The Student Room Group

Economics or Speech and language therapy?

Hi I love economics and i got an A in my AS level. I'll be applying to uni this fall but now suddenly I have an interest in Speech and language therapy as I love being around children and helping people who are disabled. It's something I enjoy. However lately my mother has pointed out to me that the Speech and language therapists dont earn quiet well enough after six months of completing their degree, which is 22,000K a year. But I plan to do postgraduate too then start a proper career. Economics is something I enjoy too but I never understood the kind of jobs I can't get with the degree. And i have a B in GCSE maths and all good unis require A in maths for an economic degree. And i didn't even do well in my AS maths as I got a C, which I am hoping to improve next year.

Now I'm confused.. I'm almost done with my personal statement and I'm going to go on a work experience next week for speech and language therapy. Is economic degree better or being an speech and language therapist?

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Maleeha121
Hi I love economics and i got an A in my AS level. I'll be applying to uni this fall but now suddenly I have an interest in Speech and language therapy as I love being around children and helping people who are disabled. It's something I enjoy. However lately my mother has pointed out to me that the Speech and language therapists dont earn quiet well enough after six months of completing their degree, which is 22,000K a year. But I plan to do postgraduate too then start a proper career. Economics is something I enjoy too but I never understood the kind of jobs I can't get with the degree. And i have a B in GCSE maths and all good unis require A in maths for an economic degree. And i didn't even do well in my AS maths as I got a C, which I am hoping to improve next year.

Now I'm confused.. I'm almost done with my personal statement and I'm going to go on a work experience next week for speech and language therapy. Is economic degree better or being an speech and language therapist?

Posted from TSR Mobile


I can't help you choose between the two but I know that economics degrees vary on the amount of mathematics that is required from the applicant. If you do decide to apply for an economic course then look for BA Economics rather than the BSc courses. This is primarily because the level of maths required is lower for these courses in comparison to the latter.

I did a BSc Economics course and we had quite a bit of maths options:
- For first year: 1 compulsory module split into three paths: Statistics, Calculus & Quantitative Analysis + 2 additional modules that I took: linear algebra and pure mathematical analysis (these were optional)
- Second year: economic courses have a required econometrics modules (Which combines all the tools learnt in the 1st year module) -- useful for understanding most academic articles (They are all trying to out do each other with fancy metrics )
- Third year you have a Research in Applied Economics (where you could get by doing a theoretical paper but that would require quite a bit of mathematics expertise... or you could do a econometrics paper which again would require a lot of technical expertise)

What I am trying to highlight is that econ degrees do require a lot of mathematics and if you are not comfortable with GCSE/AS levels maths you will struggle. It will get quite tough especially with second year macro/micro modules. Unless the reason you didn't do well not because you don't know the material but because you didn't work hard enough.

In terms of careers there are lots of options:
1) Finance/IB - a lot of my friends are doing this
2) Research/Post-grad
3) Consultancy - economic/social
(Just a couple of the top of my head... )
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Maleeha121
Hi I love economics and i got an A in my AS level. I'll be applying to uni this fall but now suddenly I have an interest in Speech and language therapy as I love being around children and helping people who are disabled. It's something I enjoy. However lately my mother has pointed out to me that the Speech and language therapists dont earn quiet well enough after six months of completing their degree, which is 22,000K a year. But I plan to do postgraduate too then start a proper career. Economics is something I enjoy too but I never understood the kind of jobs I can't get with the degree. And i have a B in GCSE maths and all good unis require A in maths for an economic degree. And i didn't even do well in my AS maths as I got a C, which I am hoping to improve next year.

Now I'm confused.. I'm almost done with my personal statement and I'm going to go on a work experience next week for speech and language therapy. Is economic degree better or being an speech and language therapist?

Posted from TSR Mobile


Speech therapy isn't really a career that people go into for the salary. It's quite poorly paid for the amount of work that you do however the job satisfaction is high. Jobs can be either NHS or private and if you work for the NHS then the Agenda For Change payscales (google it) determine your salary and you will not be able to move up the scale until you have done at least a year's experience post qualification. Have a look on the RCSLT website which should give you more info on pay for SLT's. Economics is better paid but SLT is so much fun despite the pressure. Also SLT courses are incredibly difficult to get into for post grad studies so if you plan in doing it I would suggest go the BSc route. Hope this helps 😃


Posted from TSR Mobile

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you