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What to study at university?

I'm in Year 12, and I'm not sure what I'd like to study at university. My problem is that I'm basically good at everything. I either want to study maths/science or something language-oriented. I'm very good at maths, but from the feedback I've received, I'm even better at languages - they seem to think I'm *really* good at them (telling me I'm the best pupil they've ever taught, etc.). I might enjoy languages very slightly more. I'm concerned about the job prospects of language/linguistics graduates, though. I'm also concerned about wasting time - I don't particularly want to spend 3 years at university studying something that will only be tangentially related to my job (and I've never really understood how a humanities degree helps with 'personal development' or any of that kind of stuff). I also know that I can teach myself languages effectively and efficiently without going to university to do it. I just don't know if it's best to do something I know will be useful to me, or something that I'm slightly better at.

I've got 11A* at GCSE, to give you an idea of my academic ability.

I'm now studying maths, further maths, physics, French and Spanish, and I know I want to drop either physics or Spanish, I'm just not sure which to drop in terms of uni choices.
Original post by archipelaglobule
I'm in Year 12, and I'm not sure what I'd like to study at university. My problem is that I'm basically good at everything. I either want to study maths/science or something language-oriented. I'm very good at maths, but from the feedback I've received, I'm even better at languages - they seem to think I'm *really* good at them (telling me I'm the best pupil they've ever taught, etc.). I might enjoy languages very slightly more. I'm concerned about the job prospects of language/linguistics graduates, though. I'm also concerned about wasting time - I don't particularly want to spend 3 years at university studying something that will only be tangentially related to my job (and I've never really understood how a humanities degree helps with 'personal development' or any of that kind of stuff). I also know that I can teach myself languages effectively and efficiently without going to university to do it. I just don't know if it's best to do something I know will be useful to me, or something that I'm slightly better at.

I've got 11A* at GCSE, to give you an idea of my academic ability.

I'm now studying maths, further maths, physics, French and Spanish, and I know I want to drop either physics or Spanish, I'm just not sure which to drop in terms of uni choices.


Order yourself a big stack of prospectuses and read about all the courses available to you, the more your read hopefully one will stick out to you
Had a similar conflict of interests, I love and am good at both humanities and technical stuff.

My compromise was to apply for Bsc Cognitive Science at Edinburgh, a subject which gives you the opportunity to study informatics, philosophy, linguistics and psychology.

Whether that will turn out to be a wise decision in terms of job prospects I dont know, but it will allow me to learn more about the things that fascinate me.

If those areas do also interest you, it may be worth a shot for you too :smile:
If not, there are plenty of other interdisciplinary programmes out there! Just click through all the websites until you have found exactly what you need.

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Reply 3
Go to taster courses, really helped me. And go to ones for courses you think are completely out of the question, you might be surprised.
I would say languages prospects are lower, but then again with maths there's not a great deal you can do I don't think, both of them are more of a degree that opens doorways into general careers. What about Economics if you're good at maths?
Also maybe consider joint honours, a lot of courses you can join 50% or 25% with a language. I've applied for Economics and Spanish for example.
Original post by ions
Go to taster courses, really helped me. And go to ones for courses you think are completely out of the question, you might be surprised.
I would say languages prospects are lower, but then again with maths there's not a great deal you can do I don't think, both of them are more of a degree that opens doorways into general careers. What about Economics if you're good at maths?
Also maybe consider joint honours, a lot of courses you can join 50% or 25% with a language. I've applied for Economics and Spanish for example.

Maths does open quite a lot of doors tbh. But I agree joint honours would not be a bad idea.
Stick to a STEM degree since it will give you better career prospects, and I know uni's such as UCL allow you to do language modules within your degree so you wont be cutting of your languages completely. Or, do a joint honours, Maths with french?
Reply 6
Original post by wolfmoon88
Maths does open quite a lot of doors tbh. But I agree joint honours would not be a bad idea.


Ah, I wasn't really sure, but I don't know anything about it so there you go
Original post by archipelaglobule
I'm in Year 12, and I'm not sure what I'd like to study at university. My problem is that I'm basically good at everything. I either want to study maths/science or something language-oriented. I'm very good at maths, but from the feedback I've received, I'm even better at languages - they seem to think I'm *really* good at them (telling me I'm the best pupil they've ever taught, etc.). I might enjoy languages very slightly more. I'm concerned about the job prospects of language/linguistics graduates, though. I'm also concerned about wasting time - I don't particularly want to spend 3 years at university studying something that will only be tangentially related to my job (and I've never really understood how a humanities degree helps with 'personal development' or any of that kind of stuff). I also know that I can teach myself languages effectively and efficiently without going to university to do it. I just don't know if it's best to do something I know will be useful to me, or something that I'm slightly better at.

I've got 11A* at GCSE, to give you an idea of my academic ability.

I'm now studying maths, further maths, physics, French and Spanish, and I know I want to drop either physics or Spanish, I'm just not sure which to drop in terms of uni choices.


Consider degrees such as the BASc in Arts and Sciences at UCL. As well as studying a variety of subjects there is a compulsory language element.

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