The Student Room Group

Help with combination ideas?

So I've worked out I want to study History at university and that I would want to focus on the modern period. However, I think I also want to combine it with another subject but I cannot decide what to combine.

Currently I study History, Geography, English Language and Maths (and Latin AS over two years as an enrichment) and I've been predicted something like BBBB but received AA in maths and geography in the January exams and all my teachers say I should get As.

Anyway, I have found that recently I have really started to love my population studies such as how population policies impact the population for years after they've been introcued and the effects of the an aging population and migration. I think I'm also quite interested in globalisation and I'm hoping that I'll get to study conflicts next year. I've always found geography fascinating and how events can have a variety of impacts ranging from social, economic and environmental but recently I've started to move away from enjoying physical geography to the same extent (I still enjoy it a lot though!)

I've also become very interested in current affairs recently, regularly checking the news and watching Question Time. Also, in the BBC History magazine there is a monthly article called 'Changing Times' which I find very interesting and History&Policy, which it is associated with, have equally interesting articles.

The other options I'm wondering whether I might combine with History are International Relations (but I can't find much about IR) or Politics.

A while ago a group of us from our school were invited to another school to attend various sessions about university and one of the ones I chose to go to was History Politics and IR which was taken by a Southampton lecturer. The part I found most fascinating (because I hadn't considered it before) was how climate change was causing terrorism in parts of Africa because in areas like the Sahel limited water is exacerbating desertification therefore people migrate which causes friction and conflict and then they turn to their religion because that's the one thing that has stayed constant and come across the extremists. I thought this was interesting as it incorporated migration, desertification and at the same time he had been discussing the history of terrorism etc. So this is another angle I find interesting (not sure whether this is necessarily relevant).

So, is there any advice you might be able to give me please? I'm hoping to go to a higher ranking university (I know not to go by just the rankings) such as Exeter and maybe the FCH programme.

Thanks in advance :smile:
(edited 10 years ago)
The best way to get a grasp of what different subjects are about and what might appeal to you about them is to get hold of some Uni prospectuses (from your school Careers person or a big local library) and just sit and flick through them, looking at interesting sounding courses and what they involve. This is easier than on a website! They dont have to be Unis you might go to - any Uni will do at this stage. What subjects interest you? *Why*? Then look at similar courses at other Unis and see what is different, more/less interesting etc.

Dont forget to look at courses with unfamiliar titles - Development Studies, Social Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Social Policy etc, or 'area studies' like American Studies, Middle Eastern Studies etc that cover a wide breadth of study.

Go to some Open Days (again, any Uni). This will give you an idea of what 'being at Uni' might be like AND what makes University level different than A Levels. You can do this in Year 10 or Year 11 btw - it doesnt have to be the year you apply to Uni.
Reply 2
Thanks, your advice is really helpful. I have quite a few prospectuses that I picked up at the UCAS fair a while ago which I've started to have a look through. I think what I'm having most difficulty with is working out how to combine my passions from various subjects into one degree.
Reply 3
Maybe instead of doing a combined degree you could look at something like Social History as this seems to be what your interested in? If you are committed to doing a joint honours, then maybe you should look into a degree where you can drop the other half in the second/third year if you're not enjoying it - atleast this means your somewhat less tied into a subject if you hate it at University.

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