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How to keep ib subjects open for a lot of careers?!

Hey guys. I’m doing ib next year. I really don’t know what career I want and so I need subjects that will keep opportunities open. One condition is I’m not taking hL maths for sure. Thanks! Pls reply if you can give me career guidance or ib subjects.
Take two science subjects, and that's pretty much the maximum "coverage" you can get. IB is pretty broad already, and most "arts" subjects (i.e. social sciences/humanities) don't have specific subject requirements anyway (the most common ones being Languages, History and English Lit requiring those, and Economics usually requiring some background in Maths - i.e. more than Maths Studies).

It may be worth considering that visual/performing arts subjects (music, art, drama, dance etc) usually prefer some background in that subject - either formally (a lot of music degrees require music or grade 8 theory, and many foundation art diploma programmes expect you to have some kind of art or design subject before going onto them - and hence onto a degree in the area) or informally (by assessing you through portfolio/audition - this will happen in addition to the above, but sometimes they'll assess you in this way even if you don't have formal qualifications.

I suppose the maximal coverage would be HL Chem/Phys/Maths plus whatever as your SLs - however as you're not wanting to take Maths HL, you restrict your options somewhat immediately. As you're not taking Maths, Chem/Bio would be a better pair for science subjects - certainly Chem ought to be HL if not both. However if you don't enjoy/aren't interested in sciences, and/or don't plan to apply to a related area no matter what, this is irrelevant. The main thing to bear in mind is STEM subjects at uni tend to require them (and related subjects) at 6th form (i.e. in IB for you) whereas other subjects tend not to (with some exceptions as indicated above). This may influence your choices. However you should primarily pick things you enjoy and will like working on in the coming two years - you'll have very little free time in IB, so you may as well choose work that you love - and to a lesser extent, things you're good at to maximise your results.

This is purely in terms of what degrees you could apply to, as "career" is a somewhat nebulous term, as most people will work dozens of different jobs/roles and at least 2 or 3 careers over their working life - not to mention that your degree won't necessarily have anything to do with your would be "career" (in fact, outside of specific vocations like law, engineering and medicine, as well as to some extent STEM areas generally, there are fewer jobs related to your degree than there are unrelated).
Choose two science subjects at HL. Don't do Maths Studies. I recommend taking Geography as well. Not because any uni has it as a requirement, but it's a super important subject. It really broadens your understanding of the world, which will probably help you at any point in life, not only when applying to uni. I recommend English L&L instead of English literature unless you really love literature (like I do). When I chose my subjects, it was based on what I loved the most and didn't think about uni requirements at all. I ended up not taking Biology even though I wanted to do medicine, so I'm forced to take it on my own now. I don't regret it though because I love my subjects and it makes school so much more fun. Just choose what you like, look into the syllabus of each subject and think about if you would enjoy studying the subject. At my school we had the option to change subjects the first two weeks, so check with your school if that's possible.

Good luck!
Original post by Taify
Hey guys. I’m doing ib next year. I really don’t know what career I want and so I need subjects that will keep opportunities open. One condition is I’m not taking hL maths for sure. Thanks! Pls reply if you can give me career guidance or ib subjects.


Well that depends if you prefer the sciences or humanities/arts; if you do not enjoy science don't take two sciences HL as the people above said but if you do like science then you can choose two from Bio, Chem and Physics (I would not recommend environmental systems or comp science as no degrees require these subjects).
Also if you like to keep your options open you can take Lang A Literature HL as there are a lot of degrees that accept this subejct (Law, Economics, History, any language degrees etc.)
If it comes to group 3 then basically anything is alright as long as it interests you. There are many degrees which require History, Geography or maybe even Economics whereas Psychology or Business isn't necessary for any degree but it can be just useful if you strictly apply for a degree related to Psych or Business.

For group 1 a language B or ab initio SL is alright.

If it comes to math, for open options I think Math SL would be best as many degrees accept Math SL.

I don't think its a good idea to pick a group 6 subject unless you know for sure you want to do something with art or music.

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