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Higher education

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Maths, Further Maths, English and Politics... what degrees are ruled out in/out?

27 replies

phyllidafosset · 31/01/2025 14:38

My DD is struggling to know what she wants to do for A-Level (and beyond). She is certain she wants to do maths. She is also certain she wants to do politics.

Her other choice is currently between English, physics (she is looking at 9s in both), and economics.

I think she is almost certainly going to do further maths as well as maths, basically because she is considering economics/finance at Uni, and some of the top universities will expect it (even if they don't require it). It would open up anything mathematical.

My suggestion was that she shouldn't do economics, because I think (I may be wrong) that if she has maths and further maths, then she doesn't need economics for an economics degree (particularly with politics, because that is essay-based).

She doesn't think she wants to go down the science route (she has always found Physics easy but she also finds it boring). However, if she does Physics, it would leave her the possibility of doing science (if she changed her mind). If she just had politics, could she still get onto a social science degree if she wanted to? I'm think she could get onto Law? Is there anything else that she would excluded from? I think that something like Psychology would still consider her because she has the maths and a science (even if it isn't biology, which would be more obvious).

If she does English, then I guess it would open up more Humanities, but I'm not sure what else it would open up? Maybe journalism and similar things?

She prefers English, and I think she should do that if it is a clear preference. However, I don't know if she might discover she likes Physics more if it gets a bit more complex.

Is there anything I'm missing? Any thoughts/observations/advice?

OP posts:
BigSilly · 01/02/2025 18:28

QueenRefusenik · 01/02/2025 13:32

Past a-levels, has she looked at something like archaeology or anthropology? Both would give her options to combine the maths, politics and anything else she chose to do since the different specialisations span the physical, natural and social sciences as well as the humanities? Also as pp have mentioned, geography, psychology, sociology or even broader, human sciences? Any of those degrees would give a huge range of potential career paths afterwards.

I presume she is in y11? Has she done mocks yet?

StillTryingToKeepGoing · 02/02/2025 16:57

So to try out different uni courses, springpod hosts various tasters : https://www.springpod.com/subject-spotlights/search

and channel talent does lots of interactive webinars (though they’re a bit of an advert for the uni hosting too) :

https://www.channeltalent.co.uk

might be worth dipping in and out of a couple in the summer once exams done. Sixth form will probably still allow course changes until first half term, and she’s probably busy with GCSEs atm.

but thought useful to know about these.

Channel Talent - Interactive school webinars

Linking universities and businesses to schools with interactive video conferencing & webinar services

https://www.channeltalent.co.uk

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