it? And also does any one have any idea how this course compares with the psychology degrees offered at UNSW, USYD and MQ?

Hope someone can help me =)
 

dolbinau

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I can't source this, or verify this, but apparently the psychology rankings are

UNSW
v
MQ
v
USYD/UWS

Heard from around this forum.
 

ambermorn

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I'm doing Arts, majoring in Psychology. I was also offered a BA place at Macquarie but turned it down as I found the program as UWS more straight forward than Mac's and have a mentor who has just completed the same degree at UWS (applying for honours currently).

If you're looking to combine Psychology with other areas of study (such as Sociology like I'm doing, or Education, History, Politics, Philosophy, English or any other area of study in the Arts program), it's easy to major or sub major in additional areas in a BA(Psych) program.

The BPsych is a 4 year program with the 4th year being similar to a post grad diploma of Psychology. BA(Psych) is a 3 year program and you will need to complete honours or a post grad diploma to be able to get that 4th year for APA accreditation. To get into honours or a PGD you need a minimum credit average.

I also have a friend doing BA(Psych) at Mac and one doing BPsych at UNSW. I went away on holidays with the UNSW friend, compared notes and found we had learned a lot of similar concepts in first year. I think she did subjects like Psych A and B and Applied Psych or something? I'll have to ask. She also had to choose one arts subject and one science subject for her electives, from memory. She chose political subjects I think.

The BA(Psych) friend at Mac did stats in her first year and two introductory psych subjects and some arts I think? At UWS, you do all of your core BA subjects in the first year and concentrate on your major in second and third year (you do 2 subjects in your major in first year which are introductory psych ones called Human Behaviour and Behavioural Science). UWS does stats in second and third year (although BPsych starts their stats in first year I think, I have a friend in that course too but I barely speak to her anymore). So yeah in short, all degrees are pretty comparable in subject matter in first year,

How am I enjoying my course? It's bloody fantastic! Have loved the subjects so far and can't wait to start the new semester (I'm doing Developmental Psych with little kids which will be fun, Biopsych and Personality, Motivation and Emotion). So far I have above a credit average which is awesome as I aim to complete honours so I can practice clinically. Never had a problem with the facilities at UWS and the school of psych is pretty strong there too (no matter what the "prestige" snobs think).

I hope that helps give an insight! If you have any more questions please ask. Sorry the post is all over the place lol.
 

thiri

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Hi amber,
Thanks for your insightful reply. I'm surprised that the course material is pretty much the same because I've heard that psych at USYD or UNSW is dry and boring etc etc and I was very interested in UWS because the course description emphasises that their course is 'vocational'.
What year are you at the moment?
Can you tell me how the stats is like?
If you are enjoying your course, I guess it must be interesting.
I don't understand why the 'prestige' factor is so important to some people. Do employers really care what uni you went to as long as you did well and you seem like a competent and capable prospective employee??
 

ambermorn

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Yeah, some parts of introductory psych subjects can be very dry, but some parts are very interesting such as Social Psych, Psychopathology, Developmental and stuff like that. The lecturers and tutors really help to liven things up with real world examples and interactive lectures with videos and stuff, so I'm guessing that's where the vocational part comes in.

I've just completed first year with a credit average. I haven't started the stats subjects (Survey design and analysis and Advanced survey design and analysis) but there was some introductory stats rolled into the first year psych subjects (like how to do a Chi square, recognising skewed histograms...don't worry if you don't recognise these terms because they walk you through them really slowly in tutes!). I also did stats at TAFE which helped in getting me ahead.

In the first year psych subjects, they teach you how to reference in APA style and write essays and research reports in APA format (this is assessed). There's also 5% research participation (where older students basically use you as a guinea pig in studies lol) and 60% in a multiple choice exam (which is a lot harder than it sounds because all the answers look the same!)

As well as the psych subjects, I have done all my core BA subjects: Contemporary Society (basically everyday sociology, studying gender, socioeconomics, government structures etc), Media and Visual Cultures (analyzing movies, photos, artwork), Australia and the World (history of Australia and relationships with other countries) and Texts and Traditions (analyzing well known texts by Plato, Kafka, Shakesphere, Wordsworth etc etc). Then you have your two electives to do a sub major or anything you find interesting.

As for the prestige factor, as long as you perform well (which to get into honours you should be :p), I see no problem. My sister graduated with distinction in her undergrad from UWS, now she's received a scholarship to do her PhD, first class honours and has just been published academically for the first time. So as long as you get good marks, you'll be fine (and this is the same at any uni, if you don't perform well at USyd, the brand name wont save your poor marks).

Whichever uni you choose, good luck. I've heard great things from each of my friends at UNSW, UWS and Mac, so it's all up to you!
 

musik_junky

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dolbinau said:
I can't source this, or verify this, but apparently the psychology rankings are

UNSW
v
MQ
v
USYD/UWS

Heard from around this forum.
Are you sure about this? I'm pretty sure it goes

MQ
v
UWS
v
UNSW
v
Usyd

Sydney uni is pretty bad for psychology. Macquarie is the best. My lecturer told me that the UWS psych graduates are the 2nd highest paid after MQ.
 

ambermorn

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Yeah, both the schools of Psychology at MQ and UWS are pretty strong. But people will always want to go to Sydney for the "oldness" of their school and the sandstone buildings lol - that aint my thing.
 

dolbinau

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musik_junky said:
Are you sure about this? I'm pretty sure it goes

MQ
v
UWS
v
UNSW
v
Usyd

Sydney uni is pretty bad for psychology. Macquarie is the best. My lecturer told me that the UWS psych graduates are the 2nd highest paid after MQ.
That could very well be right, again I just go with the 'gist' I get from this forum.
 

Wooz

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dolbinau said:
I can't source this, or verify this, but apparently the psychology rankings are

UNSW
v
MQ
v
USYD/UWS

Heard from around this forum.
Uws still has problems for first year psyc, but it's no where as bad as other uni's atm.
 

Aprilpeters

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dolbinau said:
That could very well be right, again I just go with the 'gist' I get from this forum.
UNSW psychology department is currently ranked number 1 in Australia.
 

Samuel O.

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Hey Amber, wondering how your course is going now (Just reading this). Also, are those core subjects core at the other unis?
 

ambermorn

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It's still going well, though my enthusiasm has dropped given I have exams all of next week haha. The School of Psych has recently introduced changes to the degree, some Psych core subjects have been "split into two" and are now covered more in depth, but some "interesting" subjects like Neuropsych have been discontinued sadly.

According to the School of Psych, this has been done to satistfy APA requirements and strengthen the degree. I can't really comment on the changes of the degree until I begin the new subjects next year, it doesn't seem too bad in theory but having the change halfway through my degree is a little stressful!

Also one of the BA cores, Media and Visual Cultures, has been dropped in favour for Analytical Reading and Writing. While I haven't done this subject (I wanted to take it but it wasn't offered at the time), I know others who have and found it really useful for developing critical thinking and the ability to frame a good argument, so the skills learned would be very useful in other subjects.

The BA cores wouldn't be offered as cores at other universities, as they'd have different structures as to what subjects to take and what is compulsory, but I'm sure that they'd have equivalent subjects there.

As for the strength of the School of Psych in Wollongong, I believe it's a very good school from hearsay. I have an old mate down there who has a double major in psych and HR management, which I wish I could do as I'm interested in going into HR depending on how next year goes.
 

isjongood

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I just finished my third year and sitting pretty for entry to honours. What do I think of psych at UWS? Well, from it's international reputation it's a highly regarded course and the psych department is probably one of the best at the uni, there are a central core of passionate psych lecturers (which you probably won't really see till second year) that really, in my case at least motivate and interest you in psychology.

The best units? To me, logical thinking, neuroscience, the stats units (very fun), History and philosophy of psychology (any science degree should teach the fundamentals of "clear thinking"). The worst? I chose some bad electives, I would recommend against Crime and Criminology and Information processing. As for the cores, well I didn't like abnormal psych mainly because there was too much material to learn, there's two textbooks one for psych disorders the other for stats and test theory. It sort of felt like the unit had dissociative personality disorder :read:.

The easiest? Well I can't really answer that, getting a hd in any unit is hard, it depends mostly on your ability to give your tutors what they want (not that easy) sometimes you will be disappointed but you have to learn from that for the next time, don't blame others even if it is the case, instead think hard "how can I beat this tutor?" it worked for me.

I can tell you some of the hardest however, some units involve lots of memorising, especially neuroscience but also environmental psychology. He also tends to have some hard exams (neuroscience this semesters had two essays) but the material is interesting. Some of the biology units may be a little hard for someone without science experience (chemistry/ biology) which I've seen drag some down. In those units don't panic, just apply yourself, look at the material you don't understand, look it up on google, youtube anything until you do understand.

For me the first year was pretty challenging, mainly due to nerves and thinking
"well its the big time now, how can I possibly succeed?" but that passes the first assessment you get a d for. The second year is really like a sandwiched year between two significant years, the first and the third. But it is very important to get good marks here, firstly to make up for usually poorer results in first year but to also set yourself up for entry into the fourth year.

Second year units build on those of first year b psych, b arts will be doing some new stuff. Third year is a bit of a grind, if your like me and want to get into honours, get a phd than you will be thinking about that honours proposal alot, however the amount of assessment at this stage is cranked up and your spare time goes down the drain.

The worst semester for me was the last for third year, it feels like I just wanted it over with and get on with the honours, I call it third year burnout. However don't let my experience dictate your actions, try hard in third year, be consistent, the material is still interesting.

On a different note life at UWS is interesting, there are a wide variety of people from all different cultures and nationalities. In my course at least there are some very dedicated and intelligent people whom I am proud to work with, however there are always a lot of underachievers initially, but they get filtered out over the years, so don't get discouraged about your degree when you see a few 'idiots' walking in and out of lectures (if they attend lectures) and talking about how "dreamy Edward is" during bio tutes.

Social life at UWS is what you make of it, you can make lots of friends or be a bit of a shut in concentrating on studies (like me:p ) people with negative attitudes can get you down, (the whole UWS sucks thing) but it's important to overlook this attitude, which stems from a sense of entitlement ("I am much better than everyone here") and self depreciation imparted from North shore snobbery ("Westies are pathetic, bogan idiots"). Overlook these people, or if you can tell them to look at the uni differently, it's an opportunity to show what western sydney can do.

The clubs at UWS are sparse and shitty (bible study anyone?) but this is mainly the fault of student negative attitude causing melange or laziness towards association with the uni. Coupled with a poor student association that spends most of its time protesting about anything and yelling at walls about parking the result is stunted social facilities. I would hope this would change, but don't hold your breath, try starting your own club, the uni will probably fund you (through the student association).

Anywho, its important to keep in mind that whilst UWS has a lower entry requirement it really aims to filter out underachievers latter on, so work hard don't think low uai/ atar means shit easy work. It means "I will have to compete with alot of people, and prove my self"

To close my rabid UWS fueled rant, there's no reason not to choose UWS if it is convenient for you for psych, it is well connected internationally and the job prospects are very good.


Oh and go to Bankstown....

EDIT: I didn't realize how old this thread was, sorry for the necromancy......
 
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ambermorn

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Yes I agree, Bankstown is the better psych campus! More units to choose from there (Penrith will have even less next year...).

Oddly I really enjoyed stats too! Did you have Tony Jinks isjongood? He's a very clear lecturer.

It is sad that Neuro and History and Phil of Psych are discontinued in the new degree structure, but the new units should be more in depth and concentrated (no more "double" subjects with DPD!)
 

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Guys, please steer clear of 'psychology', its not a proper science. If you're interested in the brain study chemistry/bio then move onto neuroscience., if you're not interested in this then don't study science go do arts or something.
 

isjongood

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Guys, please steer clear of 'psychology', its not a proper science. If you're interested in the brain study chemistry/bio then move onto neuroscience., if you're not interested in this then don't study science go do arts or something.
ha, here we go. Please outline your argument.... I'll get back to you soon enough about why your argument is dated and false.

EDIT: I had Adelle for stats, she was also very clear :)
 

schtrevey

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isjongood, what's psychology like? I just finished year 12 and I've always been interested in looking at the psychology courses. Is it important to do any science subjects in year 12? I'm interested in the human mind and behaviour, but I'm afraid I won't enjoy it. Any tips?
 

ambermorn

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^ I did biology in my senior years, which certainly helped when doing biological psychology. Maths is good too, as there can be some tricky stats involved.

If you're concerned that you're undertaking psych without these subjects, the student learning centre offers bridging courses (usually one day or a couple of evenings) in various subjects, including how to reference, research skills. I'm pretty sure I've seen maths bridgers offered when I looked at it before first year.

If you're interested in the human mind, then go for it! The worst case scenario you could have is deciding you don't like it and transfer into a new course (and try to claim subjects you have done as elective credits)

Isjongood, ahhh I've never had Adelle! You must be at Bankstown, I don't think I've seen her teach at Penrith?
 

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