Choosing degrees

So there's a lot of degrees I'm interested in but I can't decide what one is the best. Does anyone have more information about English Literature, History, Law and Media Studies? Like what realistic job prospects are there for those? And what's it like studying them?

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by cristalat101

I haven't studied any of these subjects, but from the looks of them other than law they aren't degrees required for specific jobs (i.e. they're not like pharmacy, medicine, etc. where you need specific degrees to get the job). Barrister roles will require an LLB or PGDL, and for some reason it's said that it's a similar story for solicitor roles even though the SQE would accept degrees in any subject.

English Lit and Law as far as I know involves a lot of reading. Law is known for the subject that's the most difficult to get a 1st class in.
History requires seeing things from multiple perspects, on top of a lot of reading. I haven't heard much about media studies.

Unless you specifically want to go into teaching or academia, the jobs you are looking at would be jobs that accept degrees in any subject or don't require degrees in the first place. Whilst this sounds a bit depressing, there are 600+ roles out there that meet this criteria (not all of them are glamorous though). e.g. investment banking, writing, museums, property, hospitality, government services, businesses, etc.
Whilst it doesn't mean you can't go into quantitiative roles, the fact that the degrees are not in quantitative subjects mean you're less likely picked for quantitative roles than if you did it in a qunatitive subject e.g. engineering, maths, physics, etc.

Outside of the subjects chosen, I think it comes down to more of which uni you go to and who you can connect with.

If these are the subjects you are intent of doing at degree level, then I would pick the subject you have the most interest in unless you want to become a barrister or go into competitive solicitor roles.