A-levels for PPE degrees (or similar)

[daffsandbooks]

DD is in the process of choosing A-level subjects. She likes the look of PPE as a degree course but it's early days. So far her choices are -

English Lit, Maths, Economics, Geography.

DD's school starts everyone on 4, and some kids drop one after the first year. DD's big brother carried on with 4, and ended up at Cambridge.

We'll see how it goes for dd, but she is pretty academic (all 9s at GCSE predicted and will probably give the Oxbridge thing a whirl).

The question is, DDs school also offers politics A-level and dd is torn between replacing Politics for Geography as she's keen on PPE. However, the course doesn't look quite as interesting to her, and the department isn't as strong (Geography tends to get better A-level results).

Will it matter? Will universities be thinking 'but why didn't you politics if it was an option for you?!'

Any thoughts, or general advice about PPE, would be great.

I would suggest looking at uni websites and seeing whether they specify what A Level subjects they want for the courses she's interested in. If I was going to swap one of those out, it would be the English. Economics started life as a subset of Geography so those two are related and maths is likely to be useful for the economic side of things. Politics or Philosophy if they offer it might be more useful than English.

Ds is in his first year at university, studying politics and international studies. He did do politics at A level but says there are a lot of students on the politics courses that didn’t, not oxbridge but high ranking.

I think those 4 sound pretty perfect, if she really wanted to do Politics A-level I'd swap out Economics rather than Geography because if anything I'd think the newer A-levels are not seen as quite as heavy weight.
I'd definitely go with the A-levels that she thinks are most interesting though and not feel she has to do Politics.

Thanks so much all. She doesn't really want to swap English because she loves it, and maths and economics seem to go hand in hand (and she's interested in economics as well as politics and geography 😖).

Another reservation with swapping politics into the mix is that it would mean she was doing two entirely new subjects.

Great to hear that this combination should be fine for PPE and related subjects though....

I did PPE (oxford) from doing maths, English and economics, so they sound pretty perfect to me :-) (it was a lifetime ago though)

When I was applying, (and from scanning a couple of websites it's still the same now) universities didn't particularly care if you had studied any of politics, philosophy or economics at A level. Maths is recommended, and History is seen as very useful too. If she wants to keep HSPS at Cambridge as an option as well as PPE, definitely need a strong humanities subject. I would focus on Maths + two "core" humanities - Geography is fine, but would she consider History instead?

My son has just started PPE at Warwick he did maths economics and history. Think Maths is a must and he has mentioned that those who haven’t done economics have struggled a bit. He has a strong interest in Politics but felt it was more of a ‘hobby’ subject and would restrict him too much

Would caution against giving up English - particularly if she loves it- as PPE is very essay-heavy and English will give her the chance to hone her skills in that and showcase her abilities

DS is doing Politics A Level and has friends a year above him in the first year of University who are doing Politics and IR at University. Most of them (Various places) have said that the first year is basically a retread of A Level Politics, so she doesn't need to do it because it looks like they assume it hasn't been studied before.

Check the entry requirements carefully as some PPE programmes require a Humanities A Level. No one requires politics A Level (that I’m aware of) because not all schools offer it. Maths is often required for Economics, though not universally.

That's interesting. I almost didn't get accepted onto my politics degree because I'd only done one relevant A level and they wanted two (out of politics, economics, history, sociology).

DD did PPE at Oxford with English Language, History and Maths. History and maths are the 2 A levels preferred by Oxford. You definitely don't need any of the underlying papers to study PPE. She did do an international relations focused EPQ though.

Her combination of A-levels sounds great and keeps lots of options open 🙂

For Oxford PPE, Maths is recommended, and "History can provide a useful background, but is not essential."

https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/course-listing/philosophy-politics-and-economics

Dd1 started with History, Politics and Economics with a view of doing PPE but hated economics!

Switched to English and did Politics and IR

Ds applied for PPE and got 4 out of 4 offers, before deciding to go elsewhere and do Politics and IR at Nottingham Uni through clearing.

He did Business, Criminology and Sociology! There were a few courses he couldn't apply to without Economics - but your dd doesn't have that issue. He's not having any issues with the Politics at uni, having not studied it before - he's getting firsts.

So I get the impression it doesn't really matter beyond Economics being useful as it keeps as many course options open as possible.

This is one of those things that comes up on MN again and again, especially with Politics, Economics and Psychology, but it's simply not true, universities absolutely know how heavyweight they all are and they are good for Oxbridge or any other university. Those taking Economics in 2024 outweighed those taking Geography (39,660 to 33,505). Politics was taken by over 20,000. I know Psychology isn't in the mix in this selection of choices, but it was second only to Maths in 2024 (101,230 to 76,130). It's very easy for anyone who took A levels years ago to have an outdated rating for what they see as good old fashioned choices and then those new fangled ones, but just because they are new fangled to us, it doesn't reduce their academic weight in the new world.

The OP's child would be just as academically fine doing Politics and Economics as Geography.

Thanks so much again everyone. So interesting to read all the different thoughts, but it sounds as if she will be fine. It was really the concern that unis, particularly Oxford, might question why not politics, if it's offered by her school at A-level...

I think I read that over 90 percent of Oxford intake for PPE do maths A-level? Hopefully the Maths and Economics section show the logical side, whereas English and Geography the humanities side - seems a nice balance.

Perfectly reasonable answer:
"When I was choosing my A-levels, I wasn't sure what I wanted to study at university, and geography kept more options open. Since then, I've <been reading relevant periodicals/read these books/whatever else> which have made me realise that PPE is what I want to study."

In practice, most unis don't interview, so you address this in your UCAS form. You might even be able to find ways in which the geography studied has some relevance.