A level choices Geography Biology Product Design?

@Taffle2000
Its also worth remembering that both Biology and Geography are the old “facilitating” subjects. In other words, they keep options open. They facilitate choice.

Im afraid not everywhere will see Geography as a science. Some universities class it as a humanity. Not that it matters much to your DD. Plus few universities ask for ucas points. Architecture is difficult without maths. So if she’s looking at that, look closely at courses and employability. It’s not great for some architectural grads. Interior design is more forgiving!

Op I know you have submitted choices but just to echo others, those options are good, esp if they are subjects she enjoys and will do well in.

All A level choices close some doors - she’s not likely to do a degree in Eng lit or French or engineering or medicine, and that’s fine. As you know, geography is counted as a science by many unis so she could still do a biology degree. Ds2 is at Lboro and it’s great, tho there is a lot of maths in his bio degree (he did maths A level with an 8 and worked hard for his B).

I don’t know about design at uni and whether maths is needed, but if you don’t enjoy maths anyway, would you want to take a course where it is needed? Best of luck to her.

So as someone who did a psych degree and an MSc in clinical psych, your friend is a one off. Psych is SO hard to get into, I always advise to avoid psych A-level/degree in general as it's painfully over-subscribed and unless you are incredibly talented, driven and VERY lucky, you can make it. Most people sadly don't. And most psychology jobs and positions are very non-family friendly, everyone I know who has made it far has chosen to not have kids because they are so driven in their field

However, I do very much agree about thinking about your future and opting for something flexible! I wish I had thought about that, I wouldn't have studied psychology 😅

Taffle-if she is interested in PD or Industrial design, Loughborough has probably the top design school in the country** ( above any of the Russel group unis) We visited about 7 different unis and none of them were a patch on L'bro. Their facilities are amazing. The placement is an expectation in the third year and she really enjoyed hers and learnt loads.

Very soon after graduation she found a job in the design field she did her placement. She has done a masters since graduating ( her work allowed her to do a sabbatical and employed her on an consultancy basis so she still had a salary coming in) She has recently moved to another job with an amazing salary for her age. L'bro design graduates are very sought after and all of her friends bagged design jobs very soon after graduating.

When I say 'hard' I don't mean difficult.

I mean an actual science degree. Like chemistry or biomed. 🤦🏽‍♀️

As long as your DD doesn't want to go down a hard science route at uni, all those subjects look great.

There's no point doing Maths if she doesn't enjoy it or if she isn't great at it. An A in a different subject is better than a C in Maths.

It’s a good combination.

If she is interested in psychology then I do recommend it, I did the A-level and found it fascinating. I wanted to do psychology degree but as I wasn’t seen as ‘sciency’ I was talked into taking English instead 🤦‍♀️

I mention this because now all the women I know are mums and our holy grail is a flexible job that fits around school pickup/dropoff times and is term time
only. The highest earner in our group is the psychologist who now owns her own counselling private practice (as well as doing occasional hospital work / corporate consultancy) and she has total control of her hours. The mums who, like me, went into the City earned great money for a while but then found it impossible to juggle long hours job with parenting and ended up sahms struggling to start a new career from scratch.

So with my DD, when she gets to degree and A level choices I’m really going to remind her that she’ll probably have a family and to aim for something that gives her control of her hours and transerable skills etc.

My English degree however was pretty useless.

That is exactly the combination which DS1 chose for A levels, didn't know what he wanted to do post A-levels but ended up in an industrial design degree from a top-ranked uni. He could have done Maths (A* at GSCE and his teacher said he was capable) but he didn't have any interest in the subject. It is tricky if she really doesn't have any idea what she wishes to do, many degrees have few or no specific subject requirements but for instance, DS found that many design courses did require maths so they were ruled out. They tended to be the more engineering-focused courses which was not where his interest lay but he could potentially have run into difficulty with the lack of maths.

@Taffle2000
Maths supports Physics. Maths and Physics are vital for most types of engineering - hence the link. Maths ia useful for environmental science too but not essential. DD will still have lots of options.

These were exactly what Dd did. The school weren’t keen, said there was no point doing a single science. However she knew what she wanted to do at university and the course was not bothered about subjects, just ucas points. So she went with what she liked. She went onto to do architecture.

My DDdid Product design GCSE and A level ( along with maths and English lit) and went on to study it at uni which involved quite a bit of mechanical and electrical engineering. It depends on where you study but at Loughborough they make a distinction between industrial and product design. Product design there is more engineering and either maths or physics is a requirement. Lots of unis offer what is called product design but more like industrial design where maths / physics are not necessarily needed.

DS1 did Geog A level and now degree as basically he doesn't know what he wants to do! He enjoys it.
He also did maths A level having got a 7 at GCSE and sweated blood and tears to come out with a B. Ended up hating it so agree, best avoid if unsure.
DS2 does Biology A level (+ Chem and Maths) and actually finds it the most difficult of the three. It is quite unlike the GCSE, lots of content and very tricky mark schemes.
I once read not to take a single science but not sure how accurate that is. Many degrees do stipulate specific A levels so be careful.

It is necessary! You won’t get on an engineering course without maths! You won’t get on a Physics course without Physics. You really must do the required A levels for some courses, so of course choices matter and it’s very wrong to suggest otherwise. Informed Choices booklet makes this point.

The main thing is that Biology and Geography don’t close doors. Not doing maths doesn’t keep all options open but it’s a good combination to do if she’s keen on these 3 subjects. Technology has its own strengths and as she goes through 6th form, potential careers and university courses will open up.

They should do A Levels they're going to enjoy. Whatever they end up wanting to do afterwards, you'll usually find there's a path to get there.

So many people get hung up on which A Levels to take and it's just not necessary.

Thanks v much for your perspective, that really quite sums her up - straddles between sciences and creative. Feel much more reassured about options long term, t you

This is the role of design.

Product Design is a STEM subject. There’s a lot of science in it. The exam worth 50% is predominately science.

It gives her more strings to her bow.

Shes doing a Science, a Humanity and a scientific creative subject. I think that’s a great combination. Covers every angle

Geography counts as a science doesn't it? it definitely straddles science & humanities.
Sounds a sensible choice for her.