DD changed her mind about degree course to apply for - away from a useful/vocational one!

[Tortoise44]

My daughter was all set to apply to unis this autumn to study finance. We have done four uni visits already and have booked in three more (and already bought the train tickets!). She has now decided that although she wants to work in finance (probably), she would rather study languages! This is surely a very bad idea from a career perspective.

I am annoyed because she wants to look at different unis to the ones we’ve visited/booked up for so we have wasted time and money. In addition, she never reads books and I am told that languages require studying literature. A languages degree is also four years rather than three so extra funding required! All in all, she should clearly stick with finance but what do others advise? Her A-levels are Maths, Business and Spanish and she will hopefully get BBB in her mocks at least.

forgot to mention pure science and engineering as common backgrounds. A finance degree May mean you qualify 6 months quicker but it doesn’t mean you get promoted quicker . No difference in my experience

Out of interest, for hoe long had she been set on Finance beforehand and what were her reasons for wanting to study that? What are her reasons for wanting to go down the languages route?

As many pp have indicated, sometimes it is where you study/what post graduate route you take afterwards that is more significant than you'd think

When your DD applies for jobs she'll have to answer the "why do you want to work in finance" question. It will be harder to answer it with a language degree compared to an economics/finance degree, they can talk about applying their knowledge to the real world.

Lots of courses with joint honours languages , try Warwick, Bath, Exeter, Durham, Bristol, Nottingham just for starters . Regardless a first in languages will still trump a 2:2 in finance so she needs to play to her strengths

We went to Durham together. Looks like the courses have changed a bit but seems very flexible now. Liberal arts they call it now! In other words a flexible, luck what you enjoy degree. Which is great for anyone uncertain!

Someone said on the thread that our is your dd's decision not yours. Very true. Not being young is bloody difficult and a change from maths to language is huge and the last thing you want is your child starting their course and regretting it. But there are some really great, flexible options that allow young people to combine all the bits of subjects they love.

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/liberal-arts/course-structure/

My son is about to start a career in finance. He will have a maths degree. I always thought languages was a good option.

There is a lot of misinformation on here as to the requirements of big 4 firms, if she really wants to work for one of them in the future then she should check their current graduate requirements on the websites and see how languages fits in. However, finance is a broader church than those four.

Another accountant with (hold onto your hat OP) a PhD in a completely unrelated field. Never stopped me. Big 4 and now in financial services in house.

Most people I know who work in finance went into it post degree with arts degrees.

Most of those I know in finance don't have initial finance degrees, they are sometimes seen as a bit narrow in terms of being applied to business workplace, though it does of course depend exactly what you want to do. I would suggest a languages and finance combined option if available. Languages are fantastic for understanding how to properly communicate, which is an important skill and something which many businesses really value.

UCL certainly offers a Maths and MFL BSc.

No way will UCL take a BBB kid!

OP a generic Finance degree is quite possibly less useful than a Languages degree. Even an Accounting degree won't give her much in the way of exceptions from professional qualifications.

Offers for Languages are lower. That means she could probably go to a higher ranked uni than the one she'd likely go to for Finance.

That said, a Maths degree trumps both by a mile.

Omg let her do the languages degree. It will not hold her back from a career in finance if she still wants to do that in 4/5 years. She can learn what she needs for that on the job. It will be much harder for her to learn a language to a very high level or have a heavily subsidised year living abroad once she’s in the real world. And she will learn a highly saleable life skill.

full disclosure: I have a languages degree. I now work in law but I didn’t need a law degree for that. Much like a finance degree isn’t necessary to work in finance and would in fact risk her falling out of love with the subject before she even starts work (academic study and on the job is very different and I know I would have hated a law degree).

as for the literature point - this really depends on the course but there will be lots of non-literature modules she can choose if that’s not her thing. She will likely have to do some but not a vast amount and it’s not like doing and English lot degree by any stretch!

Will the DD get into a career in finance with BBB? I have a very vague memory that top finance firms want AAB at a minimum.

@eggsbenedict23 @titchy BBB is what she is working at now. Her predicted grades will probably be higher - maybe AAB? Teachers don’t give out predictions til July

And another with professionnal qualifications in chemistry and IT. When I trained, finance/accountancy grads were less successful in the professionnal exams according to the Icaew. All the time-barred students in the office had accountancy degrees.

By ‘finance’ do you mean an accounting and finance degree or straight finance?

I did languages. You don’t have to choose literature options, there are other choices even on a traditional course. Having said that I did literature despite barely ever reading beyond my course books during those years. Combining Spanish with Economics would be good though. But you can easily go into finance with a Spanish degree and you might even find a role that uses languages. Plus it sounds a much more interesting four years albeit I am massively biased. A year abroad would give her skills that will look great on a CV. She may also earn money that year if she is an assistant.

yes literature is important for languages but she definitely doesn’t want to do literature. So, by that logic, she should stick with finance surely

it really isn't! There are lots of languages degrees without literature. It isn't a 'languages with literature or finance' option.

As mentioned up thread there are lots of language and finance degrees too.

You can do big 4 accountancy with a language degree.

@eggsbenedict23 Yes. Many want AAB minimum. A good many of the posts here are not realistic as @titchy alluded to. The top firms will not want BBB at A level. The universities such as UCL and Warwick are off the menu too!

However we have had various threads about BBB for MFL and RG is just about possible plus others like Lancaster. To be considered seriously for a very good job, you do need a good university and prove yourself! Don’t just take an easy route. It’s easy to explain why MFLs at interview. Very relevant in today’s society and an additional skill useful for business. Or useful transferable skills if not required!

My DD wasn’t an avid reader at school. At university she got on with it! The career at the end means you do. Once you add in management to MFL you almost certainly get above BBB entry at RG.

@Tortoise44 wishing your DD all the best.

Forget about the degree, does she actually want a career in finance though? If so, what area?

Languages could well be more beneficial to many careers, including some in finance.

Hadn’t seen her grades! Scrub that!

well it seems DD is not prepared to compromise because she is suddenly “desperate” to learn German and fascinated by German history she says. This has come out of nowhere and I have seen no evidence of it! She wants to study German and Spanish now and says she will look into courses - but if I want to help I could look into them for her as she is busy revising for mocks! She says her Spanish teacher says it is easy to avoid literature at Cardiff and Newcastle and plenty of other places. But as someone said earlier, studying literature is surely important? Anyway, I must go out now but this is such a curve ball and very frustrating

I know lots of people from high school who went on to study languages. They are all working, all have very interesting jobs.

It would open the world up to her. She could live and work in lots of different countries. It's a great skill to have, and transferrable too.

Seconding other people suggesting joint degree programs. Tbh I think that would give her more opportunities post-uni rather than just studying finance on its own.