Are my DD's A Level choices a bit limiting?

[Sundaysiesta56]

DD has chosen Art & Design, English Lit and Maths for A Level, starting in September at sixth form college. She originally had four choices - the other one was History - but had to choose one to drop at the taster day she's just been to.

We had both expected she would start all four and then drop one after a term or so and I had anticipated she would then end up dropping either Maths or Art (keeping History and Eng Lit as a sort of pair).

She has no real idea what she wants to do for a career. Her predicted GCSE grades are 7s to 9s.

I'm a bit concerned that this is now a bit of a random A Level combo and might limit uni and career choices. I haven't said anything to DD.

If she's looking at uni, you mainly need a good grade in the one subject you want to study plus any two others.

Look at the positive - Random gives her something really interesting to talk about at interviews!

what does she want to do after sixth form?

English maths and art! sounds great to me. English lit and history are very samey, and showcase the same skills. She will have a much wider range of skills to show

It depends what she wants to do next, really. I would have thought, of those four options, Art would be the outlier and the one to drop. But if that's her passion and preferred career path in some way, dropping that would be a bad idea.

Other things being equal, I think English, History, Maths is by far the most flexible in terms of future options.

I think that’s a good combination. It’s far less limiting than if she swapped maths for history as you’d advise.
It keeps the doors open in the STE of STEM, economics, law, PPE, humanities- English & classics, international relations, business and studio arts!!

Great all rounder choice

Good balance to me unless it doesn't fit with what she wants to do later i.e. if she wants to study maths or economics at a top uni then further maths is preferred, but not always essential.

Mine did Biology, Eng Lit, History and core maths. Doesn’t appear to have limited her.

It's a pretty good balance of subjects. Science, art, communication. Much better than mine was. I also had no idea what I wanted to do, and what I do now has no connection with my A levels or my degree.

Realistically, why would she know yet - she's still technically a child.

She got a couple of years now to discover if she's enjoying one subject in particular or if she realises later as she matures her mind is moving to different fields. Mine did.

She may not even want to go to uni - we had student grants, but the debt today must be quite sobering.

Relax. Stop angsting, land the helicopter and let her enjoy this time of self discovery.

Has she got any idea what she wants to do after school? Is she considering Oxbridge? I would suggest looking at entry requirements for university courses that she might enjoy to make sure her choices are acceptable.

Things to consider:

Does the college offer further maths? If she is considering anything maths related, the best courses will usually require further maths if it is available at her college.

Maths A level is not easy. Is she a natural mathematician? What GCSE grade is she predicted?

Art A level is a huge amount of work. Unless she is considering art/design or a course where art A level is required or beneficial, eg architecture, she might find life a lot easier if she swaps it for history, especially if she is considering Oxbridge (which is also a lot of stress to prepare for) 😂

It's not limiting as long as feels she can get decent grades in ideally all, or at least one.
As you say, she's not decided on a career path yet, so it's best she does subjects she thinks she'll pass, then she can decide if she wants to do uni or another pathway like apprenticeship.
Even if there were subjects that were 'limiting' at A level, maths is definitely never considered in that manner.

I had anticipated she would then end up dropping either Maths or Art (keeping History and Eng Lit as a sort of pair).

Why did she decide to drop history?

If she realises she made a mistake she can probably still swap subjects after she starts in September (depending on option blocks).

I agree it's a shame she can't start all 4 and see how they go, but my instinctive reaction is that those 3 are still a good set. Might have been better not to have to choose which one to change before knowing her GCSE results though! Thinking about it, the chances are high that if for example her maths result was weaker than expected, she'd be able to swap maths for history at enrolment.

If she has the ability to do each of those well, she will have demonstrated some all-round abilities which should give her a fair range of choices for uni, and for that matter, after uni as well. My daughter did English/History/Maths, is studying English but found her maths unexpectedly useful during an internship last summer.

There might be some specific career pathways that would recommend a different subject - but if she finds herself drawn to something like that over the next year, she can learn about independently and/or explore it in an EPQ, and then discuss with university admissions tutor whether her A levels will be suitable or if there is a different path to follow. I think she's keeping a lot of options available with this set.

Good luck to your daughter and I hope she enjoys 6th form!

I don't think its limiting but its probably a more challenging 3 to do together as all different skill sets with no overlap.

It's a bit of a random choice. I would only recommend art if she wants to go to art college or a career involving art. If she doesn't she would be better off dropping art and taking history

My DD is doing textiles, English Lit/Lang and maths. With the possibility of further maths. She wants to work in the theatre, but school not running any drama options. The careers person at school seemed to think it was a nice range of subjects....

I don't think it's the subjects that limit a person. It's not knowing what they want to do/not having a passion or not having good results. However, the subjects are good!

My family are education oriented and I had to do the big subjects at big levels. There was a family meeting for GCSE and A-level options and unnecessary input into my degree. I never wanted any of that and would probably have done better if I'd followed what I wanted to do at that time. I'll never know because as with most people who don't know what they want to do, I went into sales and account management

Help her find her passion

Firstly @Sundaysiesta56 I agree with most people that this is a good choice of A levels if these are the subjects she enjoys most.

Good post tho from @BobandRobertaSmith - if she might want to pursue either maths or economics at uni, especially if aiming for a higher-rated uni, then she may want to consider FM. Also yy what is her expected maths grade? If it is 8 or 9 then fine; 7 or below then probs not the best idea to take the A level.

I think the idea that A level choices need to match is a bit misguided unless a student has a good idea of their future plan. DS2 was all about the science and his maths A level will have complemented and supported his biology (and at uni). But disparate subjects are fine as long as they will lead to good grades and don't exclude any possible higher ed choices. All A level choices must remove options - it's in the nature of the choice of three - but the question is always, are they options you want to keep? DD was never going to be a physicist with he A level choices - but that was fine by her.

If your DD might want to pursue art then the A level is a good choice, tho it is for sure a thief of time. But then presumably she has taken GCSE and enjoyed it. Same for an Eng lit degree - A level is needed. Maths A level without FM or another science is not imo a great door-opener (as in, it is not needed as such for that many degrees tbh, tho lower-ranked unis might be fine with ust maths for econ or maths degrees); but maths A level is always a good thing to have on your list and actually it might inspire her to something related such as accountancy or business or marketing research.

I have to disagree with @SpiritAdder tho here It keeps the doors open in the STE of STEM, economics, law, PPE, humanities- English & classics, international relations, business and studio arts - some of those degree choices are open with any A level combo tbh (business, int relations, PPE, law, classical civ) and IMO she will be excluding econ, science, engineering and tech degrees with her choices tbh, unless she adds FM or a second science (physics for engineering). That's all fine for sure tho - if you don't fancy physics A level you probs won't enjoy an engineering degree; if you don't love maths enough to take FM, then maths degree is probs not for you.

DD just has single maths and has economics offers from Oxford, Bristol, Bath. Single maths is required at all of those but not FM. You just need to choose selectively - I wouldn't call any of those lower ranked or view maths based economics as superior to more policy/history based, in fact I, and a lot of other economists, think it worsened the subject as the world is and people are much more complex than numbers but there is use for both sides. If she's not suggesting doing FM, I wouldn't be pushing it, it has the highest drop out rate of any course at DDs sixth form and also means half your time is spent doing maths, fine if you enjoy maths and are very strong at it but not great if you prefer to have other subjects. I would say for economics history is probably the second most useful of those she has looked at after maths.

What is she expected to get in GCSE Maths? DD has done it with a 9 and stats GCSE at a 9 and level 3 Add Maths at an A (max) and she has still needed to keep on top of it, its a subject easy to fall behind in, I would be cautious about doing it with below an 8 (or an economics degree of any sort). FM at DDs school they require 4 x 8s in maths and 3 sciences and still get 50% drop out. DD started FM but just didn't find it that interesting and did subjects she enjoyed. You can change in the first few weeks but after that a school may not allow changes, at least DDs school is like that. DD was not allowed to change back to Economics A level (she was a massive swapper though I was the same) but then got an Oxford offer so they said they made an error there. Though can understand it.

Oh that's interesting @Penguinsa and well done to your DD.

Tbf I was basing my comments on many threads on MN plus secondhand experience from friends whose DC have needed FM. Agree that none of those unis are lower ranked tho there are some higher-ranked for econ that specify FM. Econ is having such a moment that a friend's DS with A/A/A/Astar grades in hand inc FM didn't get offers from UCL, LSE, Leeds and IIRC Imperial - but then he really was aiming very high.

I'm no economist or sure so I bow to your knowledge on this - and hard agree re 8 or 9 at GCSE fr maths A level. Someone in DS's class had got a 6 and struggled so so much. I think they changed subjects and repeated the year with a different choice in the end.

Thanks clary Yes economics is very competitive (DDs school try to discourage people applying to it, computing and medicine unless absolutely certain due to competition levels and they also have candidates with 4 A stars in previous years being rejected everywhere for all of those both with and without FM). You do need to read each universities websites in detail if going for economics - for example LSE prefers FM and does not like Art and Design A level. https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/Undergraduate/Prospective-Students/How-to-Apply/Admissions-Information

Generally I would avoid just listing the top 5 courses in economics - think the Imperial one is 35 applications per place (very specialist course), LSE is 20 to 1, Oxford 20 to 1. Cambridge is lower but almost everyone there has FM and it is about the same as Oxford and LSE to get into. There are also entry exams for the more competitive. Oxford only interview 18% of people who apply for E&M and you see lots with 4 A stars out before interview stage, which must be the entrance exam (unless very different performance at GCSE but unlikely). I would say the key to DD getting a place was 12 gcses (10 at 8s and 9s) from an underperforming comp and then a very high entrance test score (top 5%). The subjects did not seem to matter too much and they showed most interest in one hardly anyone takes, maybe as its different. Having said that you do need to be strong in maths, both DD and I would have got 100% in the maths GCSE. I don't even have maths A level though I did have to do a maths exam in first year at Cambridge which was tough going up against others with As in Maths and FMs and it was self taught I think. But it didn't actually count for anything, just need to pass it to get on to part 2 and you could take it more than once and it was the same paper each time. You then had to avoid the maths options and take things like economic history, development economics, macroeconomics of countries, politics, sociology but those were all the subjects I wanted to do. Econometrics is also compulsory there though again doesn't count for part of final result but that I found fairly straightforward as you could get the computer to do it for you. Though nowadays you wouldn't get away with no maths A level but nobody questions it after a degree and never had any issue in a job. Very harsh for the friend though the London ones seem to be the fussiest and of those only Leeds would have expected an offer from and maybe one other if lucky. Having said that you only need one good offer.

I don't know if this is unique to people we know but all the students with multiple rejections at state schools from very competitive courses / unis are male. Though don't know for medicine. I would love to see data on this, in my day at Cambridge in my college almost all state pupils were girls.

On the whole, I think you and the bunch of randomers on here should have faith in your DD's choice.

Studying is about doing what you love, unless you are going for an obvious vocation that requires defined subjects.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask if she has an idea of what she wants to do post A-Level, and if she does want to study a particular subject to then see if her choices are appropriate, but otherwise I'd leave ----her be.

While she may not know what she wants to do for a career, I think from her choices it's pretty clear that she doesnt want to go into science, engineering or medicine. They're the subjects which tend to have the most defined a-level requirements for uni.
The mix she's chosen would be fine for quite a broad range of course I think.

Not at all. Have a look at Interdisciplinary University London.