Help DD with her future please!

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DD is in Y11 and has to give in her preferences for A Levels over Xmas online. The deadline is Jan 1st for her school and she has had countless talks at school and support but she still has little knowledge of what she would like to do and what would facilitate her future etc.

She is toying with these subjects but will have to narrow them down to three.
-History
-Geography
-Spanish
-English Literature
-Drama
-Biology

Biology is the odd one out in a sea of humanities/arts

She also isn’t sure what she would like to do after University and thinks something to do with languages (she also does French but not as keen) might be good at University but she wouldn’t want to just do languages and isn't sure that she would be academically inclined enough to do something to challenging at University.

DH and I are little help as DH is in Politics but had a very maths/IT based career beforehand, which she isn’t interested in and I’m in the art world, but again she doesn’t enjoy art.

Honestly we are desperately running out of time and I can’t believe we have let her ignore the deadline for so long but have dealt with a very traumatic bereavement on DH’s side before the Xmas holidays so this was understandably not at the front of our minds.

Do you need to see her predicted GCSE grades/mock grades to help? I wasn’t sure.

This just feels terrible and poor DD is so overwhelmed.

Also I’m sorry, I know this isn’t strictly an AIBU but I posted for traffic as time is running out.

Does she not have any gut feeling preferences from that list?

Well the majority of her preferences are humanities so I’d go with them as it just seems like she enjoys that sort of thing. I’d drop drama for sure unless she has a real passion for drama. Spanish will look great on applications and be useful for the future. I’d go for History, Geography, Spanish and English Literature. With those A Levels she will get accepted onto a huge number of courses at university - something job-related like teaching, law, nursing, business, marketing etc or something more general like anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, etc. Unless she especially has a passion for drama or biology I’d just drop those from the list and I think she has a great set which will give her a huge amount of opportunity when it comes to applying for university. I did similar A Levels and was never limited in the courses I was able to apply for (and get onto) at university. Careers I considered (and one I settled on!) were mental health nursing, law, and teaching.

@BuffaloCauliflower

No, she doesn’t. DH thinks we should just go with her best three grades for the subjects but I’m worried she will regret it later on.

@Poorolddaddypig
Your username gave me instant flashbacks to when my DC were younger and had immense passions for Peppa pig

She can only choose three though. Do you think History and Geography are similar enough to drop one of them?

I took History, English Language and Drama to A-Level, but I was very clear in my mind at this point that I wanted to continue drama at degree level. I took English Lit to AS but hated it (I didn’t like English Lit for GCSE either though so I should never have taken it). I now work in the cultural sector but not as an artist/theatre manager which had been my plan! I just picked subjects that I enjoyed.

If she’s not sure what she wants to do, I would suggest selecting a range of subjects but all subjects that she enjoys. Worth thinking that you can also do joint honours at uni - a friend of mine did History and Spanish with a year in Spain & then went on to do an International Relations masters.

From that list, I would suggest choosing between subjects that are in similar “areas” to narrow down, so:
Either History OR Geography (1)
Either English Lit OR Drama (2)

And then pick between Spanish and Biology (or get rid of both of another category). I generally think a language is a very sensible choice, but a science can be a good choice for a more academic degree later on.

Also worth reminding her that uni isn’t the only option for post-18 :)

I’m worried she will regret it later on.

Why do you think she will regret it?

If she wants to do something specific connected to one of these subjects, then she should do that A level. But otherwise - it really doesn't matter, she should do what she is (a) best at and (b) enjoys most.

@LordEmsworth
No, I said I worry that she will regret only choosing her options based on her predicted GCSE grades, like DH is advising her to do.

I agree with @Poorolddaddypig about not doing drama if she’s not passionate about it though - it is a very time consuming subject, a lot harder to do well in than people think and she’ll use similar skills in English lit anyway.

@paddingtonbearsmarmalade
That is a good idea, splitting them up and choosing between the two. I’ll put it to her later.

It’s a shame they got rid of AS as she would have found it easier to narrow it down to 4 and then again to 3 or carry on with the 4.

Certainly choose Geography as one of them. If you then pursue it at university it leads to such a wide range of careers as you can go science or humanities based depending on whether you do physical or human geography.

@ElizabethMountbatten
There are vocational courses on offer at colleges in the area but none at her schools sixth form and I suppose she has always wanted to stay on as a huge part of the school is the sixth form and almost all pupils stay on.

English Literature
Biology
Spanish

And then any of the others really, it's important to enjoy the subject as well as it really helps when you're spending hours and hours on revision etc. If she isn't sure what to do I would do the science, hence biology, as some do stipulate that they require a science subject; a language is always a good string to your now whatever you go on to study, and English lit adds a subject which demonstrates both written and analytical skills. For the fourth just anything she thinks she might enjoy to be honest.

I should also note that her ‘best’ subjects aren’t necessarily the ones she has listed. She is academically doing brilliantly in Biology, Geography, French and Drama.

She is doing well enough in the others to consider choosing them and if she enjoys them the most, of course I want her to pick them. I am just worried that she will find it too tricky in Y12? I’m not sure tbh.

Biology on its own with no other sciences or maths would look a bit odd. I’d suggest dropping that and focusing on the humanities ones. Geography, History and Spanish are all well-regraded as they require both memory skills and analytical ones. Avoid Eng Lit unless she enjoys reading critically.

Does she have any idea of what sort of uni she’d like to aim at?

Check how much maths is needed for biology A level.
Doing a science A level without doing marhs A level can be an issue; more so with physics though.

Is year 11 like 17/18?

I have seven highers (Scottish equiv) and a degree in social sciences and honestly neither the uni or any job has asked me WHAT the highers were in. I don't think it matters a jot.

The level of the grade is all they will look at for uni. Just tell her to take what she is best at. Or even just what she enjoys.

It isn't a big deal. Even if she flunks them, or she decides shed like to do another one instead, she can take them in any local college later on.

Maybe that makes me sound a bit of a hippy but really I don't see the point in stressing about all that shit.

@Thethiniceofanewday
Yes, I thought so too.

She definitely has high aspirations. I worry that DD thinks that she has to do as well as DSD and DSS have done and follow DH’s family ‘tradition’ with a particular University which is really bloody hard to get into.

I just want her to be happy with what she chooses and feel content with how her life is going.

Sorry, Pink - that is bad advice. Subject combinations really do matter - you can’t do maths without maths A level, for example!

OP this site might really help -

www.informedchoices.ac.uk/subjects

Your DD can try out different combinations of her subjects and see what courses are ruled in and ruled out.

The site was set up by the Russel Group unis.

@Pinkbonbon
Fair enough, I think that approach may work wonders for DD2 when the time comes as she is very chilled out. However DD1’s mind doesn’t work like that and she would openly be upset if she had to retake A Levels at a local college instead of going to Uni at 18 with the rest of her peers.

Both my boys did a level biology with Arts subjects. One did geography and history and read Geography at Uni and is now an Accountant. Other was passionate about History and also did English literature and studied History. Really wanted to work in the museum sector but its proving tricky so he is in the CS. You are right about AS levels though. One of mine did AS chemistry and it wasn't good. but he was able to drop it with no harm done.They also did some other ASs as well. Both got 5 offers from good Universities.

Have a look at the RG Facilitating Subjects- that might help if she doesn’t know..... we’re in a similar situation here.....

If she is looking at Cambridge there’s a section of the website called something like ‘the subject matters’ which gives advice on A-level choices. They divide subjects into ‘facilitating’ (traditional ones like History and Geography which keep options open) and ‘subject requirements’

@Thethiniceofanewday
Thank you, I just had a look at the link and it looks really good. I’ll send it to DD or show it to her when she’s home later.