A-level Choices- are these 'soft'?

I'm a freelance journalist. I write across the national titles and do magazine work too. I still love it and make a reasonable living from it. I've made it work in a way that suits me, but it's taken 15 years to get here.
I've seen a lot of people fall by the wayside, which is a shame.
Tenacity is definitely the word, and agree about blogging.

The Informed Choices booklet is useful www.russellgroup.ac.uk/media/5272/informedchoices-print.pdf which is produced by some of the good universities ( p29 gives the subjects).

This Trinity College list is also not that keen on English lang either - see www.trin.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/applying/a-level-subject-combinations/ Can she not just do English literature which is the classic A level which most of us who went to university did and is clearly accepted by all the good universities?

Eg my boys are doing History Geography and this year - upper sixth their third is a non facilitating subject (one is doing economics and the other classics ) and they did a 4th to AS as their school still did 4 AS exams last year.

Do look at how she is doing. Did she get mostly As for GCSE and will get to a good university in which call all this matters a lot. If she will be going to perhaps a second tier university to read a subject you don't need very high grades to get into then her current choices might be absolutely fine.

If the local college doesn't offer English Lit it may be worth looking at other schools and their 6th forms.

You really need to get her to look at courses she likes and see what they say. The requirements and preferences vary from uni to uni. Combined is not really enough of either lang or lit to give a grounding in either. If she wants to do either of those at uni then she's be better off doing that subject as an individual qualification.

It is also what people perceive as soft too such as employers later. English lit is a facilitating subject, lang isn't
www.clare.cam.ac.uk/subjectchoice-alevelchoice/

If you can do 2 or 3 facilitating subjects that tends to give you more options.

Sorry world

In what words is Lang 'softer' than Lit? If anything it's the other way round. The combined can be looked down on because it lacks rigour and doesn't cover a broad enough base of both subjects. Having taught all three, Lang is very demanding and would stand her in good stead for a broader range of courses.

I read it as separate English A levels - hadn't thought about combined. Is it combined she is thinking of?

To be brutally honest, journalism is hugely competitive even for those with PG journalist qualifications. My journalism career was entirely in online financial journalism - I did it for years but there have been massive cutbacks and there are far fewer jobs. Local journalism has been worse affected. If you have an area of expertise you have a chance, but you have to be really tenacious.

She needs English lit on its own (not the lang which some people see as soft.)
Then I would do a second facilitating subject too

Could she do a science, maths, a language or geography or history for example?

If she can have 2 or 3 faciltating subjects - the harder ones - check university web sites - she will fare a lot better in law. I did 3 facilitating subjects for A level. I'm a lawyer. My daughters who are new-ish lawyers also did 2 or 3 plus economics - regarded as a fairly good but non facilitating one and very useful for law actually. I think it's a really good A level to do if your school offer it.

Also pick the subjects youi will get A or A* in if you want to do law (as long as it's a good facilitating etc A level). No point pikcing maths if you'd get C in maths whereas you'd have got A in English lit (or vice versa).

I agree clary (another former journo here - and I had a fantastic career in journalism until I had 3 dc but probably wouldn't go into it if I were starting out now)

One of my friend's daughters is currently working as a producer on a national news programme. She's on a zero hours contract and doesn't earn enough to move out of her parents' home. That's despite having a first at undergraduate level and a masters.

The majority of entrants into journalism now have a degree and most have a masters too. The days of local papers taking on trainees are long gone...

History is a very good student for both law and journalism. Lots of useful analysis skills.
I would suggest she tries to do History.

"The A level English Language and Literature combined is regarded as soft"

Why?

I did psychology a level as an adult. It is very sciencey which may or may not suit her and the non maths and science students on my course had to take extra maths classes to cope with the statistics side. It is great for developing critical thinking skills and developing an evidence based approach which is becoming more important in education for example.

You can still do history A level if you didn't do it at GCSE, talk to the teacher.

Do you mean combined Eng lit and lang (agree with others it's looked down on, sorry) or two separate A levels? DD is academic and was strongly advised by her English teacher at A level open evening to do Eng literature NOT language or the combined A level.

BTW I am a former journalist; former because there are very few jobs for journalists any more ( as I was a good journo) so if she is stuck on that make sure she knows how hard it might be.

That said, there are still roles esp in online reporting. If you want to do it tho you should be blogging by now to show you mean business.

Is going to Uni a common path into journalism? I thought maybe lots went straight into local newspapers/media & worked their way up from there, No path via Uni.

DS1 is doing the English Literature A-level course rather than English Language & Literature. He finds the lessons interesting but isn't particularly good at it (got B in language & B in literature at GCSE).

He says he finds the Government & Politics course boring, but seems to enjoy discussing the subject itself. It doesn't seem conceptually difficult but there is a lot of content to learn.

The subject he enjoys most at A-level is History, and he finds the course interesting.

I think your daughter should choose the subjects that most interest her.

Sorry, just RTFT. She'd be fine for any of her courses with those three. How academically able is she? That's an enormous work load. The coursework is pretty extensive for the English subjects.

Yes def agree with students not understanding exactly what is psychology...

None of those subjects are 'soft' but I'd get her to look at fields and courses she might be interested in for uni now. Otherwise she will be a bit boxed in by two English subjects. The seperate English qualifications are well received subjects. I teach both and neither are in the least bit soft, especially under the new specifications.

I did similar for my a levels. I did law at uni.

For what it is worth, I would do English literature as a single subject, psychology is fine but so many people do it and it's not something that is as interesting/useful as people think it will be.

For teaching you need a National curriculum subject and English (any type) would fit the bill.