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.

Well German is a wonderful subject, although again I am a bit biased, but on my course if you wanted to do history/politics options you could more or less avoid Lit ones if you wanted to.

But as someone said earlier, studying literature is surely important?

Why though? I've a languages degree, no literature content whatsoever and had a long and successful career.

Was never of interest to me but has she looked at European studies with Spanish?

I'd actually say this could be a wise move. Finance is not as well regarded as say Economics or Business Studies. Some would argue that it's not a "proper" degree. Language degrees can be very challenging and well respected amongst many graduate recruiters.

I know loads of people with highly successful top notch careers in finance (investment bankers, accounts, actuaries etc) as well as other city type jobs like management consulting, law etc with degrees in anything from art, languages, music, politics etc etc.

From what I understand the average offers for language degrees at 'top' universities tend to be lower than for business or economics etc - for example at Bristol (the uni I attended) BA MFL asks for ABB usually and BSc business and management is AAA. The top graduate schemes in the city do still often look at the university you got your degree from (although this is getting less prevalent as 'blind' applications are becoming more common) so getting a degree from a more respected university in languages might be better for her career than a finance or business degree from a more mid range uni.

Has she considered joint honours?

Get her to look for degrees in Finance with her preferred language. My DD did Business Studies with Spanish. She now works in Finance and never uses the Spanish.

Are there no joint honours degrees that are finance + MFL?

@Tortoise44 you sound really dismissive of her choices. I get it's frustrating when they change the plans suddenly but they're her plans to change ultimately.

If there's a financial consideration and it would be difficult to support her for an extra year then have that conversation but don't completely invalidate her views.

Does she really want to work in finance or is this what she thinks she should do/someone has told her to? Has she felt under pressure to do a vocational degree?

I'm a big believer in doing what we love which is why I find our education system so frustrating because it takes that away and makes kids choose the sensible option.

Screw that, we have years and years of pragmatic and sensible. Uni should be a time of discovery and learning who we are.

A finance degree sounds like my idea of hell and I've worked in finance.

No not exactly!! So, she’ll have to do professional exams. Even if she did do a Finance related degree they don’t all give exemptions and even if they do then there’s still a fair amount of study to do to convert to ACA for example.
It’s also not true that she needs a finance degree for a Big4 grad scheme. My DD is an apprentice at a Big4 and hardly anyone has a finance related degree, there’s a huge variety of undergrad subjects from chemistry to psychology to indeed MFL.
Has she had a look at International Business/Management with a language degrees? Again, 4 years but provide an opportunity to continue with a language and/or start a second plus study modules that include economics, accountancy, business analytics etc etc.
Let her spend some more time researching what’s out there as there really are some amazing courses that probably tick all her boxes.

You’re being quite narrow minded regarding languages. My brother studied languages and then did a masters in international relations. He is very high up in a multi-National corporation overseeing all of Asia-Pacific because he speaks and writes many of the Asian languages fluently.

Her choice,not yours!

Not so much any more. Most are university blind. PwC certainly is and they’ve recently announced that they’ll be degree classification blind too - ‘just’ have to pass their recruitment/assessment process for entry to their grad scheme.

My dd is doing a degree that she thought of precisely 2weeks before the application deadline. She’s loving it and doing well.

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.

As a Chartered Accountant who studied languages at university, I'm rather bemused by this statement.

Some firms won't actually let you claim the exemptions, and they make you sit all the exams with your peers as a condition of your training contract.

I've seen more accountancy and finance graduates crash and burn than trainees from non-related degrees. The accountancy grads are shocked at finding the exams hard, and it really knocks their confidence. They don't always recover.

The other grads have no expectations, and they tend to do better in the long run for it.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

Why wouldn't they allow the exemptions?

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?

Why do you think studying literature is important, since you don't seem to think a languages degree is valuable anyway? Important for what? If there are good universities offering non-literature-based pathways in MFL degrees, I am sure they are perfectly worthwhile. It sounds like you are looking for obstacles tbh.

Other posters' replies make it very clear you don't need a finance degree to go into finance (if she even still actually wants to go into finance).

The rationale is that they want their grad intake all doing the same thing at the same time. And if you claim an exemption, it could be in something that you studied earlier in your course, and you can't really remember all that well. Studying for a professional exam forces you to update your knowledge.

I've definitely seen this policy at larger firms, including the Big 4.

I don't necessarily agree with it, but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Not at all
She just needs to look for languages degree thst dies not include literature (literature analysis etc) .mine had no literature decades ago. It was the politics economics culture etc of the countries.
Or languages with business etc

Have dc Look on student room eg https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7130631

i had friends who did business with Spanish . Perhaps Look for a joint major. One of the girls is head of languages and the other is a ceo of a large research firm (they are in their 40 now). It wasn’t a useless degree at all and they worked and studied abroad.

Why wouldn't they allow the exemptions?

They like the consistency of approach adopted by the key training providers within the apprenticeship. Taking exemptions also perversely increases the risk of failure at the higher level papers as the grads have forgotten hedging etc by the time they start their third year. They don't finish their apprenticeship any sooner.

Recently qualified Big 4 ACAs in one region include graduates in football management, theology, physics, history, ancient history, MFLs and only around 20% with a relevant degree. Some of their universities would have MNetters clutching their pearls. The focus is on skills and behaviours, not knowledge from university.

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/undergraduate/business-management-and-spanish/2023

Also My brother is a CFO, he studied to be a primary school teacher . The path isn’t always straight

If she is thinking of accountancy, don't worry about a related degree the professional exams after will cover all of that.

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.

As a qualified careers adviser and expert on the graduate labour market I can confidently say this statement wrong.

A language degree is not useless, far from it.
Around 80% of graduate jobs don't specify a specific degree course as they are more interested in the skills and attributes developed during your degree.
A language graduate is likely to have developed the sort of skills valued by graduate employers.