Will these A-Levels be respected

@appol I think you need to find out which subjects successful applicants have studied for these courses. I would have thought History rather than History of Art was a better bet for competitive courses at elite unis. I’ve said elsewhere, look at the Cambridge guide to choosing A level subjects. She has two in Latin and English but make sure History would not be a better bet over HofA. Ignore private school jibe. HofA is mostly private school in uk. Who cares though?

These are good subjects to be able to go on to study classics/ English or a combined degree. Ignore the PP who said not to do both Latin and CC, they are different subjects and good to do together, given what she wants to do as a degree.

I marginally agree that history is a better choice than history of art, but they are very different subjects and she should do what she enjoys as that is conducive to getting better grades. Doing “harder” subjects because they may be well respected is a double edged sword, yes they might be looked at more favourably, but an A* in a slightly easier subject is better than a B/C in a harder one.

I'd say, best to find out from the universities whether these A levels will get her into the course she wants to do, and take everyone else's opinion with a large grain of salt.

This is key. Maybe start gently making sure she doesn’t get her hopes on Cambridge, it’s so unlikely statistically.

Oh x post op sorry

Nope, either Latin or Greek is fine (or was for Warwick 5 years ago). So few ppl take these subjects that if you want to do Greek, it’s fine to do it ab initio.

OP Latin and Eng lit are both on the Cambridge uni list of highly recommended subjects (“choose two of these”) and her other two choices are on the “also good” list so they are all good. And would get her into anywhere to study her chosen subjects at degree level (depending on grades ofc)

Our low achieving school has Classics as an option, one of our kids sat it. I did it myself in a state school.
No Latin though!

I know someone who studied Latin at Cambridge and he went to a private school as it is not widely studied in public schools.
I think that a nich subject actually gives you more chance of getting into Cambridge but I my friend did a lot of work going to extra lectures, visiting museums and doing extra things to prove that he had a real love of Latin, so I would concentrate on things like that.

They run stuff online and throughout the year. Some really interesting ancient history courses.

Good luck to her, she’s in for some fun few years!

There is no reason why they wouldn't count as two separate subjects. Most of what you do in Latin A level is language work, learning to translate Latin into English. I didn't do Class Civ but I see from this it's got quite a wide scope. Sounds fascinating, actually! https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-and-a-level/classical-civilisation-h008-h408-from-2017/specification-at-a-glance/

This is controversial and I will get screamed down but my (limited) experience as a parent is that it doesn't massively matter what A level subjects you do as long as one of them is directly relevant, in many cases, and for some courses almost any are fine - obviously UNLESS you are trying to do STEM, medicine, engineering where it is a bit more prescriptive or Economics where you must have Maths etc.

So for example, my friend's son did Latin, Geography and Economics and is at Uni now studying Geography. My son did Business, Econ and English Lit and is doing Business Management, but there are lots on his course that didn't do Business and did random combos like Maths, Biology, Geography. Another friend's son is studying Architecture and he needed DT and, possibly, Maths? but the third one could be anything, he did Business. Friend's kid doing Law did English Lit, History and something else, a language I think.

If you look in the UCAS site at any university course that she thinks she might want to do it will tell you if there are any particular A levels they must have and any that are desirable an dhelp with applications. Medicince will say 3 sciences but even then I believe there are exceptions nowadays.

They seem fine to me for someone that is not intending to study STEM or medicine or Architecture or Art or whatever.

That's interesting re Greek. Many many years ago when I did Ancient History you had to have either as A - level and the other to GCSE. Look up the Bloomsbury Summer School for some fun interesting stuff if she's keen.

Class Civ used to be seen as a bit of an easy subject. But for those in the area I think that's just because we all had to do Latin as well which as a previous poster said is tough tough tough (but great fun!). It's basically history, just Ancient History.

She just needs to go on the uni website and check their prerequisites.

Those subjects scream private school OP because most state schools don’t teach them (except English lit). Very very few non-private schools would offer those a levels.

It’s not a bad thing but it does give her a slight ‘look’ if you see what I mean. I think this is what your colleague means. St Andrews is a posh uni so she’ll fit in fine there.

I don’t think they are soft subjects but I would suggest she thinks about careers and what she might do with them. I’m sure they’ll be options.

I think the grades are more important than the subjects, so long as she's sitting whichever ones her chosen unis require.

I think Latin's a great choice, and one open to far too few young people today. I did O level back in the day and I still find it useful occasionally even now (the bits I can remember!)

She just needs to check university perspectives to check that Latin and Classical Civilizations will count as 2 separate A levels. I'd suggest she took History or Art instead of History of Art

I think she will be just fine then
your friend was rude and ignorant

They look like perfect A levels if she is sure that she wants to study classics & English lit.

@BoudiccaOfSuburbia - facilitating subjects are no longer a thing. They’ve been dropped.

They’re absolutely fine. Eng Lit is a very trad A level and Latin is tough so she has two hard core ones. Class Civ and History of Art also fine. For uni purposes when she drops to three she should probably lose either History of Art or Class Civ but if she does all four then it’s fine. BTW I’m a teacher in an academic secondary and experienced 6th form tutor.