Unis not liking history and politics alevel together

[TealDeer020202]

I do RE, History, Politics and Eng Lit for A-Level with the hope of a history + law conversion or just a straight law degree. I got an 'A' in my EPQ last year which is why I'm starting with 4. However, the school says that history and politics only work well together in a 4 subject combo and that unis consider history and politics to overlap too much when taken in a 3 subject combo - is this true?

Your best bet is to contact admissions tutors of a few suitable universities and ask them their stance.

Lots of kids at both my DCs schools do History, Politics and one other A level and get lots of offers to good universities.

Yes, do this. You'll be able to find their email details on course websites. My dd contacted a few when she was trying to decide which A levels to do and had some very helpful replies.

I know someone who did 3 A levels including Politics and History and is now doing Politics and History at university so i dont think its an issue .

Dd did history, politics and one other A Level and got 5 offers, including RG. No one suggested it was a problem at any stage.

Traditionally, History, RS and English Literature would be viewed as the higher ranking A - Level courses, and Politics would not be viewed as being of equal merit. So if you were applying for Oxbridge to study PPE for example, you might be better to stick to the first three.

I'm not sure if this is the case in 2024 though! This was what was said to me circa 15 years ago

Maths is the new highly recommended subject for PPE now 😂That being said even in school people often think of politics as being for people who aren't smart enough to do history

They're fine together. They compliment nicely. Don't worry about it. (And Oxford would be quite happy with Politics and History for PPE, although they also prefer Maths.)

No one ever says Maths and Physics have too much of an overlap do they? Even though they do overlap!

Don't do four, you'll spread yourself too think and your grades will suffer for it. 3 A stars far better than 4 As.

Not an expert but wasn’t our experience 5 years ago when DS did history & politics ( with economics) and got offers from all of the RG unis he applied to. They actually compliment each other well but good idea to contact uni admissions to be certain.

Well I've already done my EPQ and if we do 3-Alevels in our school we have to do an EPQ or some BS-qualification our school created out of thin air of made-up 'leadership' and 'digital skills' certificates so if I'm going to drop will have to wait for the lent term to swing by. Perhaps I could do an AS-Level at the end of Y12 in something I want to drop?

I did history, politics and English lit 30 years ago and got into Cambridge 🤷

I did History, Politics and Eng Lit and did exactly the path you want at a very good uni. Admittedly was 30 years ago but still.
It's a great combo IMO.

Politics is the third most popular A level taken by PPE applicants, after Maths & History.

What did you study at Cambridge?

I don't know at A-Level, but when I did my history degree yonks ago, you could take up to a third of your modules from the politics department. Obviously lots of overlap between the two.

A lot of Oxford PPE applicants will have four though I think

History, politics and English were pretty popular in my day - in fact it's exactly what my BFF did, they went on to do law at a RG uni and they're a partner in a law firm now.

But as you've been advised by PP, speak to the admissions office in your target unis for specific advice.