What degree could DD do?

[year12clueless]

DD is floundering trying to choose a degree. She's coming to the end of year 12. Current predicted grades are
PE-A
Sociology-B
Geography- B
Highly possible that she'll do well enough in her tracking tests next term to move one or both of the predicted Bs to As but I don't want her massively pressured as she's had a difficult few years.

She's got 9 GCSES grades 8-5 including a 5 in maths.

She's not traditionally academic and doesn't love any of her subjects. She likes sports science but most universities seem to offer it as a BSc and want biology or chemistry A level so that's not an option.

I think she'd be better off looking at a more vocational course like marketing or communications etc but these seem to be offered at the newer universities and I worry she's selling herself short because the grade requirements are sometimes a lot lower than she'll probably get.

As she's not doing a STEM subject I really think that if she's paying all that money she should at least go to somewhere with a reasonable reputation as that will potentially be something future employers consider. There seems to be a big unfilled gap between "we want A star, A,A" and "B,C,C".

She's sporty, cheerful, organised, personable and well liked. As a job I can see her doing well in a sales/ marketing/ comms/ PR type job- but where to go next? We've looked at degree apprenticeships and they seem to be in stem/ finance, and the sales and barbering ones seem to be thinly disguised advertising sales.

We're both glazing over looking at Unifrog again. Does the MN hive mind have any suggestions?

Lots of physio courses will accept PE instead of Biology. Also if she’s money savvy - physio comes with an NHS training grant of £5000 a year which will greatly reduce her loan.

Thank you

Really good ideas here. Much appreciated

Really interesting but the data modelling focus has worried her. She's got a 5 in maths and doesn't think she'd be good enough....

Physiotherapy? Can be hospital, community or sports once you're qualified. Can also be done via apprenticeship route.
Or use Geography to go into sustainability or environmental science

My daughter graduated as a physiotherapist last year and only had written exams in years 1 and 2. You have to do practical exams, coursework and at least 1000 hours of placement time.

Go to some open days and listen to different courses. Dd had different ideas and so we went to lots and came back with some crossed off lists and new ideas each time.

If she's likely to get AAB/ABB then I'd hardly say she isn't an academic learner

I think with those gcses her A level grades might be a bit optimistic, especially with the reversal of grade inflation

This is really great advice. There’s not many youngsters who know what career they want to do at 17. My youngest did marine biology because she enjoyed the subject. She’s now a manager at a top university. They’ve funded her ongoing education and she now has a masters. At 17 she had no idea that she would end up where she is now. I think that’s the norm. I don’t believe that education is ever wasted.

She should do geography, especially if she can find an undergrad degree course that offers geographical information systems.

www.exeter.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/geography/geography-gis/

Advise her to look on the job pages of your local NHS Trust, your local Council, your local big employer, the Environment Agency, of a company or organisation she might be interested in and the recruitment pages of national newspapers or job hunting websites. See what roles she's drawn to, and she'll get a feel for the salary and the qualifications required. Any large organisation will have a comms/marketing team but does she want to work for RBS or London Zoo?

I totally agree with PP regarding time out to travel or a working visa trip to Aus / NZ. Buying a house can wait.

Gap year first.

And some really serious thinking about whether she’s suited to further study at this time. To be honest , and speaking from 30 years of teaching undergrads, she doesn’t sound ready for or suited to three years of further and intense study at this time.

It’s not compulsory to go to university.

Not sure why MN always comes on and says 'don't go to uni' when someone is below about AAA! The OP makes it clear her DD wants to!

A note on entrance grades. Just because a course says eg BBC for marketing this doesn't mean there aren't students with higher grades. NTU , for example, is popular and several of our students have gone there to study marketing, business etc with much higher grades.

I would say, however, that marketing is much drier than young people think - so she needs to find some taster days, online webinars to see if it's for her.

I do teach lots of students with those exact A levels. They have applied for : marketing, BEds in primary and in PE teaching , sociology, geography, social policy, events management and town planning , off the top of my head.

My son has just graduated from Liverpool in Marketing. He got in with BBB although he took gap year and standard required was AAB. He started on a grad scheme job this week as a Marketing Exec on 30 k so it's a real valid option for a degree with career potential. His a levels were Geography, business and Economics

ps Geography is counted as a science subject by some universities, as is PE, sometimes. There's one uni that counts sociology, although I can't for the life of me remember which one.

Very few accounting graduate schemes in the UK require a STEM degree (many actually look down on accounting degrees). When I trained there were more people with history degrees than anything else and the maths requirement was C at GCSE (so a 5 would have been fine, I would have thought?).

Yes perhaps not not most exciting work in the world but it pays well, it's secure, and there's a massive shortage of new graduates, so she could study anything at a Russell Group Uni or a more traditional course (e.g. geography, I know plenty of geography grad accountants) at a newer one and so long as she gets a 2.i she'll be in with a decent shot. It's much more about whether you can do the job, and sadly a lot of things like which uni are seen as important to that, much more than subject choice, so she might as well pick something she'll enjoy. A lot of the big firms offer summer taster schemes aimed at girls to increase the gender balance in their work force and that will often translate into a graduate offer so she can try it out if she likes. DM me if you/she want more info

I'm sorry but although having a gap year is a good idea for many reasons, the idea that she's not suited to university is absolutely laughable.

Not for Physio. PE is often enough though.

Of course this is 100% correct. But mumsnet has an odd attitude to anyone not doing Engineering at a top five university.

Yeah, but does the DD want to even do physio? That seems to be posters' suggestion?

Sports science has been mentioned by the OP and the 'lack of STEM' so I was merely pointing out she has one or even two STEM subjects as far as many courses are concerned.

I have remembered it's Newcastle's medicine degree that lists sociology as a science.

I went to a newer university, it was awarded university status whilst I was studying and had been a university college before that. 98% go onto work or full time education. They also had the highest rate of graduates going onto full time, highly skilled work in the country. I wouldn’t write off newer universities.

OP you are right to be wary of marketing apprenticeships by the way.

No idea - just putting it out there. Plenty of sports science courses will take PE and Geog. Sports Science is weird though, either A stars and As or BCC, not a huge amount in between. Swansea is a good one though!

Yes, definitely would be a good shout.