# Postgraduate Psychology Questions :)



## justypupp (Sep 30, 2015)

Hi there,

I'm currently in my third year doing a bachelor of psychology at monash - it seems my grades have dropped pretty significantly in the last couple of years of my degree - i'm around a credit average but only just at this point, especially after i had a bit of a disaster semester first semester... so at this point my average for my whole degree is actually around a 58, and hoping i can boost that this semester

I guess my question is, what do i do from here? any advice? I was thinking trying counselling somewhere, but I feel as though that would render my degree sort of useless, as I would have done my whole undergraduate not to do fourth year, which seems like it's completely beside the point of doing psych... furthermore I don't know where I would be able to get into with such bad marks - i had a couple of deaths in my family during my degree and don't receive special consideration from monash or anything like that, so i've had it a bit tough and i'm just trying to figure out my path from here... 

Furthermore, I received a call from estrada college today, and the woman was on the phone with me for such a long time explaining how great estrada is and how counselling is more practical etc. but i get the feeling colleges like this are very expensive and kind of almost scams? is that a weird suspicion to have?

sorry for such an abundance of questions, hehe, i just want to know if there's any advice out there besides the usual 'apply everywhere' mantra everybody always tell me. I will be applying everywhere, of course, I just want to know if anybody has any experience or advice they can give me, because I do want to be a counselling psychologist ideally, but maybe i'm being elitist in thinking that I have to become an accredited psychologist to help people? Any thoughts are welcome, and i hope everybody is going well in their studies


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## Zenzo (Oct 15, 2015)

I hope I'm not too late in replying. I came across this thread while looking for reviews for Estrada, and I don't like what they are telling you one bit. Wish I saw this thread earlier. Hopefully you haven't quit Monash or signed up with Estrada.

Finish your degree for sure! A psych degree can be useful in many other ways and has always been a popular choice for a second degree for those doing double degree. Career wise you have quite a few choices other than being a clinical psychologist: human resource, social trainer, and yes, counselling!

You don't need to do another counselling degree/diploma. Your psych degree itself is good enough for you to be a counsellor. In fact anyone can become a counsellor, there's no restrictions in place that says you need a degree to practice counselling.

Anyway my point is, if I were you, I would finish it and then go down one of these paths:
1. Try to get a job with only my psych degree.
2. Do a post graduate qualification in something else (HR, education etc) and with that and my psych degree I'm guaranteed to find a job.

All the best to you!


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