Maths and Economics

I am currently in year 12 studying maths, physics and computer science and I am planning on dropping computer science for further maths but I am not allowed to until the end of June. I would like to study maths and economics or just maths at the best university possible like LSE, Imperial or Warwick. But also I will be fine with going to Lancaster or Manchester if I don’t get into those. I am kind of struggling in physics a level right now and really wished I picked economics instead at the start along with maths and further maths. I would be catching up over the summer of AS further maths using the textbook, practice questions and videos.Should I consider doing economics AS level over the summer along with further maths and join both A2 classes in year. How would my predicted grades work? I got 97777666 at GCSE with a 9 in business, 7 in maths, 76 in English and 66 in combined science. I believe I can achieve the grades needed in A-Level for the top universities. I aim to either work in investment banking or finance like quantitative finance but open to data science and machine learning too. What do you guys recommend I do? Is catching up on 2 AS levels over the summer too much? I do really enjoy and economics and find it really interesting. If I don’t end up picking economics a level how disadvantaged would I be for doing a maths and economics degree at a university like LSE

Hi there,

I am a third year Mathematics and Statistics student at Lancaster University. At Lancaster we have both an economics degree with entry requirements ABB and an economics with mathematics degree with entry requirements of AAB (with an A in either A-Level maths or further maths). Therefore, for our university changing your A-Levels won't make a lot of difference as economics isn't a requirement. I would suggest not giving yourself the added pressure personally but I do not know the requirements of other universities. If you chose to do just a maths degree you would still be in good standing to go into investment banking, one of my friends on my course has a graduate role with JP Morgan for next year. We are 16th for Economics in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023) and 11th in the UK for Mathematics (The Complete University Guide 2023). Therefore, we are still a very high ranking university but may promote more of a balanced work life balance than some of the more competitive universities. Please feel free to ask me any questions that you have.

- Amy (Lancaster Student Ambassador)

Thank you very much. Do you think it would still be a good idea to drop computer science for further maths because I really do not like computer science and would much rather take a level further maths.

Thank you very much. Do you think it would still be a good idea to drop computer science for further maths because I really do not like computer science and would much rather take a level further maths.

Hi there,

I think making sure you're motivated and doing something you enjoy is important. However, I would advise you to see how catching up goes and see if your college can provide any support with this, for example tests that the class have done this year to ensure you're up to a similar level. If this goes fine then swapping A-Levels may be a good choice, but you will still have a safety net of continuing computer science afterwards because things can go wrong or you might end up preferring to just do other things over the holidays.

- Amy (Lancaster Student Ambassador)