A levels dilemma

[Uninspirednamewise]

DD is only in Year 10 but is a forward planner(!) and is already starting to think about A level choices. Her best subjects at GCSE are French and Spanish. From the point of view of enjoyment, DD would like to take both at A level, but with the need to pick just three A levels, she is also thinking about what options will be closed off if two of her A level choices are languages. DD is clear that she does not want to do a traditional languages degree at university, as she doesn't particularly enjoy the study of literature. She does really like the idea of doing a degree that involves a year abroad. DD's next best subject is maths, so one possibility for A level choices would be French, Spanish and maths. If DD were choosing a fourth subject it would almost certainly be chemistry. (If not chemistry, it would be biology.) If DD were choosing her three A levels based on the subjects she would enjoy most in sixth form (without looking further ahead), DD would choose French, Spanish and maths. However, she is concerned that those choices effectively close down the possibility of doing a science degree. That raises the possibility of dropping a language to make room for chemistry, but DD really doesn't want to drop either language at A level. I am thinking that if DD wants to keep the option of a science degree open, she should definitely keep maths, along with whatever other science A level she takes.

Like most Year 10s, DD doesn't yet know what she wants to do career-wise. Obviously, in Year 10, DD is under no immediate pressure to make a choice, but she tells me she has seen this dilemma looming for a while. I'm not sure what the right advice is. Any thoughts?

OP herself hasn't actually mentioned Law anyway : that was me! because of the wanting to give something back along with high pay comment! would suggest teaching but for the high pay bit

My comments were to George really. Ethical also suggests law.

yes, indeed which is why I suggested law...!

They have the language skills and research skills, and essay skills and have covered all aspects of an MFL degree, not just language.

MFL students who aren't keen on literature will undertake plenty of research, analysis, and essay writing, about e.g. film, politics, history, sociology, gender studies, etc, which are not necessarily the easy, less challenging options. It's not as if it's either study literature or only learn vocab! In fact, looking at the list of units available at Bristol as an example, there's very little literature on offer.

Employers aren't going to know what modules are on offer in your degree course, or which ones you did, unless you mention one that's relevant.

And if you are looking to study at the "best" universities, please do your own research on league tables, the REF, the TEF, etc rather than rely on biased opinions presented as fact on MN

Who mentioned Bristol and linked it with “best”? I don’t believe I did. Could you back off the snide personal remarks atia?

I chose a university that I knew offered an extensive choice of modern language courses.

Think you're putting 2 and 2 together to get 5 I'm afraid.

Has your DC considered International Relations or International Studies - often has an economics element to the degree and usually and option to continue with languages. This sort of degree from a good university opens up quite a range of careers including law, civil service as well as general graduate programmes.

It can also be a good idea if she looks at the CVs of people doing a job she might want to do at an employer she ilkes and has a look at what they did and which universities they went to.

Thank you for all the replies. Just to let you know I am still here and reading with interest.

OP your DD would be ideally placed for law with french (or spanish) law taking two languages and maths which would give her the year in Paris (Spain) as well. Even more strongly placed if she opted for chemistry as a fourth A2. She certainly wouldn't then be consigned to a law future because the four year lawyers tend to be highly sought after generally, but it's a very good degree for a linguist with a logical brain.

If you want to help the world and earn a lot of money do engineering or computing. You can pick your job when you leave, earn a lot of money and then follow the Bill Gates route of giving a lot of it away again.

Some lawyers are paid shed loads of money, others are not. The well paid ones I know admit they have sold their souls to do it. In many well paid jobs you will end up selling your soul and working with people you would rather not have met.

Any chance she'll decide she wants to do medicine? If so she needs to keep the chemistry. I encourage anyone capable of doing so to study maths because it's accepted for virtually any degree.

French has been a language declining in use, that may change a bit once we leave the EU. Spanish is more widely spoken and seems to me potentially more useful than French, opening up more countries to work in.

Start thinking about work experience and she could go to a local university open day to inspire her. Dont attend the subject talks as they have limited space and it should go to older pupils but some put on good displays and some science courses offer hands on opportunities.

One of the most useful things my child ever did was a boring repetitive role - because it convinced them they needed to work hard to avoid that sort of thing in future.

Life isn't all about things being useful (to oneself), though...

Learning a language is an academic discipline in itself, requiring a huge range of skills. Including interpersonal ones. If it was just about living and working abroad and speaking the language, no one would learn (or value) classics!

Employers are always impressed by students who have travelled, broadened their horizons and gained proper work experience (that's changed since my day when very few people did)

I wish people weren't so utilitarian in their attitudes to education but I suppose it's market forces.

I really don't think you should force someone who is a bit 'meh' about sciences to do them, and discourage in the process a love of languages, or suggest it is somehow lesser.

Sorry, a bit of a hobby horse for me, probably exacerbated by Damian Hinds' proclamations over the last day or so.

Not sure what kind of school your DD is at but 4 A levels are really becoming rare : doesn't generally mean she couldn't do it if she was insistent though. My DS does 3 and spends most of the week twiddling his thumbs.

Yes that's the tired old mantra about corporate law alreadytaken and while that seems to be the area of focus for MN DC it is entirely possible to do all sorts of extremely worthwhile jobs in law which go to the heart of helping individuals or groups, while still being very highly paid by a normal person's standards.

Aren't lots of state schools saying three as standard or four if the student can make a case for it Piggy? Ours is anyhow.

And you don't sell your soul - you help people day in day o ut and end up working with extremely interesting and bright clients and colleagues which is not the case in many jobs.

yes , sort of goodbye although most schools prefer three for tidiness of timetable, I think.

Most students in our year 12 who started on 4 dropped the 4th quickly : mainly peer pressure. I think medics are taking 4 but I don't tend to meet them!