Law degree A Level choices

[Cannotbelievepeoplecanbesojudgemental]

My DD is currently deciding upon her A Level choices. She wants to go onto university to study law. She is expected to get 8s and 9s.
This is really a question towards thise who have studied / are currently studying law. Which A Levels do you think would be best out of the following?
History
Sociology- this is her favourite GCSE currently.
Economics
English Literature
English Literature and Language combined
Law

History and/or English literature
economics
sociology if she doesn’t want to do both English and history
avoid law.

basically traditional is best but there is flexibility on the third if that is likely to result in a high grade

When my DC were at school, the Economics students also took maths and sometimes FM too. Hardly dc who were lazy! Many were high achievers but don’t let that stop teachers putting down the boys and their choices. Very unprofessional and a big slur. Sociology was taken by dc who were unlikely to be lawyers or economists but the subject suited them and they often went to good universities as entry tariffs were lower.

No one can say sociology and law have better teachers! Sometimes neither are offered by schools.

Araminta asked about my school context.

Your name change is leaking.

@Araminta1003 You have quoted exactly the subjects Cambridge says are best prep for Law. You are also correct that the degree is the easy part. Getting trained afterwards is the big problem and indeed we have way too
many with law degrees and of course they compete against very talented non law grads too. The chances of being successful at getting trained is increased if dc attend the elite LNAT law schools. It’s just how it works. Teachers simply don’t know what happens post degree! It’s very very hard to get a training contract or pupillage.

Interesting @Piggywaspushed “The reason economics students do less well is probably because it is open to students who can be accepted with 4s in English and maths (welcome to the real world MN!) and that is not adequate to succeed.”
At DD’s grammar school, nobody is allowed to stay without at least a 6 in Maths and English (I still have not worked out if that applies to both English lit and language). And yes the students doing Economics A levels are all doing at least A level Maths too. Plenty doing FM as well. Economics is oversubscribed so they pick and choose those allowed to do it.

The private schools local to me do all offer Drama A level, Music A level and languages (several) and Classics, so maybe with that broad offering, there is no space left to include Sociology as well? The girls one does offer Psychology though and I understand some aspiring medics do choose Psychology as a third A level now, especially girls.
I guess only the very largest Sixth Forms can offer pretty much all subjects there are at A level and BTEC. Most other schools have to make choices, not just for timetabling reasons, but also because of their budget. Grammar schools are struggling to keep offering Music and Latin and several languages. So if those go, due to popular demand, we may see Sociology in the future. But there is an opportunity cost to that, as in the other subjects will be scrapped instead.

Oh wow @OhDear111 that’s really not fair. Maybe read the post from Piggy who was very clear that she was talking about her school in terms of lazier boys taking econ. In fact her own son took it elsewhere and got a good grade. She was just making the (very valid) point that results in a specific school may be to some extent dependent on the teaching staff (which ofc can change).

DS2 was always impressed by the maths dept at his school which is one reason why he stayed there to do it at A level. Simialrly there were some really good teachers of biology (which he also took). I worked in a school with an amazingly inspirational hums dept and lots of DC chose history and RS for GCSE and did better in those than some of their other subjects. I know some brilliant MFL teachers still in schools and I would be more than happy for my DC to opt for French or German at A level if taught by them. It’s certainly a valid factor to consider tho ofc not the only one.

@Araminta1003 I wonder what you mean by "sociology type subjects" – bc you mention politics, RS. and econ (none of which are on the Cambridge "best to take" list) as being academic; but sociology is dismissed - along with what else?

I have no axe to grind btw, my own subject is lovely and facilitating haha - but I feel a bit defensive maybe when posters are disparaging of things like sociology and PE (which DS took) and drama and tech.

All true. Sociology is a rapidly growing subject so if grammar schools are finding themselves needing to get bums on seats for funding they will diversify and increase their offer. I work with a nearby grammar school (and a private one) supporting them in their introduction of two A level subjects.

@Piggywaspushed - I think our grammar schools (London area) are more likely to plug into the higher value funding courses at A level, so the Maths, FM, Chem, Physics, CompSci, Engineering stuff and then somehow still offer the languages and Music as the head is ideologically attached to those. The schools are so oversubscribed, bums on seats is not the issue, just funding per pupil. Pretty much every kid is a straight 8/9 student, going for med/vet/engineering/law or Oxbridge, if it is something like History/English/Classics/Music/languages.

English (in addition to music and languages) is dropping like a stone nationally though so (unless they are ALL swapping to STEM) even highly selective schools will need to address that.

My school introduced sociology chiefly to prevent more able students leaking out to other providers. Also in fairness to provide an A level that complemented our BTEC offer. It's hugely popular - the second biggest subject.

@clary “I wonder what you mean by "sociology type subjects" – bc you mention politics, RS. and econ (none of which are on the Cambridge "best to take" list) as being academic; but sociology is dismissed - along with what else”

RS is compulsory at GCSE in most of our local grammar schools or at least 1/2 RS. And then some form of RS is offered at A level, although in one of the grammars it is Religion, Philosophy and Ethics on their website.
There is no Business Studies on offer, nor Sociology, no PE at DD’s school either. Instead, Latin, several languages and Classic Civilisation. They just cannot offer everything, there is no money to do it. Politics is offered at DD’s old school now (I think quite recent introduction, but not sure). The boys aiming for PPE at Oxford or Warwick in her current school are more likely to be doing Maths, FM, History and Econ (than RS).

And I do agree, we should avoid both snobbery and inverse snobbery, in equal measures!

RPE is RS . Officially it's Religious Studies (philosophy and ethics). There is a separate (rare) A level of philosophy . People often conflate them.

I wonder if the grammar school recruited a new teacher of , say, history , politics, economics or geography who could offer sociology whether they would take it up?

Certainly we are getting more trainees through with sociology, politics, psychology and business A levels in addition to the usual English/history/ geography /RS. The economics teachers often are business teachers who teach economics, sometimes the other way round. The politics teacher is a history specialist.

agree @Araminta1003we should avoid any snobbery. I just wondered what you classed with sociology.

For sure not everything can be offered. My dcs’ school was one of v few in our city offering music A level in dd’s year; it also offered PE and gov/pol.

Other settings offered economics or film studies, neither of which could be done at DCs’ school. But I don’t think that any of those less popular/less offered subjects is in any way lesser and I think we need to avoid those thoughts.

Yes there are subjects that are a good idea if you want to take xyz degree; but sociology, media, PE, drama, economics, politics, music, film studies, business are not in some way lesser, even tho most of them are not needed for any specific degree.

Regarding Economics though, if a school offers it and offers further maths, I thought both eg LSE and Cambridge would expect a student to have taken both at A level to read Economics? So quite unlike law?
If a school doesn’t offer it, they won’t expect it?

@clary I think it was a put down of the boys. If you don’t agree, that’s fine. If the boys are taking maths as well I still think it’s an unfair summary of any dc! Most of us know what dc think are the doss subjects! Economics isn’t one of them.

Afaik LSE and other high ranked unis want maths and FM for economics degree. I don’t think any ask for economics (tho I imagine it's helpful to do it to see if you like it). The ‘why didn’t you do FM’ is bc many settings offer it, so taking it is expected for competitive maths related degrees. But economics is not as widely offered IME.

I neither agree nor disagree - how can I when Piggy was talking about her school! I don’t know it so cannot say.

I can say that where I taught, a lot of lads took PE GCSE bc they thought they would be playing footy all lesson. That’s not putting them down. They soon realised it was basically science.

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/economics-ba-hons

@clary - 93 per cent of successful applicants did Economics, 93 per cent Further Maths, 90 per cent both, 80 per cent got 3 A stars.
I wouldn’t fancy my chances of getting in statistically with no Economics.
It is different for law regarding subject choice.
They say one thing to not appear elitist, the stats do not lie though

@Araminta1003 fair enough. I mean it seems reasonable enough to take econ A level if you're interested. When are those stats from? My intel is a few years old tbf and econ has been having a moment so maybe more people are taking it at A level anyway. That would be an interesting stat too.

<quick google> hmm entries up 36% since 2020 that's a big increase. And more than doubled in last 13 years.

@clary Don’t you think the boys at Piggy’s school had the same quick realisation? Does no dc read the curriculum guidance I assume you all provide?

@Araminta1003 Of course law gives more options but when there’s a clear steer on subjects, surely it’s best to believe it?

Yeh maybe. Not sure what difference that makes.

Do YP who are less able or less diligent read a load of words about what they are going to study??? Hmmmm

@clary In my world - yes! Even parents might read the curriculum info provided - you never know!

I would actually think courses should list the most popular subjects taken by successful candidates. It would be helpful and searching for it is such a pain!

And now - I’m going to apologise. The Law Faculty page at Cambridge is at odds with the A level choices page. The faculty does include Sociology. Cambridge seem to need to coordinate what they say!

I would actually think courses should list the most popular subjects taken by successful candidates

You used to be able to find this on DiscoverUni and on UCAs but that info has disappeared. I wonder if , for small course, it was considered 'too identifying'.

@Piggywaspushed It never was easy to find for some applicants though. Put it on the course info page on the web site. It can be most popular subjects over 10 years if they want! So would not be identifying I think. It would show trends though and it should be much easier to find.