What are your all-rounders doing at A-Level

[Emalex]

DD has just finished her A-Levels, she is a true all rounder type of kid and loves everything. Her GCSES were English, Maths, Triple Science, German, Geography, History, Classics, Latin (done as an elective in lunch and after school) and French (DH is French, both our kids do French Saturday School, speak French at home etc. so this didn't take much in the way of studying, just soe time familiarising wit question style etc.)
She is predicted 7-9 across the board, sciences were all 7, German, Geography and History 8, 9 for Maths, English lit and lang, Classics, Latin and French. She also plays competitive tennis to high level and just did Grade 7 Piano. (This makes us sound very pushy but it all comes from DD, she us a twin and DS Did 11 GCSES, predicted 6/7/8, quit music at 13 and doesn't love sports so will just about play football with friends once a week - we are proud of them bot and don't force DD into being busy)

Now DD has no idea what she wants to do, she likes the idea of working in Law or Finance, but also loves classics and thinks maybe researcher or museum work, also has an interest in politics so thinks maybe politics and economics might be for her then thinktank/policy advisor role. We aren't putting pressure on picking anything but she does need to finalise her A-Levels.

Her original choice was English Lang+Lit, Maths, Classics, Economics, but since then shes wanted to swap in Politics, Latin, History and Further maths. English and Maths are set in stone, she really wants to do them

So what are your all-rounder kids studying at A-Level as DD is finding it very hard to pick!! Any advice on what she should pick??

If it helps my dd chose 3 and then when results came out she changes one. Will school let yours do that? The grades she got influenced her final choice.

also will they let her do 4 and drop one at half term?

They are happy for her to 4 all the way through which DD really wants, it is just figuring which 4 to pick!

Dd would love to do 4 but it is discouraged at her school.

She is looking at 8-9's across the board. She particularly likes maths sciences history & language.

She is looking at maths, physics, chemistry & further maths. But she is really struggling to let go of history & Spanish.

So final decision isn't made yet.

Re uni she is thinking maths, engineering, medicine.

My niece is an all rounder and is looking at Maths, Philosophy, Spanish and Biology. Trying to keep options open for both stem and humanities as she’s undecided between two paths.

DD did Psychology (which is more science/maths than I thought), History, Politics and Biology.
She is going to study Zoology at Uni.
DS has a year to choose but he is thinking Psychology, Physics and Law. I think Biology would be a better fit but he really likes Physics. He may opt for CS instead/as well but he gets 6/7 there so hes's not sure.

Well if she wants to keep the broadest possible range of options open for university, her best choices are probably Maths, English, Latin and either History, Economics or Further Maths (does her school count Further Maths as a half or a whole choice in itself, i.e. could she do 5 of which one is further maths?). Classics/Classical Civilization is an interesting and fun choice but she can definitely still go ahead as do a degree in that without the specific A Level if that's what she wants, and the more prestigious Classics degrees probably include the language option which would give her a headstart if she'd done the language A Level (although options in academia/research/museum work are really very limited even for high achieving undergraduates in Classics/Ancient History, most graduates either don't work in the field or go into teaching after their undergrad, that doesn't mean it's not a really great choice as an all-around degree, she could def go into Politics or Law or a whole variety of other careers after a Classics degree). Likewise with politics, she can do a Politics or PPE degree without the Politics A Level, although it is good to have an essay subject but between Latin and English she should get that. If she wanted to do a History degree specifically she probably ought to do the A Level but again a history degree not vital for any of her career thoughts so if she isn't in love with the subject then...

Honestly very little point doing 4 a levels. Better to try 4 and then drop it when she’s tried the course.

I don’t understand what you mean by ‘very little point’?

This is a girl who loves lots of subjects and is excited to continue studying a number of them at a higher level. That seems in itself to be a good enough reason to do four?

Unless, of course, you don’t consider the love of studying a subject to be reason enough in itself to make it worthwhile 🙄

Oh we hear this a lot.

It’s because universities only usually offer based on 3 a-levels so the current mantra is only do three. Love of subjects or learning seems to pale into insignificance now, sadly. Understand not wanting to overload and achieving 4 less good results as opposed to 3 stellar ones but it seems a shame to hold
truly able kids back.

My daughter did Eng Lit, Politics and RS for A level, got top grades

went to University to study English Lit, got a first

is now on a graduate programme in a corporate bank, studying for her ACA. The graduate programme was highly contested, less than half a percent of applicants got a place on the scheme

from our experience, let her study what she loves, doing humanities has not held our daughter back from a career in finance Getting great grades helped her more than her subject choices

i am aware that Goldmans are only interested in Finance, Economics etc type degrees for their graduate scheme so if she wants to aim for them her degree choice is important

Rather than careers has she looked at what she wants to do at uni? Some courses might have specific subject entry requirements to be aware of. I would take Latin instead of classics if she might want to study classics at university, it’s useful to go in with that grounding in at least one classical language.

Otherwise I think it sounds fine, or she could swap economics for history. It doesn’t sound like she would gain from taking further maths.

I did 5 A Levels and am very grateful that I was allowed to do so (it does depend on grades and ability and you need to prove yourself to the college to be allowed to continue, but it is possible). I feel it put me ahead in terms of university applications and even future job applications. Can always start off with 5 at AS and see how she does. If she wants to drop 1 then she can, as she will know what she likes less by then.

(Saying this in response to people saying that there's no need to do 4. I'd disagree - it's definitely been helpful to me.)

Ds was an all rounder and did chemistry, physics, biology and geography. Dropped physics at AS. I would say as the step up is huge do what she loves. Definitely worth looking at possible uni courses and what they might need. DS definitely needed Alevel biology for the uni course he went on to do.

8-9 predictions across the board. He's doing further maths, chemistry and Spanish

Unless you took them after 2017 your experience might be out of date because they revamped the A levels and added more content. Very unusual to take more than four. Three is the norm.

OP has she considered moving to do the IB?

My kid's an all rounder and thought, as she headed out of GCSEs, she may want to do either Law or Psychology at degree level. She ended up taking Geography, English Lit and Maths at A Level along with an EPQ. Turns out she absolutely loves A Level Geography and she's set on doing that as a degree.

4 A Levels along with all your daughter's extra curriculum will probably be quite a challenge from what I've seen. I guess she can try but with the option of dropping one if she finds it too much. My kid has extra curriculum every evening and at least one day at the weekend but is thinking of limiting this as she heads into her final A Level year.

My all-rounder is doing maths, English literature, history and has (for now) decided on AS Spanish as a 4th - after spending a lot of time wondering if further maths would be a better choice. Currently planning on a history degree.

We looked into the IB, but the only places remotely near us that offer it are fee-paying. If we lived elsewhere, I think it would have been a serious contender.

Good luck with your Dd deciding.

Personally, I did 4 A levels and found it tough. I did work as well, and done critical thinking

University didn’t care about UCAS points which I didn’t understand when applying for a levels, but wanted AAA/AAB, which I didn’t end up quite getting with 4.5 a levels, uni didn’t consider this. Had to do a foundation course to get on my chosen course (competitive)

(BTW I got a first class Masters degree from a top university, so I was academically capable. And I had 12 GCSES at A/A*, a levels just were another level!)

Does she have the option to do the IB rather than A levels? My DD has just finished it and it is great for keeping options open. You have to do English, foreign language, maths and a science and 2 others.

DD got 9s in GCSEs, does the IB, loves it. I realise that may not be helpful as it's not that widely available (esp. in state schools/colleges).

IB!

Is that an option at her school? You have to take 6 subjects - maths, literature (English or another language), a science, a humanity, a language plus one other subject from any category. Three subjects are at higher level (roughly equivalent to an A level in terms of the syllabus depth and breadth) three at standard level (roughly equivalent to an AS level unless you learn a new language ab initio). There is also an extended essay (a bit like an EPQ), Theory of Knowledge (a bit like critical analysis skills/philosophy) plus you have to do community service/sports/creative activities (creativity, activity and service).

It is a lot of work though…

I was quite similar to your daughter in that I got 9 grade 9s and a grade 8 at GCSE, played the clarinet and piano to grade 7ish, and netball competitively. I read English Literature, History, Mathematics, and Economics at A-Level on the basis I wanted to do a degree in English/History/Law/PPE and this combination kept my options open for as long as possible. I ended up doing an English Lit degree followed by a law conversion and am now a trainee solicitor. Economics has been unexpectedly very useful when interviewing for training contracts with law firms and friends from my A-Level class have said they’ve drawn from it in interviews for all sorts of things: finance grad schemes, policy roles at regulators, the civil service fast stream, publishing, journalism etc. While you could probably absorb the information the A-Level teaches by reading widely, it’s a lot easier to engage with articles about economic and political developments when you have the thorough understanding of supply and demand/the labour market/interest rates which A-Level Economics builds and the commercial awareness that comes with that sort of engagement is really useful for all sorts of roles!

Mine did Maths, Physics, History, EPQ. Went on to do a History degree. The Maths has proved a bit of a bonus when applying for grad schemes though. They liked the balance.

I would suggest Maths, Eng Lit, History and Latin. That gives her quite a lot of options.

FM might be good for possible economics degrees/careers. but it's an awful lot of maths.