Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Further education

You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum.

Original poster

A level choices - Philosophy, Biology & photography???

39 replies

loveisenough · 01/12/2019 18:25

DD is in the process of applying to college but unsure what she wants to do afterwards. She is interested in philosophy, biology and photography but wondering if they are good choices together. Any thoughts please?

Other possible subjects could be psychology, history, classical civilisation. She will also take sports enrichment.

OP posts:
billybagpuss · 01/12/2019 18:28

If she doesn’t know what she wants to do, do what she is most interested in, it’s such as difficult time for them.

It’s also worth looking through a few uni prospectus to see if there’s anything that takes her fancy and if they have any prerequisites.

Dd switched from photography as the editing package they used was rubbish.

Original poster
loveisenough · 01/12/2019 18:33

Thanks and yes we will have a look at some courses. She’s keen to keep up something creative and currently taking gcse textiles but college do not offer it at A level.

OP posts:
ORIGIONALCUMBERCOOKIE · 01/12/2019 23:42

I myself chose English language law French economics and German. I wasn't sure what economics was until enrollment day, but I was told it worked well with law. It's good to do subjects which interlink, as knowledge learnt in one feeds into others, like French and English. I know I want to be a barrister so I fit my choices around that but pick what you enjoy- philosophy is very very hard apparently but photography sounds good my friend does it

BubblesBuddy · 02/12/2019 22:16

If you want to do Law at university don’t do Law A level! You also don’t need 5 A levels. Economics needs Maths A level to compliment it too. So slightly odd choices here for Law. History, English and MFLs is more than enough.

OP: these subjects are slightly random. If any of them, as an individual subject, is taken at university, what is the best subject to go with them? What degree might she do? These A levels would look better if Photography was replaced with English, History or Maths. Picking random A levels does make degree choices harder.

titchy · 02/12/2019 22:25

It's an odd combo alright!

Why Biology? If she's interested in a Biology degree she needs another Science - so swap Philosophy for Psychology maybe - or better still maths.

If she doesn't want to do Bio as a degree then I'd suggest she drops it as an A level.

If she's only doing a creative for enjoyment, rather than because she's considering a creative degree again I'd rethink - they tend to be very heavy time wise and the impact on grades of the other subjects shouldn't be ignored.

stucknoue · 02/12/2019 22:30

If she is contemplating biology for further study she will need a second science or maths. Photography is very time consuming and requires real passion, far from an easy option.

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 22:35

Photography?

V Bad choice IMO. Good uni will reject that immediately.

titchy · 02/12/2019 22:38

Good uni will reject that immediately.

That would rather depend on the degree subject.

Stupiddriver1 · 02/12/2019 22:44

My dd did an odd combination of biology, geography and product design.

School said if she was interested in science she needed to take 2x sciences and if she wasn’t interested in science she shouldn’t take one. But she stuck to her guns as she said she wanted to take the subjects she liked best and was good at.

She got onto an architecture degree. She already knew she wanted to do architecture and that it didn’t matter what subjects her A levels were in.

So I guess as long as your dd knows that one science probably isn’t enough to go on to study science at degree level it doesn’t matter. If she’s unsure what she wants to do next (if she’s thinking of uni) get her to look at prospectuses to see if she likes the idea of something. Then she can check the course requirements.

BillieEilish · 02/12/2019 22:55

Sorry, I'll back off here, 'photography and good uni' to me, do not go hand in hand at all.

I entirely misjudged OP.

I was talking Russell Group/Oxbridge. Apologies.

titchy · 03/12/2019 07:36

I was talking Russell Group/Oxbridge. Apologies.

So was I Hmm

Two solid academic subjects plus photography will be fine for most BA degrees at most RG universities.

Trewser · 03/12/2019 07:37

V Bad choice IMO. Good uni will reject that immediately

Rubbish.

Trewser · 03/12/2019 07:39

And if she wanted to do, say, Physio or Radiology, then single Biology is fine. Dd has a friend doing Physio at Southampton who took Textiles,.Rs and Biology.

LizziesTwin · 03/12/2019 07:43

I don’t think Bath is Russell Group but it’s highly regarded. DS was told they didn’t care what his 3rd A level was as long as he got the right grades (for aeronautical engineering they said Maths, Physics & Dance was fine).

Broken11Girl · 03/12/2019 07:43

Adding to the voices that this will be fine for a 'good' uni. Nothing wrong with an unusual combination, it might actually make her a more interesting candidate. I think the combination of a science, humanities subject (assume the history etc would be instead of philosophy) and an arts subject demonstrates a range of skills. Furthermore if she genuinely enjoys the subjects she'll get better grades.

JumpiestBat · 03/12/2019 07:45

I'm probably old fashioned but I'd stick to core subjects. I wanted to do Psychology Sociology and English but my headteacher persuaded me to do English History and Economics. I got into a far better university (to do Philosophy as a degree) than I had expected would have me as a result.

It looks like she's got a bit of a muddle of topics, not potentially focused enough to single her out for a science or arts degree.

Looking at it objectively she seems to have interest in social science and humanities so perhaps Biology History and English or Psychology would give her more wiggle room given the breadth of topics you mention that interest her.

Trewser · 03/12/2019 08:12

Birmingham told dd2 that Rs, English and photography would have been fine for Philosophy!

LizziesTwin · 03/12/2019 08:40

Philosophy & biology are mainstream subjects - masses of content in biology (have had 3 children do biology A levels in the last 3 years).

I can give numerous examples of universities being more open minded nowadays than they were in the past. Eg Maths, physics, Spanish art - offers everywhere for architecture (including Cambridge & UCL), chemistry Spanish biology, 4 offers for medicine & offered 5th, chemistry biology Latin maths, offered 4/4 medicine plus other choice.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

Shimy · 03/12/2019 08:48

What does she want to study? She must have a vague idea because she’s clearly not going for medicine, biochemistry or engineering, so she has somewhat narrowed it a bit. It’s always a good idea to choose subjects based on uni entry requirements because some of the universities can be quite particular about certain subjects and you don’t want to find out at the last minute, that ’s a subject she could’ve done but didn’t do because she wasn’t fully informed when choosing.

The issue is not the ‘photography’, the question is what are the other two subjects? are they two solid/traditional subjects? If they are, then the third being photography doesn’t matter at all RG or not.
I would advise that OP’s DD chooses two traditional subjects and ONLY ONE out of:

Photography
Philosophy
Classical civilisation
Sports enrichment (not quite sure what this is, is an ex curricular?)

If she does that, she’ll be fine.

Trewser · 03/12/2019 08:56

Classical civilisation and Philosophy or RS are well regarded subjects. And as lots of us have said, Photography is fine taken as a third subject.

Velveteenfruitbowl · 03/12/2019 09:00

Classical civilisation and philosophy would go very well together.

Original poster
loveisenough · 03/12/2019 09:01

Thanks so much for the replies, DD and I have been reading with interest. She's still undecided but some good advice here so the deliberating continues!

OP posts:
Original poster
loveisenough · 03/12/2019 09:14

As she is not sure what she might do at Uni then she wants to keep her options open and take a broader range of subjects. She is very sporty (sport would be taken as extra curricular) and is quite interested in physiotherapy but also very creative and doesn't want to take out the option of an arts degree. She's very good at History but doesn't want to take it at A Level.

She currently takes textiles at GCSE but the college only offer Art & Design or photography at A Level. She talked to the college tutor and was assured she could slant her work in Art & Design towards textiles. She wasn't sure about that so photography became another option.

My DS took Maths, Chemistry & Biology A Levels and decided on these very easily. I'm coming form the other angle as I took two art
A Levels plus English then an arts degree.

I think it's such a difficult choice at age 15 if you are not sure of the direction you might want to follow.

OP posts:
BlaueLagune · 03/12/2019 17:48

Sounds like a good selection to me. PRE is a very well regarded A level, biology obviously is too, and photography is great if she wants something creative alongside. Not everyone wants to be a scientist or lawyer, MNers give well meaning advice but seem to forget that at times. I think a humanity, science and creative subject is a good combination for keeping a lot of options open.

BubblesBuddy · 03/12/2019 18:14

Photography is great for a photography degree and would work well with Art. DD did these and then did a creative fashion degree. Textiles was part of her A level. Photography on its own limits her. Art doesn’t because it’s broader. She should also look at Art Foundation courses and see if these are of interest. Just doing Photography and having an eye on a creative degree might not be good enough. Do check.

I would assume a Physio degree requires Biology but does any other subject compliment this? What do the universities offering this subject suggest? Doing Sport for pleasure and Biology sounds good but what about Psychology?

With the expansion of the universities it is a buyer’s market. What universities want for medics is completely irrelevant here as she’s not taking the right A levels and I would think that career isn’t on her radar.

LizziesTwin is saying things have changed but the subjects she quotes for an architect are perfect. They include Maths, Physics and Art. Mixes of chemistry, biology and maths are ideal for medicine so not sure these are great examples of changes in admission requirements for that career. If a budding medic had taken Biology, Classical Civilisation and Photography I would have been amazed!

OP: try and think about jobs and interests. Is she most interested in sport? If so, what jobs are there in this field and how do you qualify for them? If she’s interested in Classical Civilisation do History with it. If she likes Art, do Art and not Photography or both. Look at degrees and the best combinations of subjects. Often it’s only 2 that are required or desirable and the third is very optional unless you want Oxbridge.