A level subject shortlist to keep university options open?

[DressToKill]

My dd is trying to decide which A levels to choose. She wants to go to university but doesn’t know which course though might be interested in medical sciences, history or psychology.
Her strengths are the sciences and humanities though extended writing is not her strong point.
She could also probably manage maths which I think would be a good idea.
So does anyone have any advice on, let’s say a shortlist of 5 subjects she should consider to keep her options open?

I don't think the Cambridge list of ideal A levels is hated on MN. I have no views about it myself. If you think you might possibly want to go to Cambs uni then it is a good idea to look at it.

That's no more astonishing than the idea that it's a good idea to check required A levels for medicine or engineering or anything else you might want to do post 18. How often do we see "my dc wants to do engineering but didn't take physics"?

Obvs taking the A levels on the list doesn't guarantee a place. I know you are not saying it does, but in fact a very small % of Cambs applicants will even get an offer. I think that's worth being aware of if you are using a list to direct youtr A level choices.

Of course taking A level MFL is great, that's my subject, love it. It will never be a bad thing to have German A level. OTOH the OP's DD is looking at history or a science degree. So tbh even if Cambs might be a target, IMHO she would be better advised to take history and maths (both on the Cambs history list too) than German unless she loved German and would get a great grade and might also consider MFL for a degree.

I think you would struggle to argue that German A level would keep more doors open for the OP's DD than history, Eng lit or maths. And I suspect as I said before that the doors it specifically opens (ie MFL) are not ones she wants to go through.

The list might be published by Cambridge @clarybut it’s still good advice. English is not needed as well as history anywhere. The great thing about the MFL, as you must know, is that it might open up a better uni if you do History and German. MFL departments are desperate for students in many unis and hardly anyone takes German. It’s certainly got more to recommend it than English, if putting it with History. As the Cambridge list shows, there’s no need to have 2 essay subjects from the list. A third one from the additional list is just fine. There’s great advice from Cambridge about choosing A levels if you are unsure about degree but it’s fairly clear, science usually needs science A levels so humanities or science is usually what divides students. Good advice is good advice regardless of what university writes it!

I still maintain that taking German A level (much as I might recommend it in general to those who enjoy it) is not specifically going to open doors for the OP's DD if she wants perhaps to study history. If she wants to study history and German then yes, German A level is a good idea, in fact essential.

You may have a point re combining history and German – I checked out Bristol and Warwick as two pretty tiptop unis and Bristol is AAA for both history and History with German, but Warwick's AAA for history drops to AAB for history and German. The same is true tho for history and sociology there. But I still don't think it's a great plan if the DD is not keen on A level German. It would be a hard slog if you really wanted to take maths. Or biology.

@clary Well yes, she has to like German. Obviously GCSE attainment matters too. German isn’t extended writing as English is and she wasn’t keen on too much writing. Obviously would be at uni if the two were combined.

It’s just a lot easier to go back to basics and say science or humanities. Then choose the best for the courses because keeping all options open just isn’t possible. IB is the only way.

For History, French is a far better A-level than German. I have heard British academics who are historians of Europe complain that their undergraduates do not speak French well enough to do research in French, which limits their ability to do archival research for their dissertation or even to use French secondary sources (such as recent exhibition catalogues) when writing essays. France is a massively important country for historians with unparalleled archives that are easy to access.

@Ceramiq i suspect AI will take care of these issues.

How can AI take care of archival research?

Hint: key skill is being able to read cursive handwriting and travel to towns with no public transport connections.

@Ceramiq once one person has done it, it should then be shared worldwide removing duplication.

Done what? Archives aren't digitized and put online by researchers unless they are of national importance and someone is going to pay for it - which not many are. Archival research is mostly about interpretation and AI is just not going to be very good at being insightful about things that took place centuries ago.

@CeramiqHonestly! Why do you think historians are going to be working on French or German archives? They are not doing a degree in French or German and most people who do History use it as a vehicle for other work! The argument for German is ludicrous. The whole purpose of the A levels recommended by Cambridge are that they are best prep for their degrees. That means they think the way linguists think is good prep for their humanities degrees.

Historians don't just study British history ...

@AlwaysRightISwear Yes but they are not studying documents written in French or German either. Most cannot read it. Beyond university they probably do neither.

DD did biology, politics & geography which really helped to keep her options open in terms of being able to go down either the humanity or science route. Geography in particular was brilliant at linking biology/politics together due to the two different human and physical sides of the subject.

She primarily considered international relations/politics/human geography and healthcare related courses like physio/dietetics/biomedical science. Not having chemistry (would never have been an option - definitely not a strength for DD!) really only ruled out medicine and pharmacy. Ended up doing a biomedical science undergrad and now heading for a master’s in physiotherapy.

English language is really good for psychology

Academic historians certainly would. You can't do a PhD without archival research.

Were you just talking about studying history at undergrad level? Even then the language helps with options. I did my undergrad dissertation on a Latin source, printed but with French notes so the French A level and Latin O level I had were vital.

Yes of course they are researching from materials in the original language source.

Biology, psychology, English literature and the epq were what my psychology student did

A-level Maths is hard, the jump feom GCSE to A-level is huge, unless she needs it for the course she wants to do I'd never advise someone to pick Maths at A-level, it's making life much harder to get those higher grades. She needs to look at the courses she interested in and work backwards, what does she actually need to get onto those courses. Of course you can keep your options open to an extent, but you need to be picking your subjects with specific degrees in mind, and most importantly subjects she enjoys/can achieve decent grades in.

I ended up doing a Psychology degree (I probably would have done something more biology/science focused but I really enjoyed A-level Psychology and had a fantastic teacher). I actually chose A-level Maths as it was one of my strongest subjects throughout school and I enjoyed it, but I decided to change to an easier A-level (the very last day we were allowed to change) as I realised I didn't need it for the course I wanted to do, I was basically making life harder for myself, I needed AAB to get into uni. My A-levels were biology, psychology, geography and an As-level in Chemistry. I was always interested in science rather than pop Psychology, I work as a scientist in public health now. Like most people on my uni course I did further degrees (a Masters and PhD) and basically didn't decide what I wanted to be until several years after uni.

@snackattackk i think it is incorrect to label one A level as more difficult than another. I got the top grade in my A level maths exam and had finished the 3 hour exam in 1 hour. What one person finds hard, another doesn’t.