Psychology Honours (1 Viewer)

[Stipe Pletikosa]

Hello all, i hope you can help.

My sister recently got accepted into honours. She is in her fourth year now and has the marks to get her into the honours course at macqaurie.

The thing is she is quiet lazy. I mean she will always work hard, but seems to look for the easy way out. In this case, its ment that she is looking to leave honours and go straight into the work force.

Of course its caused a huge talking point in the family. We all beleive that after working hard to get this far she should take the extra step and join the workforce and work in the field of organisational psychology. To be honest she just doesn't want to write a thesis.

So what i ask is, what do use all think? Is it worth doing honours or is she doing the right thing by just joining the workforce? What benefit will an honours degree get her? Has anyone been in a similar position? What would you recomend?

Sorry for all the questions but its really causing a debate in the family. She is trying to tell us its pointless and gives you no advantage what so ever?

Peace

 

[clairegirl]

depends does ur sister have a double degree or is she doing arts-psychology....

arts-psyche on its own doesn't really mean a lot .. i mean it does but if she wants to be a psychologist or whatever.. she needs that 4th year of psych in there

i was in a silimar dilemna but ive chosen the workforce over doing honours but i have my double degree to fall back on .... i might do honours later on but i've been at uni wayyy too long.. this is my 5th year and im sick of it

that wasnt very helpful

i'll just wait till skittled answers this or mj or cyan hehe

 

[clairegirl]

i think your sister should just do the honours thing... ive been looking at a few jobs that want psychology people but they want ppl with 4 year psyche degrees...

i.e centrelink is one of them

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

Hello all, i hope you can help.

My sister recently got accepted into honours. She is in her fourth year now and has the marks to get her into the honours course at macqaurie.

The thing is she is quiet lazy. I mean she will always work hard, but seems to look for the easy way out. In this case, its ment that she is looking to leave honours and go straight into the work force.

Of course its caused a huge talking point in the family. We all beleive that after working hard to get this far she should take the extra step and join the workforce and work in the field of organisational psychology. To be honest she just doesn't want to write a thesis.

So what i ask is, what do use all think? Is it worth doing honours or is she doing the right thing by just joining the workforce? What benefit will an honours degree get her? Has anyone been in a similar position? What would you recomend?

Sorry for all the questions but its really causing a debate in the family. She is trying to tell us its pointless and gives you no advantage what so ever?

Peace

It sounds like a difficult situation but one thing is fairly clear: If your sister just doesn't want to write a thesis then she really shouldn't be doing the honours year - because that is essentially what the year is for. I guess the kind of questions that she needs to consider is:what does she really want to do? If it's psychology, then the 4th (and 5th, and 6th) year is unavoidable.

If your sister is sick of uni and wants to work, then the best thing I recommend that she do is to consider taking a year off and put further study as a possible thing to do in the future. I don't think that there would be many psych-related jobs out there for her without the fourth year (and even then - if she wants to practice then she will need to do a further 2 years after that), but going out into the workforce in general is probably the best thing if your sister has had enough and have time to think about what she wants to do.

Your sister really will need to reconsider if psych is for her - because unfortunately you can't do psych without many years of study (and research is an important part of it). As with most things, there is no easy and quick way.

 

[michael1990]

A girl i work with recently came first in her honours degree.

But when she was talking to me she said there was NO point going into the workforce without her honours. I don't know as i haven't been to UNI nor work in that industry.

 

[Skittled]

My sister recently got accepted into honours. She is in her fourth year now and has the marks to get her into the honours course at macqaurie....

I'm in a similar boat at the moment (I'm doing hons this year, too): Heaps to do, but feeling rather uninspired for various reasons. Gotta trudge through and assume it'll get better!

Is it worth doing honours or is she doing the right thing by just joining the workforce? What benefit will an honours degree get her? Has anyone been in a similar position? What would you recomend?

Jamie (Cyan Phoenix) has covered this well: comes down to what she wants to do. If it's psych, this year is necessary.

...its really causing a debate in the family. She is trying to tell us its pointless and gives you no advantage what so ever?

Advantage depends on where she's going (see Jamie's post), but it's definitely not pointless. Research and writing skills are useful almost anywhere.

In the end it's her choice, though; she's an adult. Family debates are great, because they genuinely look out for each other's interests... but she's an adult and is the only one in the right spot to make this decision for herself.

*****EDIT: Census date has passed*****, so unless she wants F's on her transcript, and to pay for the units, she's got to complete this semester (unless there's something strange about hons census dates.

 

[Skittled]

that wasnt very helpful

Yes it was, Anne: this is a common uni dilemma. You had it toward the end of your degree, the subject girl (Stipe Pletikosa's sister) is having it toward her degree, I'm getting shirty with mine toward the end of my degree... it's part of the uni life cycle.

Excitement -> Mid degree ambivalence -> OH-My-GOD-I-Wanna-Work syndrome.

 

[MaryJane]

I haven't got much to add because Clairegirl, Cyan and Skittled covered pretty much everything there is to consider. But, I just wanted to add your sister might have to talk to a counsellor before she can withdraw anyway, so it might be a good idea for her to make an appointment with the counsellor of her own free will to discuss why she wants to withdraw?

If its just laziness then... well noone can really help her. The whole idea of Honours is to come away with a scientific academic piece so she cant avoid writing a thesis. I was going to suggest that if she withdraws, to do it next year as a post-grad (which requires working with a group and writing a joint thesis), but if she's lazy then thats not fair on the rest of the students.

Surely by this stage she's aware of the fact that her chances of finding work in a vagely related area is pretty much next to nothing. You need Honours/Post-grad and, as Clairegirl said, if she only did a BA-Psych, then really she has little alternative, except starting another undergraduate degree.

In the end if she really wants to withdraw, despite the massive setbacks it will result in, then its up to her. I think she just needs to be better informed and persevere; Honours was never supposed to be simple: its hard work, reflected by the fact that only certain students get into it. But I do strongly suggest she talks to either a counsellor or a careers advisor - someone who is objective and can give her perspective.

 

[xeuyrawp]

*****EDIT: Census date has passed*****, so unless she wants F's on her transcript, and to pay for the units, she's got to complete this semester (unless there's something strange about hons census dates.

I know this is a month late, but seriously... Pwned.

Imagine this girl reading your post, going up to her sister, and telling her 'some guy on the internets said that you can't drop out.'

Major headshot.