Is this a common alevel combo for law?

[rainsbows]

Dd has chosen psychology, history and English literature to start in September. Does this sound ok?

Drop psychology for Theology

Sounds fine. Psychology includes maths content and logical thought.

Interesting. Any reason? Dds school offer philosophy not theology and she hasn’t expressed any interest in it.

Yes we thought so. She’s targeted a grade 8 for maths so should be fine.

I would encourage also doing an EPQ - a personal dissertation that is worth 28 further UCCA points (half an A Level) and helps enormously when competing for a Law place at uni.

Definitely do the EPQ in the first of the two A Level years though - the final year is full-on and it’s much better to have the EPQ done and in the bag.

It’s fine @rainsbows - theology would also be fine, as would philosophy, but if she is more interested in psych then that is the one to go for.

A level choice does not matter. EPQ not needed either. DD was told this several times by people in the know. Even the degree does not have to be law. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to follow law and spoke to lecturer at Durham on open day who said study what your passion is and take law exams afterwards. She went on to take a degree in Anthropology. She now is flying high in banking. 🤷🏼‍♀️Her A levels were Eng lit, History and Biology.

Just picking up on the law conversion point: DH and i are both solicitors who did other degrees and then - some years later - did the conversion courses. Neither of us anticipated being lawyers but we came to it by chance (easier to do decades ago) and love it.

Until recently, i was at a large city law firm and though probably somewhat more of my colleagues had law degrees, plenty had done something else at uni and come to law after that, including some of the partners. I think either route can work really well.

Just one note: most of the US bars refuse to recognise the law conversion course. For example, you can only sit for admission to the NY Bar if you have a law degree and i think that’s the same in most if not all states (perhaps not California). This would be an irrelevance for most people but over the years i have had a few English-qualified colleagues who have sat the NY Bar exam so thought I would flag it.

As PPs have said, A level choices don’t really matter but those sound very good ones.

If your DD’s school offers the EPQ, this could be a good opportunity to start showing an interest in law if it suits her to do it. Law is unfortunately a lot harder to get into than it used to be and you’re expected to demonstrate interest during uni years (debate club/mooting; attending hearings (public viewing galleries); insight sessions; relevant reading etc).

My DC is doing History, English and Economics, and an EQP on a law based topic. Definitely choose at least some essay based subjects. Psychology includes an element of law (e.g. jury service, cognitive bases, memory and expert witness work etc) which can be helpful. My DC nearly chose it and is now regretting it a bit but still learning about it through the EPQ which includes lots of psychology based research.

@rainsbows Late response: DD is a barrister and no intention of working in the USA. She has a MFL degree and did the conversion. Very happy here!

The subjects your DD has chosen are fine. The Cambridge University preferred list for law suggests 2 A levels from English Lit, History, a MFL or Maths. So she’s spot on and would be competitive for a very good law school. Remember the top 8 (I think) require LNAT and a subject with maths is always useful. Theology? No reason to do this whatsoever. If she’s commercially minded, Economics is good.

There is no need to do a law undergrad

do whatever is of most interest (fair enough if it’s law!) and then just do a post grad conversion course

I work with a wide variety of city and offshore lawyers daily and none of them studied law as undergrad

@MrsHLQ The issue some young people face is who pays for the conversion course. It’s around the same price as a masters and some students will be funded or get scholarships but cost generally has to be considered. There aren’t many firms with no law grads but certain specialisms can lead to later qualification as a lawyer.

DD did English lit/lang, history, RS and psychology

Shes currently 2nd year doing law

As I said earlier, English and History are two of the best prep subjects.

Computer Science might also be a good replacement for Psychology given how much AI is expected to impact law perhaps knowing something about IT could help!

It won’t help get a law degree. Grads in comp Sci will get the comp Sci jobs.

My recent law grad DS did Eng Lit, History and Biology + EPQ. It’s good to have a science side (incl. psychology) along with the essay subjects to show a broad study I think. Only one university cared about his EPQ enough for it to affect the offer given (Birmingham) and it was an A* achieved in Yr 12.