Non preferred A level subjects - how much impact will picking one or two have on uni admissions?

[SonionRing]

Dd is about to get her GCSE results, and will then finalise her A level choices.

She's really struggled to narrow down her choices, but thinks she wants to do a.mixture of Business Studies, Politics, and either History or English Lit, or maybe Textiles

However having looked at uni entry requirements some unis consider Business Studies a lesser a level? Is this something she should be worrying about?

Hi, OP -

The concept of Facilitating Subjects, whilst still useful informally, was replaced a few years ago by Informed Choices. These are the most useful A level subjects. Pupils can select a combination of Informed Choices on the IC website snd see what degrees they lead to. Implicitly, they are the preferred subjects for the Russell Group+ overall that matters to DD, though individual universities may vary.

Business Studies, Politics, History and English Literature are all Informed Choices, with the combinations involving Business leading to a number of degree options. Textiles is not, though obviously it is an excellent choice for certain specialised degrees.

If DD is interested in particular universities, she could email their admissions teams to ask. She can also join the online forum The Student Room to ask undergraduates at individual universities about Business Studies directly (and anything else). Answers are generally thoughtful, but will reflect student perceptions.

(I am a former admissions tutor in a high tariff School in a strong RG university. STEM subject, so we did not see many applications with Business Studies A levels. But there was no cause for comment when we did.)

Best wishes to DD.

Note that since the reform of A levels, Business Studies has been called Business A Level, even some of the uni web pages still use the older phrasing.

Some perspective is needed; as far as I am aware only LSE, UCL and Cambridge give uni-wide (as opposed to only course specific) guidance on A level choices. Whilst Cambridge and LSE do not have Business on their preferred lists, UCL does.

If your daughter is strongly drawn to Business A level and she and her teachers think she could potentially do well, then you need to be cautious about substituting that with a subject where there is potentially going to be lower engagement and a less strong outcome. Better an A in Business than a B or C in EngLit.

Business, Politics and Textiles may be subjects that your daughter did not take at GCSE, so your daughter needs to do her research - perhaps looking at the detailed syllabus and past papers available online? Textiles A level, as with other equivalent A levels, can be a time drain so time management and time balancing skills do need to be developed to avoid impacting other subjects. Interest in textiles can be pursued outside A levels; this is what one of my children did.

There can be a lot of prejudice on these threads about Business/Business Studies. Historically, in many settings, Business Studies was taken by less academically able students (compared to, say, Economics A level) and so it was assumed to be an easier course. Since the A level reforms this is not the case. Business has a different focus to Economics A level and is more vocational - which is Cambridge's beef with it and Law A level.

Thank you, @PerpetualOptimist

I also have a dd due results on Thursday…

Has your dd done all the above options at GCSE or are they new? Mine has purposefully chosen 3/4 of already done subjects she knows she loves and then psychology as the new one.

DD has Business A level and did not find it caused any issues getting university offers and is currently at Oxford studying Economics and Management. Those A levels are good subjects for broader Economics / PPE degrees especially Business, History, Politics and if she wants to do those Maths A level is often required for Economics degrees. Though I would only take Maths if she has a high GCSE score and enjoys it. If she / you look on university websites for specific courses it will say what A levels are essential. I know someone at Cambridge with Art A level studying Natural Sciences but it was a fourth A level but I doubt it would have put her in a stronger position than a candidate with her first 3 A levels, she did it as Art is her favourite subject. Not sure how workload heavy textiles is, sometimes the practical subjects can be more workload and you are better to get higher grades in 3 than poorer grades in 4.

@OneZanyCat makes an important point: you are almost always better off getting higher grades at three A levels than doing less well at four.

You cannot drop the fourth after applying to university without informing UCAS (or your choices). It may matter, even if the offer is planned for three A levels. Not mentioning this technically voids your application.

Imperial College and perhaps a few others will sometimes make dual offers to those doing four exams but this is rare. Mainly tutors want to see what you are capable of st your best.

I would have a think about what degree / careers would interest her, their pay and chances of employment. If say she would like to work/do a degree in fashion then textiles and business would both be great A levels, business is good for marketing etc. Whereas Economics could lead to more commercial / finance or policy type roles with probably higher average pay and employment.

You've all been so helpful! Thank you. This is mumnset at its best.

She's done Business GCSE, is predicted an 8 or 9. She absolutely loves it, says its a subject that just makes sense and is somehow easy for her. Is really keen to continue studying it for A levels.

She did textiles too (predicted a 7 or above). She finds it really enjoyable and relaxing. But shes worried it won't get her the degree/job she wants so its moved down her list a bit. (I do keep telling her that actually its relatively AI proof so not to worry too much about future job prospects as the world of work will change significantly over the next few decades).

History and English shes predicted grade 6/7, I think she'll drop the one she scores lower on. Politics is a new subject for her, but shes genuinely interested in it and wants to understand how the world works.

Degree wise we're aware that her preferences might change over the next few years, but currently shes vaguely considering a dual degree in Business and Politics, or international relations.

The school she wants to go to encourage everyone to start off with 4 a levels and drop their least liked subject around half way through term 1.

Business should be a definite based on how much she loves it. If she is interested in politics, she should do it. There are similarities with history so I’d maybe say chose one or the other. If she loves textiles I would say she should do that to. For the fourth to start - it could be history if she is worried she might not like politics, or English lit in case she decides that she doesn’t want to do textiles. But in answer to your original question, I think most unis would be absolutely fine with three that included textiles. Her other 2 will be writing heavy.

I'm a ucas manager. Unix don't really cars what subject , it's the grade that matters. Textilessounds a brilliant option. Biz A level is a long hard slog.

I think as she loves Business GCSE and is predicted a great grade in it that seems an excellent A level to start. My DD found Business fine as an A level and enjoyed the course. It would go well with textiles if she's considering a career in something like fashion marketing / marketing / events and maybe could do a joint degree with textiles / fashion and business. If she is a sociable person or has the potential to become one those jobs can be very sociable and fun and would combine her creative side with her practical business side. Its not the easiest field to get a job in but if she can get relevant work experience that would help. History and Politics do overlap in essay writing but can go well together. I think starting on 4 can be useful and also read the contents of the A level course, it can be quite different to what they imagined.

I was just coming on to say what @OneZanyCat posted about half an hour ago concerning Business and Textiles. Politics seems to me to fit with this, but any essay based subject would be good.

However Business and Textiles might be very time consuming?

Business, Politics and English/History is a great combination which would work for a lot of different degree courses.
Finalising English/History decision after results day is sensible.
Apart from some degree courses that have specific requirements the best way to pick A levels is to pick the ones you enjoy most and think you can get the best grade in. A higher grade is usually better than a lower grade in a “better” subject

There's a site where you can enter your A-level choices and see what subjects they would enable you to study, which might be worth playing with.

It's really a question of how many options she wants to keep open. If she sticks with wanting to do something like business and politics at uni, then it's probably not going to matter what the third is. If she decides she's not so keen on that after all, then a lot of related areas will still be happy with business + politics + anything (particularly those more on the business/applied side of things). However history might unlock other options, and textiles probably won't.

My daughter has just done A levels in Business, economics and politics and got Astar A A

She got 9s in business and history at GCSE

She thought she'd do a business degree, but actually preferred economics and is about to go to Newcastle to study there.She really enjoyed politics too.

If your DD likes business then she should take it at Alevel!

The Informed Choices website allows you to see what subjects many combinations of A levels allow you to study. The Informed Choices are very similar in function to the discontinued Facilitating Subjects.

All of the DD’s potential A levels except Textiles are Informed Choices.

I coordinate a sewing group. It's packed full of high achieving women - late forties upwards.

Most of us had to do vocational degrees (there are a lot of doctors) and no-one has textiles A-level as other subjects got prioritised. Many do have some kind of textile/ design equivalent at GCSE though.

However, most of us have been practicing some sort of textile based craft fairly consistently. Some have had a break during university, or early career years etc. but we've all come back to it. So please reassure her that not doing textiles won't preclude anything.

She could, of course, keep up the textiles by doing a textile-based EPQ. I know one student who researched and made a period costume, and another who made her own ball gown. I think it's quite a good one to tick the EPQ boxes.

I'm always struck by how many Masterchef participants seem to have PHDs in Physics and the like!

I do wonder how many people would deep down prefer to do something "practical" but their academic grades have meant everyone around them assuming that they should pursue the academic road.

Is the textiles Art or Design technology? Could she take that as her 4th or maybe do both History and English to see which she prefers. This could come down to the texts or periods studied, how the class and teachers gel as much as anything else if ability is the same. Just be wary of doing more than one with a large NEA component.

I've just had a look at the Informed Choices website. I don't think it classifies certain subjects as "Informed choices" equivalent to the old facilitating subjects does it?

As far as I can see it's just promoting making informed choices so that you understand which avenues are open to you when choosing particular subject combinations.

It isn’t a direct equivalence and doesn’t claim to be. However broadly speaking these are the combinations that open up the greatest number of degrees.

One drawback of the Informed Choices site is thar you can’t easily see what options are available with two Informed Choices and one other A level - for example, Business, Politics and Textiles.

PS It should not be difficult for the sitemakers slowly to add more A level options over time. Whether they have any interest in doing so is a different question.