BA Geography or Eng Lang

[Nopoppinginplease]

Dd is thinking to apply for either of these. She definitely doesn't want to teach. Which one is likely to be better overall? I'm particularly thinking of grad schemes and possible career options.
AS levels in Eng, maths and geography.
Any advice welcome.

Just asked DD who took geography A level and she says if you don't know what you want to do then either is fine so pick the one you prefer. As in, you might want to go into marketing, or journalism, or accountancy, or HR.

If you even slightly might want to do something relating to geography (town planning or the like) then geog.

For Eng lang we are struggling to think of any job role directly relating to it, tho I guess speech therapy type roles? You would need to do a post-grad in SALT tho. So I think only Eng lang if you really enjoy it (the A level is often not what people expect, but I assume your DD is halfway through year 12 ansd thus knows if she likes it or not).

I think English language links to any job. In my degree we covered lots of things not just linguistics. We did creative writing, journalism, media modules.

Geography 100% - far more transferable skills which employers like and better prospects in general.

There are no jobs that need an English language degree (apart from teaching it obviously). Anyone can go in to journalism etc.

Your DD might want to look at the 'What do graduates do?' report on the Prospects.ac.uk website (link below). This gives an idea of post-uni destinations by degree subject.

A point to bear in mind is that around 1 in 4 Eng Lang and 1 in 5 Geog grads, leaving HE after their first degree, are in non-grad roles in admin, retail or hospitality some 15 months after graduating. By contrast, the equivalent figure is roughly 1 in 10 for Maths grads. So it is important to use time during the uni years to build up other experiences to demonstrate potential employability.

I am a Geog grad and would say the subject means you keep a foot firmly in both the quantitative and qualitative camps. It is also very topical and forward looking. Course content varies at lot, so it is worth spending time researching that aspect. Though I preferred human geog, I did a course that meant I still had some physical geog right to the end and think I benefitted from that.

Link: luminate.prospects.ac.uk/what-do-graduates-do

I have a geography degree. I've worked in accountancy, investment banking and financial journalism. That said, I know English grads who also went into investment banking and one into corporate law so I don't think it much matters.

One thing I would say is that geography degrees can usually be BA or BSc. I started on the BA as I wanted to do more human geography but my uni let me switch to the BSc just before graduation as I thought it might look better for numerical type jobs. (And it had a lovely purple hood rather than the slaughtered lamb one for the BA and these trivial things seem important when you're 21...).

Thanks to everyone. I looked up geography and the modules are very broad, which makes me think it's probably the safer option.

Definitely geography- some of the highest employability stats out of RG universities are for Geog grads. Modules cover all kinds of human and or physical Geog subjects so can be pretty bespoke to the student’s interests.

Just to add, often if you start geog ba you can swap to bsc or choose a mix of modules to keep options firmly open. My dc is a second year geographer and thinking of environmental consultancy as a career.
I’m an English grad (lit with lang) and although now I most definitely use my degree, I’ve also worked in roles that weren’t directly related to my degree.

English language - if you go into the computational linguistics side of it - will position you well for roles with AI (and could include quite niche coding languages - prolog in my day, but I left the field so am not in date)

Check what modules are on specific courses

Definitely geography, so widely applicable. I’m a geographer in management consultancy, others I know are accountants, one did a law conversion, a couple in the environmental sector. All are well travelled, well rounded and sociable.

I think English Language and no literature is too narrow. Geography (preferably Bsc) is more versatile. Friends with geography degrees are planners, surveyors, a specialist food buyer, a teacher, and probably lots of other jobs I cannot remember right now. English is pretty low down for earnings and geography grads overall do better.

Many of those English Language jobs are done by other grads. They aren’t just for English grads. A lot of data shows English grads not getting higher paying roles or specialist roles. The degrees are too general and these days people with technical degrees are expected to write clearly for the less qualified to understand. Eg my DH does engineering reports for courts. He doesn’t need an English grad to translate for him. He’s capable of writing such info himself. PR is a different thing and English grads do wind up doing this but it’s poorly paid when you start and unpaid internships still exist.

Geography is a far better bet. Look at internships with the National Trust and others to gain experience.

DS1 did Geog, Maths and Business. He's just finishing at Nottingham doing BA Geography and currently looking at transport or urban planning. Has loved his degree. A bit of everything. Data analysis, stats, report writing etc. A very broad degree which keeps loads of options open.

One of the things I've learned on MN is to teach your dc to work smart, rather than hard. I think it's really important to look at the stats and ask yourself if it's really going to be worth it long term. What you've just said confirms my gut feeling that Eng Lang isn't going to be that useful.
@Sunnnybunny72 that sounds good, I was looking at town planning last night and it seems to be well paid too!

@Nopoppinginplease My gut would think the same! Many good geography degrees have modules that lead to further study and students can hone their interests whilst undergrads. There are a myriad of opportunities. I’m totally with you about working smart. The cv when applying for jobs matters. It won’t just be a degree that gets you where you want to be. It’s a package of knowledge, personality, work /volunteer experience, passing selection tests and interview skills.

A degree being worth it in the long term is getting more and more problematic. Recent research shows grads now get a 10% lifetime uplift in salary. 20% of grads get no uplift at all or are worse off than others with no degree. English grads are closer than geography grads to this tipping point and it’s a subject with fewer applicants now. I think this was IFS research so obviously finance driven. It does reflect a lot of grads in the market for jobs but I’m one for spending money wisely and doing what you think has the best work outcomes.

@Nopoppinginplease I would also suggest BSc Geography is the better bet with a maths A level.

I think either are good for employability.

Both, I mean.

At Nottingham uni, you choose ba or bsc geog but then have equal access to all modules so you could have an identical degree just with a different suffix. Some unis require a science A level to do the bsc but many don’t

Some are just BA but I guess look at the course content.

Definitely Geography. It combines humanity and science skills - eg you need to both write essays and understand statistics in a first year - so good breadth early on. Lots of careers benefit from a foundation in Geography at degree level, from town planning to climate science, overseas development, tourism, flood mitigation, meterology, global economics and politics, environmental management and loads more. Yep I'm a Geographer 😊