The Student Room Group

Career Paths/Degree Choices

al
(edited 2 years ago)
No-one else can decide this for you.
They certainly can't predict your potential for getting a graduate job and achieving life-long happiness.

I suggest you go to some Uni Open Days and go to the relevant subject talks at each one - this will show you the reality of the degree in each subject.
Reply 2
Which A levels are you considering? You don't need to chose a degree now. You have lots of choices for A level which leave each route open as you learn more about them.
Original post by sototo
currently thinking about which is a better route to take, law or biology? As someone who basically has every option to them right now and hasn’t yet chosen a levels, what would you recommend as the best route to take to be happy but also well-off financially? And what A levels could help with that?

Don't worry about what will make you well-off financially. Choosing your degree based on what will supposedly get you the most money is the first step in doing a degree you hate. The subject of your degree is far less important than where you got your degree from. As an example, the current governor of the bank of England has a degree in history, despite his job having very little to do with history.
I would recommend looking into a wide range of degrees and thinking about which one seems the most appealing to you. Of course you don't have to make a final decision on what degree you want to do yet, barely anyone decides what they want to do at this point, so just look into the degrees you have some interest in and choose your A levels accordingly.

Seeing as you seem to have interest in law and biology, a good combination may be biology, maths and history. Or biology, chemistry and english lit. Or biology, physics and economics. These, among others, would all be suitable for a degree in biology or law.
Let me know if you have any questions :smile:
Reply 4
Original post by drs.vud.192
Don't worry about what will make you well-off financially. Choosing your degree based on what will supposedly get you the most money is the first step in doing a degree you hate. The subject of your degree is far less important than where you got your degree from. As an example, the current governor of the bank of England has a degree in history, despite his job having very little to do with history.
I would recommend looking into a wide range of degrees and thinking about which one seems the most appealing to you. Of course you don't have to make a final decision on what degree you want to do yet, barely anyone decides what they want to do at this point, so just look into the degrees you have some interest in and choose your A levels accordingly.

Seeing as you seem to have interest in law and biology, a good combination may be biology, maths and history. Or biology, chemistry and english lit. Or biology, physics and economics. These, among others, would all be suitable for a degree in biology or law.
Let me know if you have any questions :smile:

Thanks this is really helpful! Biology really interests me so that’s a definite for a level and i think psychology as well, what do you think would be best as a third, law, economics or politics ?
Reply 5
Original post by ajj2000
Which A levels are you considering? You don't need to chose a degree now. You have lots of choices for A level which leave each route open as you learn more about them.

biology, psychology and then one from law, politics and economics (I’ve also thought about english literature because along with biology and chemistry it’s my strongest subject but I don’t think it would be really useful and is very time consuming) Im very hesitant to do chemistry because although after revision I do well in tests I’m sometimes not sure about the work in class and I don’t have much interest in a lot of the components.
Reply 6
Original post by sototo
biology, psychology and then one from law, politics and economics (I’ve also thought about english literature because along with biology and chemistry it’s my strongest subject but I don’t think it would be really useful and is very time consuming) Im very hesitant to do chemistry because although after revision I do well in tests I’m sometimes not sure about the work in class and I don’t have much interest in a lot of the components.

I'm not sure why you don't think that Eng Lit would be useful? its generally one of the courses (along with history) that people suggest as being good preparation for a law degree.
Reply 7
Original post by ajj2000
I'm not sure why you don't think that Eng Lit would be useful? its generally one of the courses (along with history) that people suggest as being good preparation for a law degree

Because it isn’t a requirement for any degrees I want to do and although law is my second option I’m leaning more towards biology so don’t want to spend a lot of time on a subject that isn’t necessary for law especially when law is kind of second choice right now. What a levels would you recommend? I’m mostly thinking biology, psychology, politics but do you think english literature would be really helpful? (It does come quite easily to me honestly and I got a 9 in my year 10 mocks but although I like reading I’m not sure I read enough because I mainly read in school holidays rarely in the term). Any advice is really appreciated thank you and I do enjoy english literature
Original post by sototo
Thanks this is really helpful! Biology really interests me so that’s a definite for a level and i think psychology as well, what do you think would be best as a third, law, economics or politics ?

If you want to do biology then for most Russel Group universities you've got to have biology and either chemistry, physics or maths unfortunately. Some universities such as Bath and Birmingham would allow you to have psychology in place of chemistry, physics or maths but you would shut off a lot of good universities such as Oxford, UCL, Imperial and KCL by not picking chemistry, physics or maths.

I would recommend perhaps looking into some universities that you're interested in and checking their entry requirements. Sometimes they can be quite vague on what they want (e.g: Durham requires you to have 'Biology or Chemistry or Human Biology plus another science subject' without actually specifying what they mean by 'another science subject') so if they're being vague I'd recommend emailing the university's biology department and asking for clarification.

If the universities you're interested in allow you to do psychology in place of chemistry, physics or maths, then your third A level can be anything you want. Just pick whichever subject is most interesting to you, and run with that. :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by drs.vud.192
If you want to do biology then for most Russel Group universities you've got to have biology and either chemistry, physics or maths unfortunately. Some universities such as Bath and Birmingham would allow you to have psychology in place of chemistry, physics or maths but you would shut off a lot of good universities such as Oxford, UCL, Imperial and KCL by not picking chemistry, physics or maths.

I would recommend perhaps looking into some universities that you're interested in and checking their entry requirements. Sometimes they can be quite vague on what they want (e.g: Durham requires you to have 'Biology or Chemistry or Human Biology plus another science subject' without actually specifying what they mean by 'another science subject') so if they're being vague I'd recommend emailing the university's biology department and asking for clarification.

If the universities you're interested in allow you to do psychology in place of chemistry, physics or maths, then your third A level can be anything you want. Just pick whichever subject is most interesting to you, and run with that. :smile:

Honestly I don’t have much interest in chemistry or maths and at the sixth form I want to go to you need to do maths to do physics but luckily there are quite a few universities i like where I can have psychology like cardiff and exeter and york that are still russel groups! Thank you so much for the advice it’s really helped :smile:

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