What after A levels

[Seriously79]

I know this is a long way off, but I'm so excited for DS and his future it got me thinking.

He is considering A Level - Business, Economics and Chemistry.

Does anyone have any advice on what he could do with these?

Slightly off topic, but the sixth form my dc is at wouldn’t let them do business and economics - I don’t know if your dc is doing A levels yet or not so this may be irrelevant

Ohh that's interesting. We had a visit last night and the girls talking to us were studying both subjects. But I'll keep an eye on that. Thank you.

I think it depends if his grades are high enough to consider university, if so then Ds's sixth form would not allow both business and economics as they are too similar and it isn't a broad enough subject range. I would get him to think of another subject he might want to do just in case.

So university or an apprenticeship? There are apprenticeship fairs usually this time of year so have a look to see if you have one local to you just to see what is out there. Ds's sixth form has a university day where unis have booths you can visit and then an apprenticeship and work one with local companies there to talk to. Always good to know what options there are.

Future wise I would wait until they are actually doing the subject to see if they still love it.

Another saying Business and Economics not a good mix. Too much overlap. Economics has a little more status I think.
Some uni's IME will offer reduced grades for two STEM subjects taken, but not one alone (depending on the course).

Interesting, thanks all.

So if he chose Economics and chemistry, what would be good to go with it?

(I'm not doing his research for him, I'm
Just interested)

Geography? There's aspects of it that tie in well with both economic and chemistry. And it's a great subject for A level - I did it as my "fun subject" along with the two subjects that I then went on to study at uni.

Maths also goes well with both Chemistry and Economics.

The obvious thing to go with both of those is maths.

If he is thinking about University, he can come at this two ways. He either decides which A Level subjects to take and then looks to see what degree that will get him. Or he can think about which degree subject he fancies, see what the entry requirements are and then choose the A Levels accordingly. The latter is probably best.

Interesting re above, my DDs school offers business, accountancy and economics, actively encourage this mix. Highly regarded state secondary

My dc was pretty much advised that if you were a higher achiever do economics, otherwise do business - but definitely not both. They have done neither I hasten to add, this was when they were deciding which to take last year

Would he consider maths, that's a strong subject which us highly regarded for a lot if uni courses.

There's another thread where someone wants to take this exact combo I think - and everyone is saying woah! not a good plan.

Thing is, none of those A levels is needed for any specific degree. Economics degrees mainly require maths but not econ.

OP I would also say maths with chemistry and econ - great combo. Maths is not easy tho (I mean no A level is obvs) and I would suggest a minimum 8 at GCSE. I say this a lot but my smart DS2 got an 8 at GCSE and had to work hard for his B at A level.

A bit limiting. He can’t study chemistry or econ easily without maths, which narrows down his options pretty sharply. Depends how academic he is though. Might be less of an issue if targeting more mid level destinations

Maths

Most Economics degrees require Maths as an A level rather than economics.

Maths and Chemistry keeps chemical engineering open.

There are even a few medical schools who would take this ((without biology) if he decided to go into that.

Maths, history, psychology, another science, anything really. He could apply to economics, law, all the degree options that have no specific subject requirements. Depends that his 3rd subject ends up being.

Don’t choose Maths unless he’s seriously brilliant at it. 9 at GCSE.

If he’s interested in uni then to access all areas and give himself the most options he needs the best grades he can get in his A levels. This isn’t explained enough on these boards.

Most degrees don’t need specific A levels. Sure - some Econ degrees need Maths. Med needs Bio and Chem. But most degrees don’t need specific A levels so he should go where his talent and interest lie. I’ll stick my neck out and say avoid Chem and Bio as all the medics take them and get the lions share of the A/A* grades.

* I’ll stick my neck out and say avoid Chem and Bio as all the medics take them and get the lions share of the A/A grades.

That's not really how it works, there isn't a fixed number of top grades per subject. There are more top grades awarded in the subjects taken by the ablest pupils - further maths is the prime example but maths and the other sciences also have a good proportion. It's also emphatically not true that all the cleverest people want to be medics!

High grades obviously do matter. Some courses the A level subjects don't matter (though they're more often the ones where an essay subject in the mix would probably be useful) - for others the subjects absolutely do.

@Seriously79 Y10? If so, wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage as things change. Y11? then yes, worth thinking about it.
And, what sort of grades are we talking.

Went to an open evening recently which covered Business and Economics talks.
There is some overlap, but wouldn't say there is 'too much'.
However, some universities for some courses, do not accept Business AND Econ for that reason.

Maths is the biggest facilitator, so if DC wanted to do something financial then best to put Maths in there. Disagree with PP that you need a 9 at GCSE. Again depends whether DC really likes Maths and possible GCSE grades at diff subjects.
But, yes, it may be harder to get the same A-level grade in Maths v Business (or others), say. No point possibly getting AAD, as offers are not like that.

@Seriously79
Just checked back to some research I was doing in September last year.
Of the ones I looked at (quite a few) it was only Newcastle Economics that treated Bus and Econ as 1 (and they ideally wanted two subjects from a preferred list).
The current '24 version doesn't have that restriction (Bus and Econ treated as one subject), so I would say that 'do not accept Business AND Econ for that reason.' is not (generally) true.
Edit - there may be 'preferences' by some for applicants not to have both, though.

If you want an A or A* at Maths A level you need to be a 9 at GCSE.

A 7 at best usually gets you a C.

Former RG STEM admissions tutor here. @stubiff had a very comprehensive thread researching A levels recently. He and others are correct that on the sciences/social sciences side Maths is the great facilitating subject.

It isn’t prudent to sign up with less than a 7 at GCSE. @noblegiraffe has shared tables predicting the A Level Maths grade from the GCSE grade and the correlation is remarkably strong. IIRC you do need 8 or 9 at GCSE, and possibly 9, to have a reasonable chance of getting an A at A level.

But not everyone needs that A. Your own DC’s aspirations and goals are the only ones that matter. Best wishes to him

@TiaSeeya
The thing is, we don't know what level OP's DC is at. Or year.

And according to Noble's chart - around 35% with an 8 get an A or AStar (not insignificant).
Roughly the same % (around 25%), with a 7, get a D, a C or B/A/AStar.

Great posts from @ErrolTheDragon and @poetryandwine as usual. Yes, a 7 in maths makes an A-star at A level unlikely, but I would argue that it is still worth taking it if you enjoy maths. DS2’s 8 – B at GCSE and A level has stood him in good stead in his science degree, and would have got him into all the RG unis he applied for. In the end he went to a non RG !! but it’s not a bad one tho

Thank you all for some great replies!

As I said, this is just for my benefit, I'm just so excited for him! He is still in year 10 and currently predicted a 7 for maths, still time to nudge this up if he wants to.

Having never done A levels or been to uni I have no idea how any of this works (or how people afford it, but I'll save that for another thread!)

I will say that academics comes naturally to him and always has, and I'd love him to go all the way - don't worry, I'm not pushing him in any direction though just trying to make better sense of it all myself, so that I can help him when the time comes.

Thanks again x

@seriously All schools should give A level advice and be clear about best combinations of subjects.

As posters are saying, maths really would help with chemistry and economics. Even if he doesn’t do economics at university, maths is excellent for management degrees. It keeps many doors open. It’s best to do economics A level for an economics degree. The majority do. Explain to him about maths because if he gets a 7, he might need to rethink A levels.

Cambridge University has a great guide on choosing A level subjects: “how to choose A levels or high school subjects”. I know he might not want a degree from Cambridge, so ignore further maths recommendations and the fact it’s Cambridge, but it does illustrate what they think are good subject combinations and this is very good advice for applications elsewhere if he wants academic study. It looks like this.