Languages, English, or Law - which one should I go for?

Hi everyone. Recently I've felt a bit left behind as many (most) of my friends have decided on a degree course to pursue and are going for it with all the enthusiasm they can muster. Meanwhile, I'm still languishing in the can't-decide-what-course-to-do stage, and I'm still not much closer to deciding, despite attending numerous open days, talks, sample lectures, etc.

I've really had no way of narrowing it down other than personal preference, which has gotten me this far, but I just really enjoy all these subjects individually, and can't get any further.

(Warning: I'm now going to talk a lot about myself, and it might sound selfish or boastful. I don't want it to come across like that, but I think it's important).

I achieved really good results at GCSE, and I chose A-Levels in English Lit, French, History and Maths. At the moment, I think I'd like to pursue them all to A2. If I drop one, it'll probably be Maths. As for extra-curricular stuff, I have a fair amount of things I could put in my Personal Statement for all of them, so I'm not too worried about that side of things. I'm also considering an EPQ based on whatever degree I go for, and I need to decide whether to do this or not by Tuesday.

I plan to apply to some American universities - just as potshots, though - mainly because they do a more generalised programme in their first year and then specialise. The idea of trying out the different subjects at that sort of level before I commit to one really appeals to me. Although I doubt I'll end up in a States-side university because it's just so, so expensive.

As for what I'd like to do as a career, I'm not much closer there either. Some people have said to me that I should be a lawyer, but I still don't really know. The good thing is that if I do Languages or English, the option of a Law postgrad or conversion is still open.

Rather than receiving some predictable and uninspired replies of "it's your course, the decision is up to you", what I'd really, really appreciate is some information from any current students who are doing the subject. What made you choose it? Do you enjoy the course? What's the workload like? If you can answer any of these questions for me, from a student's perspective, I'd be so grateful.

I truly apologise to any brave soul who had to trawl through that mass of hedonistic, conceited diatribe, but I really need to make decisions soon, and I thought TSR was one of the more reliable places to go for advice. Thank you very, very much for helping me.

Reply 1

ich<3languages

1

Hey, I've just finished a degree in languages so I hope I can help a bit... :-) What's nice about English Lit. Law and Languages is that you can take joint honours in most universities. As you said, if you take Lit/Languages you can do a law conversion course, and taking a different degree (i.e. not LLB) isn't a hindrance to getting up the career ladder in law. Also what's kind of more important is getting your foot in the door - I changed course whilst at uni from German and Spanish to Translation, so not far but I still had to go back and do two modules - so if you started on one thing and changed your mind, it shouldn't be impossible to change.

As for my decision to take languages - I actually thought I was going to study sciences (all my other A Levels were science subjects) but when push came to shove German was by best subject and I didn't want to pay £9,000 a year. I also liked German and thought I wanted to go into teaching so I took ab-initio Spanish at uni too, which I found challenging because I had two years to learn what post A Level students had learnt in 7. I liked the course, and actually found translation more interesting and challenging, because I don't like studying literature, I prefer just reading it! I think I learnt a lot, but I don't think my German has improved and the language part is a bit repetitive over three years but the Year Abroad is good. As to workload - it varies, for joint honours it's about 12 hours a week, 2/3 hours a day on average - however in my first semester of final year I had 3 hours a week, and 9 hours in semester 2. But I did have a 10,000 word dissertation to write so my timetable was lighter because of that.

I think my reply is equally as long ha ha. Hope this helps :-D

Reply 2

Qonnor

OP

4

Original post by ich<3languages

Hey, I've just finished a degree in languages so I hope I can help a bit... :-) What's nice about English Lit. Law and Languages is that you can take joint honours in most universities. As you said, if you take Lit/Languages you can do a law conversion course, and taking a different degree (i.e. not LLB) isn't a hindrance to getting up the career ladder in law. Also what's kind of more important is getting your foot in the door - I changed course whilst at uni from German and Spanish to Translation, so not far but I still had to go back and do two modules - so if you started on one thing and changed your mind, it shouldn't be impossible to change.

As for my decision to take languages - I actually thought I was going to study sciences (all my other A Levels were science subjects) but when push came to shove German was by best subject and I didn't want to pay £9,000 a year. I also liked German and thought I wanted to go into teaching so I took ab-initio Spanish at uni too, which I found challenging because I had two years to learn what post A Level students had learnt in 7. I liked the course, and actually found translation more interesting and challenging, because I don't like studying literature, I prefer just reading it! I think I learnt a lot, but I don't think my German has improved and the language part is a bit repetitive over three years but the Year Abroad is good. As to workload - it varies, for joint honours it's about 12 hours a week, 2/3 hours a day on average - however in my first semester of final year I had 3 hours a week, and 9 hours in semester 2. But I did have a 10,000 word dissertation to write so my timetable was lighter because of that.

I think my reply is equally as long ha ha. Hope this helps :-D

Thank you! Just one thing - do you really feel that your German hasn't improved, despite your Language degree? Or is that more due to the fact that you changed to translation? Thanks for the help.

Reply 3

ich<3languages

1

I took all the same language modules as everyone else so I don't think it's because of the translation - but early on I didn't get much opportunity to practise speaking and the topics we studied in language classes weren't that good or interesting. I know my course has changed in structure now for the students behind me and of course each uni is different. But I think it takes a lot of personal, extra effort to maintain your language level with bland language classes on top of your normal timetable, but it can be done, just by watching tv/films, news articles etc. :-)

Languages, English, or Law - which one should I go for?

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