Which A level would you drop?

[EachandEveryone]

If you were 17 and didnt have a clue what you wanted to do. Medicine is out because she knows it would be too stressful. She wants to earn money and has had part time jobs since she was 14 so she likes to spend😃. No interest in computing. She is quite argumentative and much more woke than me. Typical teen really. She is desparate to do a course which means she cannwork abroad for a year.

Todays halfway results Geography A Biology B Sociology A and Chemistry C (which she is gutted about) Apparently they dont have to drop one but it would make sense to.

There is a female Civil Engineer called Amy Wright here is a bit about her copied off the Internet. She is on twitter and was very lovely when my son contacted her for his primary school project im sure she would respond if your daughter had any questions for her.

Amy is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. She graduated in 2012 and has won a number of awards since then for her engineering skills, development work and commitment to promoting STEM subjects to students. Most recently she was named as one of The Telegraph and Women’s Engineering Society’s Top 50 Women in Engineering in 2017, was honoured as one of six women who have made an outstanding contribution to the Construction Industry by NCE Magazine and was a finalist in The Institution of Engineering and Technology Young Women Engineer of the Year Awards. On the Northern Spire Amy was responsible for managing the construction of sections of work including reinforced concrete structures, drainage, pavements, reinforced earth structures and piling. Amy is currently working in the Pre-Tender Department with Farrans Construction.

@EachandEveryone

They just keep telling her to go into Criminology which she actually fancied but then someone told her that forensics is all on computer these days so that put her off. Engineeting comes up alot in those quizzes and i really wish she would open her mind to that route but she thinks it would be boring, god knows why she thinks like that. I dont think the school gives good career choices. Its the same school i went to and they are still telling the young women to be nurses or secretaries.

Criminology has one of the lowest employment rates going for degrees, or certainly used to be the case. I'm a criminology graduate and while it was a really interesting degree I'm not sure it has a good reputation. Maybe if she was interested in the police graduate scheme, or prison service? I guess with a good degree classification it could open up non related graduate schemes but probably not as much as a more respected subject??

There's a lot of interesting engineering stuff. Renewable energy is the up and coming sector and if you can get qualified in this area you'll never be out of work.

Carrying on with Chemistry without maths will be soul destroying. Not only is it useful with Chemistry but many of the best unis place the maths result with higher emphasis - eg Oxford. That's not to say only Oxford counts but shows how important it is to Chemistry.

The other three are a really good mix and would allow her to consider both Social Science and Biology routes at uni.

DD achieved an A at A level chemistry without doing A level maths.

All jobs involve computers -- she can do this.
There will be specialist support software & training provided (criminology).

Drop chemistry -- it isn't clicking for her.

If not criminology...would she consider social work degree? It's not so different a skillset!

God no I’d never recommend that as a career. Ive worked with so many in my lifetime and all of them are so stressed it will never pay enough for what it entails.

She has just recently looked at something like this courses.leeds.ac.uk/f485/international-development-ba

Ok so she's got a rough idea of degree courses then - that's good. Dropping Chem would be sensible then.

Maybe she could also look at social policy or international relations degrees.

There are plenty of joint honours courses too, so she could apply for IR and ? But choose modules in years 2/3 from the areas which start to interest her more.

Every single private school teen I know seems to be going to Leeds to do International Development 😂

Oh really? I dont think she will like it if they are all rah. Maybe it could lead to different things?

I'm a sixth form tutor. As many others have said, unless she is planning to take a degree that requires Chemistry, she should drop it. AAB is a much better prospect than ABC. Facilitating subjects don't really exist any more, but Geography and Biology are traditional and respected A Levels - the third choice can be essentially anything, and if she's getting an A in it, then Sociology is a very good choice. All three of those would work well for International Development.

Geography, biology and sociology as a combination equip her well for the wider geography type degrees including population or environmental science. Many of those offer a year abroad.

Even if she is disappointed with her chemistry grade and decides not to continue, the knowledge gained this year will help her with some aspects of biology and geography.

@EachandEveryone

Oh really? I dont think she will like it if they are all rah. Maybe it could lead to different things?

To be fair it looks like a really interesting degree.

Engineering is steering her down the wrong path anyway IMO. Without maths (and in many cases also further maths) it’s pretty much a non starter.

@EachandEveryone

Oh really? I dont think she will like it if they are all rah. Maybe it could lead to different things?

I went to Leeds and can confirm it’s definitely not very “rah” in most quarters. Far from it. She’ll have a great time.

Leeds is a great university. It's suddenly become very popular with the more party wing of UK private schools.

You will find "rah" students at all good universities. DD is at Newcastle, and there are plenty there. One of the halls of residence even has a reputation of attracting them. Don't let it put your daughter off. She will find her tribe.

Oh no I do t even think she knows what rah means😃 I would never say it to her just think it, you are right about leeds as my private school cousin and her friends went there just for the raves.

@EachandEveryone

Oh no I do t even think she knows what rah means😃 I would never say it to her just think it, you are right about leeds as my private school cousin and her friends went there just for the raves.

Yup. Annoyingly this is why dd2 swerved both Leeds and Bristol despite them being v good for subject (she went to private school but couldn't stand the ket crowd)

Tell me about it. The child Im on about is so sickly sweet to her mothers face and she is more hardcore than we were in the late 80’s. I suppose its the crowd you run with.

No point in doing 4 A levels unless you are going to get really top grades in them all. AAA is better than AABC for university entrance.

I'd drop the one she enjoys the least or is getting the worst grades in.

Chemistry. Lowest grade.

I totally disagree with pp's re the seriousness or validity of sociology, it's well respected, and very interesting, with debate and essay type exams. Ds1 is enjoying it very much. It's in the top 10 of subjects.

Oh wow , just came here for a nose and saw soem of the comments on sociology. It's on LOTS of unis' lists of preferred subjects for lots of courses (as are all the other subjects). It is popular with unis as it ticks essay boxes, hums boxes, quantitative methods boxes.

I think what she drops needs to be informed by a long hard think (and perhaps soem virtual open days etc) about her future plans.

On the face of it, it's Chemistry. Geog, Biol and Sociology is an EXCELLENT combination.

Have a look at Southampton's Population Studies degree?

www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/population-and-geography-degree-bsc

If she could get her grade up in Chemistry it would hold her in much better stead than Sociology which at A level is not regarded very highly. I'd ditch the sociology for sure, with one less subject she'll have more time to focus on the other subjects.