Psychology?

marieboyle

Anyone doing undergrad psychology? opinions please

How big are the classes? what's the course like? what are the exams like? is there a lot of essays? alot of maths? is making friends hard if you don't know anyone? is there tutorials?

Musefan

Hi,

did my undergrad in psychology in UCD. I'm a current postgrad there too. Classes can tend to be big (50+). You will get a chance to meet people at psychsoc events, at the beginning of the year luncheon & during small group labs.
There are quite a few essays and a good bit of maths. Lecturers are EXCELLENT, cannot stress that enough, so you will generally find the work challenging, but there is plenty of support. UCD as far as I know, are one of the few psychology departments who study statistics through computation by hand, rather than using the standard computer program (SPSS). You will get enough experience of SPSS in third year however. Doing the maths part by hand is extremely beneficial, as you can really understand what's going on with data compared to students of other courses. There is a strong focus on research within the department, which will stand to you when applying for further study. It's an excellent department, there is always someone to turn to for help with an assignment or a chat in general.

marieboyle

Thanks, that was really helpful

gruenchen

Can only agree with Musefan, doing my undergrad at the moment, as mature student and I'm loving it. I personally don't have much time to be really involved in college life as in societies etc but others are and they really seem to enjoy it, many modules have group work aspects where u get to know people also.
Since its part of the arts degree u can choose some other modules you're interested in for first year. There is a wide range of classes u can choose from https://myucd.ucd.ie/programme_info/psychology.ezc
good luck

[Jackass]

Don't let me put you off, as it's not my main area of interest, I'm an Economics student, but thought I would do a couple of psych modules in first year as I thought they would be interesting - also one was statistics, so I thought there'd be no harm in doing a module in that as I would be doing statistics in second year Econ, so get a bit of a head start on it when it doesn't matter (as 1st year grades aren't included in your final degree mark).

How wrong I was, I did applied psychology that from what I can remember, was a total disappointment, I mean if you're majoring in psychology I suppose it's ok, but personally I thought it was extremely boring and surprisingly technical, and as for stats, that was a complete disastor for me. I thought the way she taught the stuff was pretty poor and this was confirmed in second year when I did the Econ stats course that covers the exact same content (generic statistics) and it was a complete breeze once explained properly.

Maybe my own personal experiences are different as it was just curiosity that I took the modules, but I was very surprised at how much I disliked it.

honru

If you only did Applied Psychology and Research Methods and Stats I I can understand why you would be disappointed. I didn't take Applied Psychology but I haven't heard good things about it, and I would recommend not taking Research Methods and Stats I unless you are aiming to take Psychology as a minor (it is a core module for direct entry students).