People who studied psychology.. please look (1 Viewer)

[pigas]

I am still in year 11 however after school I have been thinking to study to become a clinical psychologist. I have been looking at universities and I am a little bit confused..

I was looking at maquarie university, and it says:

"Continuation with the honours year is subject to meeting honours admission requirements. Should a student not meet the requirements, they will graduate with a BA or BSc of Psychology."

So then if I do their psychology course and not get the requirements for honours, what would I have to do to become a clinical psychologist? What path did you take to become a clinical psychologist?
I am also looking at Uni of Western Sydney, however my goal is to get at least into Maquarie.

Thanks.

 

[-may-cat-]

Hi there, if you want to become a registered psychologist you must undertake an honours year.

What a lot of people don't understand is that you don't need to do a degree with 'honours' in the title to take your honours year.

Honours is usually a separate thing from the undergraduate degree, however in these 'honours degrees' like the B. Psych (Hons) the honours year is actually built into the undergraduate degree.

That said, just being in an honours degree doesn't guarantee you entrance to the built in honours year, you still have to meet the requirements - exactly the same as if you were taking a separate honours year after doing something like a BA or BSci majoring in Psychology. If you don't meet the requirements for the built in honours year you cannot graduate from a B. Psych (Hons.) because the degree requires an honours year by definition. As a result you graduate with a BA or BSci, without honours.

Also, this does not mean that people taking a BA or BSci majoring in Psychology cannot become registered psychologists, they simply take their honors year separately from their undergraduate degree.

You may find the following site useful: http://www.psych.usyd.edu.au/future_students/becoming_reg_psychologist.shtml

 

[pigas]

thank you ^.^ however there is one thing I'm still not sure about - so if I need an honours degree, but I don't meet the requirements, does that mean I can't go on to become a clinical psychologist? Sorry maybe I misunderstood you.. I want to be a clinical psychologist and it says I need to do honours but what would I have to do if I don't meet the requirements? is that it, I just can't do it?

 

[flashyGoldFish]

Pretty self explanatory.
Dont meet honours requirements. Dont get into honours. An if you need honours to do what you want but you cant get an honours, its pretty obvious.

 

[-may-cat-]

thank you ^.^ however there is one thing I'm still not sure about - so if I need an honours degree, but I don't meet the requirements, does that mean I can't go on to become a clinical psychologist? Sorry maybe I misunderstood you.. I want to be a clinical psychologist and it says I need to do honours but what would I have to do if I don't meet the requirements? is that it, I just can't do it?

Pretty much, if you don't undertake a fourth (honours) year of study you cannot be accredited by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council.

I think you can undertake a Graduate Diploma in Psychology as a fourth year of study in the place of honours, however i don't know much about it. The most common path is honours.

 

[pigas]

Ok thanks for your help

 

[Kat92]

I am still in year 11 however after school I have been thinking to study to become a clinical psychologist. I have been looking at universities and I am a little bit confused..

I was looking at maquarie university, and it says:

"Continuation with the honours year is subject to meeting honours admission requirements. Should a student not meet the requirements, they will graduate with a BA or BSc of Psychology."

So then if I do their psychology course and not get the requirements for honours, what would I have to do to become a clinical psychologist? What path did you take to become a clinical psychologist?
I am also looking at Uni of Western Sydney, however my goal is to get at least into Maquarie.

Thanks.

I don't know about the aforementioned uni's that you have listed.

Although, this is what my friend's uni says: You will need to meet standards set by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council to enter into fourth year. If you have successfully completed first, second and third year but have not met the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council standards, you will be eligible to graduate with a Bachelor of Psychological Science.

As for the other pathways there could perhaps be another BA course or the Graduate Diploma as Maycat has mentioned and then you may need to do a Postgrad course- although it is best to contact the actual uni and speak to someone about your intentions.

 

[ag12]

Here's the deal. If you want to do clinical psych you need an APAC (acting for the Psychology Board of Australia) accredited Honours degree. This will allow you (subject to getting on the course) either on to a Masters or doctorate in Clin Psych, which will take 2-3 years, followed by 2 or 1 year of supervised practice. Then you can practice as a psychologist with an area of endorsement (your speciality) in clinical Psych. If you get a 3-year major in Psych (e.g. BSc or BA) or any 3-year accredited degree (e.g. BPsychSc - see the APAC website - google APAC and psych) then this qualifies you to proceed to an honours degree (1 more year) if you get onto honours. Honours is competitive at many Unis, but getting a 3-year degree at one Uni does not stop you going on to get an honours degree (1-year stand-alone) at another Uni. So you can do a major in Psych in a BA at UNSW, then if you don't get into Hons there, you can do Hons somewhere else. Pretty much any 3-year Psych degree will get you into a position where you can get into Hons, if you do well enough. So you can get into Hons e.g. via BA, BSc, BPsycSc, BAdvSc and BPsych (the last two are usually 4-year Hons degrees, but if you don't qualify for Hons, you transfer to one of the 3-year degrees and qualify without Hons - but you can apply and do Hons elsewhere). It makes no difference which way you get into Hons - so if you wanted to do Psych at a good Uni then you should look at all offerings that get you there - for example at UNSW you could get into BPsych with ATAR 98, BAdvSc, 95, BPsychSc 87, BSc 83, BA 80. The core Psych of all these degrees is the same and you have the same opportunity to get into Hons. The only diff between the routes is what else you do with the core Psych stuff that is accredited. There is no rule about the name of the degree meaning one thing or another, no rules about getting into Hons by different routes or anything. You do the accredited 3-year bit, then the Hons year (wherever), then go on to Clin Psych. All competitive, but that's part of the fun. Best of luck.

 

[Tyrrell Montana]

I can't speak for Griffith itself, but I can tell you a little about psychology itself.

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