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??

Dd has just finished her gcses and is also an all rounder - predicted all 9s - no idea what she wants to do at uni / for a career. Also doing grade 8 piano, intermediate ballet and enjoys army cadets, athletics and fencing.
She has decided to do IB with physics, maths and chemistry highers and philosophy, Spanish and English lowers. She is interested in politics and has chaired an international Model UN conference.

Most schools let them do 4 A levels if the 4th is Further Maths. My eldest 3 all took 4 A levels including Maths and Further Maths.
2 did engineering and 1 medicine.

Mine wants finance and is doing Maths, Further Maths, Accounting and Criminology.

DS is in year 12 now, got 8-9 on GCSEs. He wasn’t sure which direction to go until end of year 11 and chose chem, maths, bio, further maths. He wants to study chemistry at university.

What helped was looking at various uni courses and their requirements then working backwards and choosing a levels.

If your dd achieves a 9 in maths, I would encourage maths as an a level because it is applicable to so many courses and jobs.

My ds was an all rounder and did the IB: higher level maths, chemistry and biology and standard level English, geography and German and his extended essay was on two 19th century novels.
the IB diploma is fabulous for all rounders.

My all rounder did Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Music at A level. They looked at their parents’ arts grad careers and income and took another path 😂

No clue as to where her future interests for deeper study at Uni might lie? No steer as to future employment preferences?

It matters: she needs facilitating subjects.

Its great that english and maths are definate. They are such versatile and valuable subjects to have. Can really demonstrate varying strengths. If you lack a subject that fewer schools teach, it's less likely to disadvantage you in uni applications. So I wouldn't bother with economics or politics myself. I would encourage her to go with the ones she enjoys the most, she isn't sure what that is right now and so needs to really look at the syllabus of things like history to see if the particular topics excite her.

The only thing you said she loves is classics, so that says a lot and is enough to pick it.

Law, finance and politics are not really vocational - they value a good degree more than a particular degree. They look at the individual in recruitment. Museum work is very competitive and requires specific knowledge. But it's never too late. If she falls for it later on she'll probably do a masters anyway.

So basically what I'm saying is don't worry, whatever she picks will be fine and not close doors to her. Encourage her to read around the subjects and find out what she is most interested in and will enjoy the most.

7s at GCSE may not translate into great A level grades for sciences though.

I was like your DD - ended up doing English Lit, History, French and Biology A Levels, before a law degree, masters degree and ultimately working in law (although still sometimes wish I’d become a history teacher and second guess myself everyday! 😅😅)

Math, further maths, English literature and history.
4 a levels can have advantage if the fourth is more likely to result in Astar than the third one.

Other DC chose 3 sciences and 1 humanity.

Btw several unis let you do an extra language course on top of the normal course. Doesn't count towards the degree as such

Has your DD considered scooping up a French A-level out of school, as you say she is already fluent? If suitably motivated to read the books, do essays etc. could learn online and knock it out at the end of the first year of Sixth Form? Appreciate this would be stretching but I do know other students who have done this. The school acted as the exam centre with them as an external candidate I think.

My all rounder in Y12 (considering classics at uni and potentially law after but at a state school offering no class civ / Latin/ etc ) is doing English, Maths, History and Spanish.

The language is his most challenging subject but he loves it, he may drop it for Y13 to keep high grades as considering oxbridge. He misses some of the sciences from GCSE, especially physics, but the maths keeps a lot of doors open. He considered economics and politics as options but went for solid academic subjects to keep the breadth. It’s been good so far and while still looking at classics / history for uni courses the maths has meant economics / PPE / psychology are all viable options he is considering.

I resonate with your daughter - found it really hard to pick my A-levels and ended up doing four all the way through - Maths, English Literature, Chemistry and Geography. Went on to read Geography at uni (mostly because Geogroahy covers a bit of everything - think science, maths, history, politics etc) and then joined the civil service on the Fast Stream as a policy advisor. I’ve always enjoyed being a generalist - and really loved the spread of A Levels which all required different skills / thinking.

My DD did Maths, History, Biology and Further maths (she would have done physics instead of further maths but the school couldn't timetable that) she dropped further maths after a year which was quite normal at her school. She went on to do biology at uni. But it was a close thing between history and biology. If your dd gets English and Maths at A level then she can go onto virtually anything (apart from specific sciences but she seems more attracted to humanities) I'd suggest she goes with the A levels whose course outlines she finds most interesting. My DD actually started French and switched to biology after a couple of weeks so it's not set in stone.

Many years ago now but I was also an all rounder. I didn’t have a clue what i wanted to do for a career so I picked subjects that spread across the spectrum. English Lit, Biology, and Geography.

Should comment that I’m now an Analyst and my degree is completely irrelevant.

If she likes classics, might she like archaeology? Runs the gamut from the humanities/social sciences through the natural and physical sciences and maths, often all at the same time! Pretty much any combination of subjects would be fine for archaeology at most universities

Not an expert in all-rounder A Levels but she might want to consider taking French. All the bilingual kids at my colleague took the A Level in their second language, some with just a bit of independent study, and it meant they had that grade basically guaranteed to bring up their average if they got below their predicted in another.

The A level results depend on each individual subject. The A level results are not pooled at many better unis. @92elv If a uni wants AAA it might not take Astar in place of a C.

@Emalex My DD years ago got Astars for 9 GCSEs but A in Chemistry and maths. So didn’t go forward to A level using any of those. If she’s getting a 7, do not do the sciences, in my view. Maths at a 9 is different.

My dd enjoyed MFLs but had no advantage as yours does. She had to work for her top grades. She did MFLs at university and converted to law. I don’t think Latin confers any great advantage at uni because MFLs can be added to a degree, eg Law and French. Maths, History, and English are good for law. Or maths, history and a MFL. Look at the Cambridge guide to choosing A levels. It brings clarity to the dilemma.

DD had quite a few friends who wanted a policy role. Unbelievably difficult to get, Not one actually did and a friends DS is still struggling to get a grad job after a politics degree. If she does a politics degree, lowering sights seems to be necessary because (it seems to me) specialists inform policy.

Museum work again is specialist in many areas. Quite different to law! I think for DC who are good at most things, choose the strongest but academic subjects. This gives broadest choice later on.

I was an all rounder and really struggled with choosing my A Levels. I had no idea what I wanted to do at university or for my career.

My advice would be to look at university courses, and keep a broad view and see which of the A Levels keep more doors open. Then do the same with top graduate programmes and see how many of their routes are closed off by not doing certain degrees. You might find there are courses or graduate programmes you hadn’t considered that sound incredibly interesting and one choice over another at A Level will keep the door open.

I did History, Classical Civilisations, English Lit and Maths (Maths was dropped after AS as it didn’t ‘fit’ as neatly with the others) thinking it would keep my options open, but actually if I’d done Politics instead of Classics which I’d considered there were a bunch of additional courses I could have taken oddly enough.

I went on to do a Classics degree, as my options were actually quite limited at university level by my choices and I thought the prestige of it would open more doors. It didn’t. Having not studied Latin did not stop me doing Classics, nor did having studied Classical Civilisations help.

I had access to the generic graduate schemes but none of the specialist options and I would have liked to have some of those options open to me. Or a specific vocation I could fall back on. I remember choosing not to do a law degree because I probably wouldn’t want to be a lawyer, but a law degree would have kept all the same doors open to me as Classics did, plus more.

I ended up joining the Civil Service Fast Stream and did perfectly well for myself regardless, so it isn’t a huge regret. But more open doors would have been better.

If you can do the IB that is almost certainly better for us all rounders. Also, if she is fluent in a language, absolutely take advantage of that and do the independent studying to familiarise with the materials and take that easy result. It will keep more options available and provide a safety net.

This is, of course, why many DC find MFLs a turn off. For too many it’s a gimme, It affects the ability of others to get top grades.

Here’s the Cambridge info,

As long as she is doing Maths (which you say is non-negotiable) then I think her further choices should be mainly driven by the subjects she feels most enthused about. Finding out how inspiring the teachers are in those subjects (bearing in mind that might change) isn't a bad idea either!

I wouldn't push the approach, but if she is thinking about "keeping options open" for degree level then politics, economics don't help in this respect. Latin, History, Further Maths do all keep options open (in Classics, History and Maths degrees) though it's not impossible to do Classics and (to a lesser extent) History without A-levels in those subjects. A bigger consideration is that Further Maths is highly recommended for top Economics degrees (but not essential, and she could certainly do eg PPE without).

So if she loves Maths and is very good at it I would probably encourage Further Maths. And then whatever subject she loves most and will be taught well in for the rest.

I was very much an all rounder myself and did Maths, FM, English and Economics (after a last minute swing from M, FM, Physics, Chem) and went on to do PPE (after a last minute swing for Maths). Worked for me!

This isn’t applicable across the board (although it should be) but some Unis don’t accept native language a-levels as part of an offer. Quite how they can prove/disprove that it’s a native language with 100% accuracy is a question though.

What a lovely problem to have! I was similar (very academic across the board). I did English lit, history, maths and business studies. I think generally she'd be better aiming for "proper subjects" I found BS was a bit.. well, bs. It was easy which helped me do 4 but it's not really any use, I think English and Maths are a great starting point, if she wants to do PPE or Politics at uni (or Law) they'll be looking at grades and academic subjects like English, Maths, History, further Maths, a language etc, she won't need a politics or law A level. Personally, I'd avoid those ones and stick with broad, traditional, academic subjects so she can choose any degree. If there's one she finds trickier or not as enjoyable she can jump on that early and swap if she needs to

My son’s at an academic school and also an all rounder. If she wants finance then take economics if offered (and maths)
law - anything can work
he’s doing maths economics Spanish and religious studies/philosophy
if she wants Oxbridge which interview then 4 isn’t a disadvantage - they are looking for clever kids. Everyone at his school takes 4. You still need 3 good a levels only of course for the actual admission.
I agree with other posters - if you want a top uni then choose your superpower subject since you’re likely to enjoy it more and get a better result and also potentially an edge in getting in. You can do further qualifications if you want to move say into finance later on (mba at a London school, masters in finance)