DGD wants to study Languages

'...doesn't go back to see friends'. Not able to edit!

I wouldn’t agree with that, I think it would be limiting, considering what is going on with AI at the moment people need to have their hands in a few pots that will enable them to switch and change between careers

I'm not convinced of this. A good languages degree should give you all the critical thinking and historical knowledge that would be expected in many humanities degrees, I wouldn't say it was limiting at all. Any non-language-specific jobs are unlikely to specify a degree in, say, international relations. And if you focus on languages you'll be better at them, giving you the edge over joint courses with another discipline.

Please encourage your DGD to apply to Oxbridge. She has nothing to lose. Applicants for modern foreign languages have to do the MLAT (modern languages aptitude test). Past papers are here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/guide/admissions-tests/mlat? You DGD could do a couple in French and Italian to see how it feels. I agree with PPs who are suggesting a different language to run alongside French, to open up career choices.

Another thing she might do is an Italian GCSE. If she's been teaching herself and is already reading books, she will almost certainly be up to it. You should be able to pay as a private candidate and have her sit it at school next year.

DD is in her final year at Oxford (MFL). Her closest friends, all engineers, are comprehensive-educated. She absolutely loves Oxford and will be staying for at least another year, working and doing further study. The year abroad was a bit grim (awful accommodation, constant pestering by men, unfriendly fellow students) but not so awful that she goes back to see friends.

As a UCL graduate myself (not MFL), I want to endorse it as your DGD's seond choice. Totally different to Oxford, of course, but a great way to get to know the capital.

I also don’t think she should just focus solely on languages she will be limiting herself, she should be pairing it with something else to open up more job opportunities
She really needs to focus on her needs and not just on her wants and stay open minded

if it were my daughter I might encourage her to look at other languages like Chinese , Russian , Arabic as I expect that’s where she might find more career opportunities

Agree with this
I would think these will offer more job opportunities but I would also try and find a good reputable experienced careers advisor and seek advice from them

Just to say with her background, it is worth looking at the offer from the widening participation teams at each university. Where I work we’d consider her care experienced and be looking at more flexibility for an offer and priority for PT jobs, scholarships etc

UCL is a great first choice university as it offers American style degrees where you can combine combine subjects rather than follow a discrete course. I would encourage her to look at languages with another subject, such as languages with law, economics or humanities. If you have one language at A 'level, you can start another at uni from scratch. You can always specialise or do something more vocational as a post grad. I did French and Spanish (ab initio) with economics and then did a marketing diploma. I am now a teacher.

My DS had a great time at UCL studying geography with German as a subsidiary and had a year in Vienna, which he loved. The only caveat with languages is that Brexit means we no longer have the Erasmus scheme making it much harder and much more expensive for students to do their year abroard. (Fortunately, my DS was in the last Erasmus year and his study was fully funded.)

Thanks - no you didn’t jump down my throat at all - but that’s why I don’t shy away from saying I didn’t enjoy it because over the years I’ve felt people somehow think that I should keep schtum or it’ll seem like I’m ungrateful for the opportunity which isn’t the case at all. I just think it’s important that I’m honest about my personal experience.

Another Oxford languages graduate here. It's a wonderful place to study, and has a much more diverse student body than when I was there (early 90s). There are lots of shy, quiet people and lots of staye school people.

Many (or even most) universities offer joint language degrees where you start one language from scratch. I'm pretty sure Italian is one of the ones often available from scratch.

As for what she can do afterwards, there are lots of choices. She could become a teacher (like me)!

She can certainly take Italian at uni ab initio - starting from scratch. Not many schools in the UK offer it after all. Her great grades and PGs in her other MFLs show she could easily pick it up. Well done her. Amazing that she is able to take 2 x MFLs at A level too, that's sadly unusual. I hope she gets the grades she is aiming for and gives the lie to those who say it's impossible to get an A/Astar in French without being a native speaker (it isn't impossible at all btw). Your DGD sounds amazing, all the best to her.

MFL is my subject (former class teacher of it) btw in case you couldn’t tell!

Agree with others btw that you (or she) need to ask some serious questions of the unis as a number are dropping or have dropped MFL (looking at you Lboro).

Also remember that London is expensive and can be isolating; she might also want to look at Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Durham and Warwick. (caveat: I have not checked details of MFL at those unis in terms of which languages they offer).

I’d definitely encourage her to apply for Oxbridge - languages are one of the least competitive subjects so she has a much better chance than she thinks. I did languages at Oxbridge and neither of my parents had gone to university and most of my fellow students were the same, in fact one at my college had been raised by a teenage single mum - I graduated in 2017.

In terms of jobs afterwards we have a lot of people in the civil service, law, marketing, journalism, the corporate/management side of the hotels/tourism industry, recruitment and HR.

Haha fair, it probably has! I wasn't even born then...
I am conscious though, of not jumping down people's throat when they say they've had a bad experience. I'm sorry if I accidentally did that. I think the zeal to encourage people to apply can sometimes make us a bit defensive. There's no harm in acknowledging that it's not a perfect university for every student, or indeed that there are many other excellent universities especially for modern languages where the course can vary so much between universities.

I graduated 25 years ago 🙃 so no doubt it could have changed in that time

Just out of interest, when did you graduate roughly? I think it's changed over the years. I'm not saying you're wrong though! I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.
I remember meeting the odd arse in freshers week who thought it mattered he went to public school, but they were very much in the minority so I just avoided them from then on. I didn't find them intimidating though, more annoying with a shocking lack of real-life skills. I also spent a fair amount of time interacting with the actual residents of Oxford, which meant a lot more time with "normal" people

Another perspective from me, as an Oxford graduate. I went to a state grammar school and I definitely felt like I didn’t fit in at Oxford - most people I met were from public or private schools - I found them intimidating and couldn’t relate to them. The friends I did make ended up all being from state grammars like me. It could have been the college I chose although this particular college does a lot of outreach work with state schools so you would have thought it might have been different. But I appreciate it could have also just been me! Everyone’s different. I certainly gained a lot from my time at university there but I can’t say hand on heart I enjoyed the 3 years.

In terms of careers, my advice would be to keep an open mind. What I wanted to do when I started, and what I wanted to do at the end, were vastly different. It's worth keeping in mind that a languages degree essentially opens up all the routes of any humanities degree, plus the advantage of being able to speak the languages. People in my year went on to anything and everything, from corporate consulting (very high pressure and high pay, I'm told - not my thing!) to 3rd sector jobs to studying literature at masters level to law conversion etc etc, as well as the more obvious options of language teaching, a masters in interpreting, moving into the linguistics and speech therapy side of things.

Just reread and seen that she's doing English Literature - if she enjoys that, it's worth considering the more literature focused degrees.
In terms of tips for now, the usual stuff of keeping up with grammar and vocab, but also suggest she keeps a journal of all the brilliant extra reading and language engagement she's doing, because it will soon be time to write a personal statement and it's much easier if you're starting with a list.

She sounds brilliant! You can start a second language from scratch at most unis I think, at Oxford it's called "ab initio"; the Latin terms for things sound a bit poncey but that doesn't reflect real life. I think she should definitely go for Oxbridge if she fancies one of the courses, the drive to study and read in Italian shows she's the sort of student who'd fit in and do well. It's true it's fairly literature heavy, but it's 50/50 in terms of language/ literature examination/ assessment, so it's not true that there's no variety. I had a lot of choice in my papers (topics) after first year, I really got to choose where to take my studies with personalised support, which was brilliant. My dissertation topic was very niche and "non-standard", I was well supported and enjoyed it immensely.
It's not perfect, and there it often feels like a lot of pressure especially at first. But welfare support is usually very good (varies a bit between colleges), and all of my tutors have been very supportive. Some of them were state school and first gen uni themselves, and so have a particular interest in supporting first gen students (others I've no idea what their secondary education was!).
In terms of accommodation, it's often a lot cheaper than other universities, because the rental terms are much shorter (there is also support for care leavers especially if you can't move in and out each term for any specific reason). Students starting on full maintenance loan are eligible for various schemes, and low household income can also lead to college grants/ money off rent.
Please feel free to dm me for more advice on Oxford specifically, or ask me general questions about languages at uni on here.

Feel free to DM me in future if she has any questions about applying to French at Oxbridge. There is lots of great info online, and the open days are also good (see my username, ha!) but I'm keen to help students from state schools demystify the whole Oxbridge application process.

Obviously it's totally up to your DGD and which course appeals to her most, but on paper, she sounds amazing and exactly the sort of person we'd be looking for at Oxford. I'm sure she will thrive wherever she ends up! ❤

Please don't worry about your DGD not fitting in at Oxbridge. In my current year of finalists, the majority are from state schools. Our well-being team is very strong and we offer a lot of reassurance to students who are feeling anxious or wrestling with other mental health issues. In general, Oxbridge students get more individual attention than students at other universities, because there is more funding available to help them.

Oxbridge is an ideal place for the shy geeky student! Your DGD would find a whole community of shy geeky students. Yes, there are extroverts, but they're in the minority.

Many tutors also come from underprivileged state school backgrounds. I did.

She could apply to read French and beginners' Italian at Oxford. A very popular course.

If she applies to Oxbridge, the interview would be like a mini tutorial, so she could see whether she enjoys the interview. If she enjoys the interview, that would be a positive indicator of how happy she would be at Oxbridge.

I would tell her to go ahead and apply to Oxbridge; she has nothing to lose, and if she ends up at UCL, well, that's great too.

We're very keen to recruit more state school students (and at the college where I teach, there are many more students from state schools than from independent schools in ML).

I read Modern Languages at Oxbridge (Oxford specifically) and absolutely loved it. Someone up above in the thread said it's 'no fun and no variety' - I couldn't disagree more. The first year was a bit prescriptive but after that we had a lot of free choice when it came to modules. I ended up writing my final year dissertation on Old Frisian linguistics, and also studied literature, historical and sociolinguistics, culture, translation - it was fantastic. I now work as a civil servant and am training PT for the Bar - neither of these things are directly related to my degree of course but it has certainly set me up well.

With her grades your DGD should have a lot of choice about where she goes - MFL degrees are sadly rather undersubscribed and universities are desperate for good and motivated students so would imagine she'll end up with a nice range of offers when the time comes. Depending on her preference she might want to look at some of the Scottish unis which I think tend to be very flexible in the first two years (so she could 'major' in MFL but 'minor' in other subjects that she's interested in too). When she's exploring uni options she should also ask about the support offered on the Year Abroad - I imagine that since Brexit it's harder for students to plan their third year, and so she might prefer a uni which has a well established programme rather than just letting students get on with it.