DS has no idea what he wants to do and what A levels to take and it is getting him down

[Monr0e]

He is currently in the middle of his GCSE'S, he has good predicted grades and has been offered a place at his chosen college for A levels. The problem is, he is getting himself in a tizz as he doesn't know what to do. He initially chose Law, Psychology and business studies, but he is now leaning towards physics, maths and law. The problem is, in his own words, he isn't interested in anything in particular and doesn't know what he wants to do!

Any advice I can give him? He has an open day coming up but no idea how to make a firm decision.

Yes 100% agree why I think he should be looking at the uni course now for ideas of what he may like. I know we did this and it did work. My ds1 quickly went from basically the same as your son back to English combined, RE & Maths. She wants to do Law at university but is also interested in other opportunities what math's gives her access too.
History is a strong Alevel but under advice a extremely hard one( she is bright and did fine gsce). The booklets can show him avenues he may not have even considered and the right Alevels as "stepping stones" to get him there. Hope this helps.

He could end up doing a job such as science communications. Explaining complicated issues to wide audiences. There are so many jobs and work areas we don't even know about!
If he is interested in physics, he must take maths and needs to be very strong in maths. Watch Brian Cox.
I have understood that if you want to study business studies after A-levels, it is better to have maths than business studies for A-level.
I have not heard of anyone whose career adviser would have been helpful.

I'd suggest maths physics and history. They keep the options wide open for later. When he's done A levels, no need to rush off to university; get a gap year job .

If he later wants to study law, business studies or psychology those subjects would be better served at university , where he can start them from scratch

You can't start history, maths or physics degrees from scratch.

I think for him to keep his options open it is not a crazy idea to have sciencey subject and then another where he writes essays to get a balance and show he can do both.

Ask most adults what they want to do and many have no idea! I think lots of people just fall into things really. I've told my daughter (same age) to pick subjects she'll enjoy and go from there. Good luck

Definitely don’t do psych, business and law - all three are a bit wishy washy. Should have some solids academic subjects which offer multiple choices, if unsure and quite academic. From what you’ve said, he should do maths, physics, history and one of business or psych (or maybe economics).
He should at least start with four if he’s capable, or he will likely have too many free periods and is likely to waste much of this time

Lots of schools just say do 3. No 4th is offered. Free periods are for reading and prep.

Law is ok for Law at uni if you put it with, say, History and Maths. Psychology is great for Psychology as long as you put it with Biology. It’s also ok as a second science at some universities. Business Studies is fine for Business Studies but best combined with Maths and an essay subject. These subjects have their place but not all three together. You want a mix of subjects that keep doors open: English, Maths. sciences, MFL, Geography, History and then do subject specific eg: Politics, Psychology, RE, Economics according to what he likes.

When DC do what they like with no planning and looking at possible degrees, wrong A level choices narrow university choice. Courses are closed off. It’s always best to plan and not planning harms social mobility.

Generally the jobs he'd get from following the "science" route will be much better paid than the "Humanities" ones.

If he's potentially interested in Law then any essay based a level will enable entry to a law degree.

He's a bit of a perfectionist, loves explaining things to people

That screamed Teacher to me.
Math & Science teachers are in huge demand. He would never be unemployed, and with a solid math degree he could spring board to just about any other field.
A lot of the rest of his interests (history, etc) can be hobbies.
Psychologists do a lot of math, btw, he could get on a psychology course (or law, or history) with math, physics & law as a-levels.

For a Law degree History is a better choice for essays. Better than Law. But History and Law are fine.

If he had any thought of a maths degree he might want to consider Maths and Further maths A level though.

He should just pick the subjects he enjoys most and will do well in. Speak to subject teachers to find out statistically how well people with his profile do at A Level (ie in maths, a 9 at GCSE would usually mean an A or B at A Level, 8 would often mean C/D, 7 would mean D/E, 6 at GCSE often fails A Level. But I know this is not the same for other subjects, and a 7 might still have a good chance of getting B/C)

He shouldn't get too hung up on "closing doors". Yes, some specific courses at specific unis have quite rigid entry requirements, but if you have 3 good A Levels in your hands, there will be plenty of doors left wide open.

I also agree with PP that it's risky choosing all "new" subjects for A Level.

Psychology or law at university should he be interested in those, are both subjects that require logic (maths side) and essay writing. I would suggest maths, physics and then either history as you said you liked that, or economics or maybe business studies. Certainly wouldn’t bother with law a level (I studied law at uni). Psychology is considered a good a level by some.

Yes to the engineering suggestion. There’s a huge skill shortage in engineering, it’s a good solid career the U.K. has lots of opportunities in. Some apprenticeships some uni.

physics and maths are good. the Big Bang fair is on next week if your near enough the nec. That’s well worth a trip if you can get tickets, as it’s normally very heavily represented in engineering type uni and businesses (rolls Royce being one).

I was a bit like your son, I’ll be honest I swapped about loads and never found my thing because there was no end goal. Barely scraped through a levels as I couldn’t see the point.

keep him focus’d that he doesn’t have to know for sure, it’s just the next step on a long path.

I did maths, physics and history at A level. Maths and physics really compliment each other. Maths and physics at a level have opened doors for me and the govt have paid me bursaries to support a) my degree (ages ago now) and b) now teacher training.

history a level was more like light relief compared to the other two, but it taught me how to write essays and a balanced argument.

What we did in a similar situation was look at university websites at all the courses that might interest him and checked the entry requirements. There were a few courses that required 2 science A levels for example. Most of those considered psychology as a second science and so my son went for history, biology and psychology as he wasn't as strong in chemistry or physics. The combination can be important so it is definitely worth having a look at entry requirements.

Many students like the idea of psychology and law, but not the reality. Have a look at some free online courses with Future Learn or Coursera.

Law at A level no longer inhibits entry to university. That is old information.

Space engineering is fine as an undergrad degree in answer to the poster that said it's niche.
You learn a lot of specific skills/knowledge required for the space industry (which is actually pretty decent in the UK), so it opens a lot of doors in that respect, but it doesn't really shut any doors as far as normal engineering jobs go either.
Plus it's super interesting!

As a careers adviser,
A) I'd be wary of assuming what teenager tells his parents or teachers about his guidance interview is 'all' that happened - quite a lot of exploration might have occured before suggesting he look at the info to get ideas of what he could do with his strengths and interests, after they'd identified he was struggling to make decisions because of having long term goals. Or of course,it may not have been a very good careers interview! But it's not realistic to think an unfocussed young person is going to come out knowing what they want to do as a career after 40 minutes.

B) My advice would be not to panic about not having a long term goal at this stage. 3 main things to consider: what is he good at, what he most likely to be really interested in studying and is he ruling any potential careers out? The first 2 because the jump to A levels is a big one and he'll need some interest to keep him motivated.

In terms of careers, as others have said if he has any leaning at all towards maths and physics, and assuming he can get at least good B grades at gcse or whatever the equivalent in England is, it would be a shame to drop them and rule out scientific courses at uni. There's not much point taking physics without maths though, as most engineering and physics degrees will ask for maths.

However, if he also has an interest on more humanities based subjects, definitely include them too for breadth of skills and variety for him. I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea history is automatically more useful than law, psychology etc. He's learning useful transferable skills either way, so he could go with whichever subject matter interests him most, but he does need to really research the course content for anything he hasn't done at gcse to make sure he doesn't have a false idea of what they will be like.

Of course, if he really can't find 3 subjects he is interested in, he should also be asking does he definitely want A-levels? Are there any vocational courses or apprenticeships that inspire him more? I suspect not as he is quite unfocussed and these would be narrower, but always worth the question!

If he is interested in space then physics and maths are good subjects to take. If he goes to uni then he should have a look at astro physics or similar.

www.surrey.ac.uk/undergraduate/physics-astronomy

If he doesn't want to go to uni then he will still have academic subjects which will open doors.

Has he considered trying to study in a more broad way? You could have a look around and see if there is any IB provision local to you and/or explore the possibility of taking four subjects in first year of sixth form with a view to dropping one of them for the second year, taking an AS instead.

Thank you all so so much, this has all been incredibly helpful.

His favourite subject is physics and I think he has settled on physics and maths so I will suggest history or psychology, which he also enjoys, as ones to consider. And we'll do a lot more reading around future uni courses and requirements.

His first 2 years at high school he was quite unhappy, and his second 2 were mostly spent in lockdown. So I'm not surprised at all he has not settled on a job for the rest of his life at 15.

He can be quite a worrier at times, doesn't like change and like a clear path ahead of him. So even though I know it's normal to chop and change throughout ife he isn't keen on that idea. However if his options leave future doors more open than closed then that is a great start.

That's fine, this was me. So I went for academic over vocational studies, and he can do the same. Leaves his options very open. Politics Philosophy and Economics are decent options and if you decide what you want to do in life after A-Levels you can focus in a degree.

If he wants to do a science degree though -thought people do tend to focus on these early, it's a passion or a parental pathway and requires massive focus- he could opt for an extra A-Level in a science subject later.

If he does some academic subjects and an academic degree he could go into teaching, law, or medicine with a bachelor's degree as post-graduate study.

A degree in any subject can also qualify him to teach in Korea and China, you don't need anything else other than being a native English speaker.

You can't force him to want a specific career and he can't force himself so I say keep his options open.

This is what I did and I ended up happy in what I do with a varied work history that makes me employable in many sectors. It's a good use of our education system.

As a senior lawyer who did a business management degree ( so nothing against either law or business studies) I would say that law, business studies and psychology would be a really bad mix of A levels. They're all new subjects and so he might hate all of them. Law is not highly regarded. Business studies is considered a wishy washy/broad "easy" A level.