A-level Choices- are these 'soft'?

[questioner123]

Hello!

My DD is looking at choosing English (lang and lit), psychology and government and politics for a-level. Are these classed as 'soft' a-levels? Any help or advice is really appreciated!

I agree clary (another former journo here - and I had a fantastic career in journalism until I had 3 dc but probably wouldn't go into it if I were starting out now)

One of my friend's daughters is currently working as a producer on a national news programme. She's on a zero hours contract and doesn't earn enough to move out of her parents' home. That's despite having a first at undergraduate level and a masters.

The majority of entrants into journalism now have a degree and most have a masters too. The days of local papers taking on trainees are long gone...

She needs English lit on its own (not the lang which some people see as soft.)
Then I would do a second facilitating subject too

Could she do a science, maths, a language or geography or history for example?

If she can have 2 or 3 faciltating subjects - the harder ones - check university web sites - she will fare a lot better in law. I did 3 facilitating subjects for A level. I'm a lawyer. My daughters who are new-ish lawyers also did 2 or 3 plus economics - regarded as a fairly good but non facilitating one and very useful for law actually. I think it's a really good A level to do if your school offer it.

Also pick the subjects youi will get A or A* in if you want to do law (as long as it's a good facilitating etc A level). No point pikcing maths if you'd get C in maths whereas you'd have got A in English lit (or vice versa).

To be brutally honest, journalism is hugely competitive even for those with PG journalist qualifications. My journalism career was entirely in online financial journalism - I did it for years but there have been massive cutbacks and there are far fewer jobs. Local journalism has been worse affected. If you have an area of expertise you have a chance, but you have to be really tenacious.

I read it as separate English A levels - hadn't thought about combined. Is it combined she is thinking of?

In what words is Lang 'softer' than Lit? If anything it's the other way round. The combined can be looked down on because it lacks rigour and doesn't cover a broad enough base of both subjects. Having taught all three, Lang is very demanding and would stand her in good stead for a broader range of courses.

Sorry world

It is also what people perceive as soft too such as employers later. English lit is a facilitating subject, lang isn't
www.clare.cam.ac.uk/subjectchoice-alevelchoice/

If you can do 2 or 3 facilitating subjects that tends to give you more options.

Thanks for the all the information. She's not all that keen on journalism anyway, more steering towards law/teaching, but it was always an option for her, so I will be sure to pass this info on, may help her decide that it is not the career for her. She is quite acedemic, so has the potential to do well in other careers. We will definitely be considering history now, she always enjoyed it. Yes, I was talking about the combined English lit/Lang a level. She is keen on our most local college, but they only offer this for English, not the separate qualifications, which I find very strange!? We do have a few other options though for colleges. Hearing all your advice is so interesting and helpful, we are very confused at the moment with it all!

If the combined English was taken with two other facilitating subjects, would it still be looked down on by universities, or is it still a good one to have to show skills in English? I hope this makes sense! Just so that we can keep an extra choice of a sixth form open.

You really need to get her to look at courses she likes and see what they say. The requirements and preferences vary from uni to uni. Combined is not really enough of either lang or lit to give a grounding in either. If she wants to do either of those at uni then she's be better off doing that subject as an individual qualification.

If the local college doesn't offer English Lit it may be worth looking at other schools and their 6th forms.

The Informed Choices booklet is useful www.russellgroup.ac.uk/media/5272/informedchoices-print.pdf which is produced by some of the good universities ( p29 gives the subjects).

This Trinity College list is also not that keen on English lang either - see www.trin.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/applying/a-level-subject-combinations/ Can she not just do English literature which is the classic A level which most of us who went to university did and is clearly accepted by all the good universities?

Eg my boys are doing History Geography and this year - upper sixth their third is a non facilitating subject (one is doing economics and the other classics ) and they did a 4th to AS as their school still did 4 AS exams last year.

Do look at how she is doing. Did she get mostly As for GCSE and will get to a good university in which call all this matters a lot. If she will be going to perhaps a second tier university to read a subject you don't need very high grades to get into then her current choices might be absolutely fine.

I'm a freelance journalist. I write across the national titles and do magazine work too. I still love it and make a reasonable living from it. I've made it work in a way that suits me, but it's taken 15 years to get here.
I've seen a lot of people fall by the wayside, which is a shame.
Tenacity is definitely the word, and agree about blogging.