What uai do i need to get into psychology (1 Viewer)

[Patricio]

I'd imagine they'd be hard to get.... but yeh, they are pretty hard to get into to start with...

eg: Dr of Clinical Psychology @ Syd Uni, 100 applicants, 45 got interviews, 10-15 got places.

 

[FLR-IT]

dam, so just a degree is physchology is hopeless?

 

[Lexicographer]

Originally posted by Patricio
lexicographer, you said something about doing psych in another thread, were you talking about psychiatry or psychology?

No I didn't. I'mlooking at Medicine moving into psychiatry, though if I end up hating med I may just end up in that new course...

 

[Lexicographer]

Originally posted by FLR-IT
dam, so just a degree is physchology is hopeless?

Hopeless? Not at all! Just bloody difficult to get in to.

 

[Lexicographer]

Originally posted by Patricio
Now USyd offers medical psychology, and within years clinical psychologists will be prescribing drugs (psychology students will do the final year/2 years in the med faculty)...

This course has really caught my interest - could you please post more information? I can't seem to find any reference to it on their website.

 

[Patricio]

nah a degree in psych isn't hopeless! It just depends what you want to do with it. I've taken electives from commerce and all sorts of faculties at uni, and psych is by far the most interesting thing I've studied so far.

Originally posted by Lexicographer
This course has really caught my interest - could you please post more information? I can't seem to find any reference to it on their website.

yeh sure, well in America, the American Psychological Association lobbied to get prescription rights for Clinical Psychologists/Doctorate level Psychologists. The American Medical Association has completely backed and supported this (which I found surprising cos they already back psychiatrists who prescribe psychotropic drugs). Military Psychologists in the US already prescribe meds. Its being trialled in New Mexico at the moment (clinical psychologists have med training at the end of their degree, and are now combining therapy with prescriptions etc there), and this will then be in place across the US (if all goes according to plan).

The psychology lecturers at UNSW have told us that generally when something happens like this, it transfers to Australia within 3-4 years (as the Aus Psychology Society is strongly affiliated with the American Psychology Association), and med training will most likely become part of the clinical psychology degree.

you won't find much on the UNSW psychology site (cos its not updated that frequently). Try this:
http://www.medfac.usyd.edu.au/divisions/info/psych.html
It doesn't say anything about this whole psychology+med thing, I just thought it was interesting they offer med psych, not psychiatry.

If you type 'US psychologists prescription rights' into google you'll get heaps of stuff on it. Try these 2 cos they're pretty good and show both sides:
http://www.psychminded.co.uk/news/news2002/0702/US psychiatrists want.htm
http://www.imshealthcanada.com/htmen/3_4_6_3.htm

 

[iambored]

Originally posted by Patricio
what kinda jobs? Well I've never heard of a psychologist who is a 'counsellor' -thats for ppl who study counselling at tafe or whatever, counselling is more about 'listening' to ppl's probs (not so much treating those probs).
For jobs, you can become a clinical, forensic, organisational psychologist (main 3), sports psychologist, criminal psychologist. Consulting is also good if you want the big $$.

ok so what do these jobs involve?

 

[Patricio]

Originally posted by iambored
ok so what do these jobs involve?

try this:
http://www.psychsociety.com.au/psych/special_areas/default.asp
and
http://www.psy.unsw.edu.au/study/careers/PsychologyOccupations.htm

when they talk about counselling and counselling psychologists on that 2nd page, its different to what 'counsellors' do - counselling psychologists resolve the client's issues, whereas general counsellors 'listen' to people's problems.

 

[pri]

Originally posted by Lexicographer
Hopeless? Not at all! Just bloody difficult to get in to.

its not thaaat hard, its just a UAI not like a UMAT test, thank god

 

[Lexicographer]

The UMAT was SO damn easy compared to getting 98 or something

 

[krakatoa]

is it hard to get a job as a psychologist?

so you have to be a master/doctor to get a job?

 

[Minai]

To be a recognised professional psychologist, I think you need to have done a 4 year undergrad psych degree (i.e with honours or with a grad diploma) and 2 years supervised experience

 

[redslert]

how is this possible?!

Patricio join date is July 2004 but he posted messages on sept 2003?!

 

[Minai]

That's certainly odd...

 

[Amryllis]

is it hard to get a job as a psychologist?

so you have to be a master/doctor to get a job?

It's not hard to get a job as a psychologist, you just gotta know where to look, coz psych jobs are often not advertised in newspapers. I heard that if you narrow down to something really specific and you go call companies up and sell yourself to them, you can get a good job like that.

To register as a psychologist, you need 4 years (including honours) + masters or 2 years supervised experience. So altogether 6 years to register.

You don't necessarily have to have masters/PhD to get a job. Many people with just the undergrad psych degree can get good jobs in things like human resources or consulting.

However, having a masters degree puts you ahead because you get practical experience (job placements - I think it's 1000 hours) at several companies throughout the masters program.

The 3 main psych masters:

- Clinical is EXTREMELY competitive to get into - you need a first class honours (high distinction average) to get in. This category is mainly the one that people think of when you think of psychology.

- Organisational - where the big money is coz you can work for large corporations. Focuses on helping "normal" populations in the workplace. Coming out of org psych masters, it's very flexible and you won't be able to find many jobs that actually look for "psychologists" specifically. But you can look at what you want to do, and sell to companies what you can offer them based on your qualifications. (I know this because I took 3rd year Behaviour in Organisations - one of the 3rd year psychology electives at UNSW).

- Forensic - combining psych and law. "Profiling" is only a tiny proportion of what forensic psychologists can do, but it's grossly misrepresented and mistaken for the main field of work because of popular TV shows.

For Org and Forensic you need at least a 2nd class, 1st division honours to get in.

If you do a PhD, it will be focussed on one particular field of interest and therefore will be much more in depth and narrow, compared to masters. The traditional type of work from a PhD degree is working at university - lecturing, tutoring, researching...

 

[jm1234567890]

how is this possible?!

Patricio join date is July 2004 but he posted messages on sept 2003?!

his last post is on 7th july 2004 and his join date is 8th july 2004 :/

i think the database is having problems.

 

[wrong_turn]

well say if you do a combined degree of psychology/law, then its almost impossible to get a masters in psychology??

i want to go into either uow, anu or macq. so can anyone explain this to me??

 

[Amryllis]

I don't know about other unis.. But I think the general thing is to do your honours in psychology, and then you can apply for masters.

 

[stazi]

at usyd it seems that you don't need too much maths knowledge. you don't really have to do 'maths' courses for psych, although stats is taught withing psych. Pretty simple stats as well.

 

[Sarah]

at usyd it seems that you don't need too much maths knowledge. you don't really have to do 'maths' courses for psych, although stats is taught withing psych. Pretty simple stats as well.

I wouldn't say 3rd yr stats in psych is easy. Perhaps at USyd it is but at UNSW, from what i've heard there's a big difference between 2nd and 3rd year statistics. I know people who are doing 3rd yr stats in psych and they struggled through it.

Also, in UNSW's B Psych, you do 3 stats courses in total. B Science (Psych) you do 2 with the option of doing another stats course as an elective.