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Will I be turned away from a humanities degree for having STEM A levels?

Sorry for what is probably yet another story of the straight A* student who got shunted into STEM and regretted it.
I've got good A levels - AABC in Physics, Maths, Chemistry and Further Maths. I went to uni in 2016 to study Physics, and quickly discovered it wasn't for me, and along with a host of personal problems and mental health difficulties, took a leave of absence, tried again, dropped out after the first term both times and eventually left.
I've now been essentially doing nothing for the past 3 years while sorting out my issues, but I really want to go back to university.
I've started self studying A Level English Lit, but will this be enough for a university to not turn me away based on the subjects I did four years ago? I'm thinking about either Law or History or English Lit, or some combination thereof. I've always loved the humanities, but as I said above, I got shunted towards STEM by teachers and my parents because it's "more employable".

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Reply 1
Of course, it's not what you have but rather what you don't have. Depending on where you want to go, I think History will want an essay subject if not History itself, while Law might be more forgiving. Either way if you can get English Lit A-level under your belt it would help. You could also consider a course with a foundation year
Reply 2
Original post by Sataris
Of course, it's not what you have but rather what you don't have. Depending on where you want to go, I think History will want an essay subject if not History itself, while Law might be more forgiving. Either way if you can get English Lit A-level under your belt it would help. You could also consider a course with a foundation year

I should hope I get English Lit under my belt, I've paid £450 for the course and tutor support with it xD
Thanks for the reply! I'm hoping I can get away without the foundation year - I guess I'll have to see when it comes to applying. Oh, how I wish I had a tutor to guide me with this now.
The one thing that worries me is an offer on which my grade in this A level is based, seeing as I've got minimal contact with the way I'm doing it. Sounds silly, but I've been through that whole waiting game once, and I'm not keen to repeat it!
Reply 3
Original post by elliemc24
I should hope I get English Lit under my belt, I've paid £450 for the course and tutor support with it xD
Thanks for the reply! I'm hoping I can get away without the foundation year - I guess I'll have to see when it comes to applying. Oh, how I wish I had a tutor to guide me with this now.
The one thing that worries me is an offer on which my grade in this A level is based, seeing as I've got minimal contact with the way I'm doing it. Sounds silly, but I've been through that whole waiting game once, and I'm not keen to repeat it!

When are you hoping to get the A level? Next summer?
Reply 4
Original post by Sataris
When are you hoping to get the A level? Next summer?

Yep, since I don't have much else on my plate right now I'm fast-tracking it (not that it makes any difference as it's all self study). No real reason to do it over two years when I have not much else going on!
Reply 5
Original post by elliemc24
Yep, since I don't have much else on my plate right now I'm fast-tracking it (not that it makes any difference as it's all self study). No real reason to do it over two years when I have not much else going on!

Quite, and have you got a good tutor? Any idea which unis you might be interested in?
Reply 6
Original post by Sataris
Quite, and have you got a good tutor? Any idea which unis you might be interested in?

The tutor support is really just for marking assignments, of which there are five in the course... So, could be better, I suppose? I'm just hoping my knowledge from GCSE hasn't failed me!
No idea yet, all I know is I want a campus university and I'm not fussed about Russell Group, more about the support in place for older students/returning to study/mental health. The thing I'm going to struggle with most is definitely picking out universities, because I have absolutely no idea where to aim in terms of entry requirements etc. so I think I'm going to look more at the course content than anything else, try and find something that grabs me.
Sort of starting to miss the sixth form attitude of "pick your favorite Russell groups and make sure to add Oxbridge in there" xD
Reply 7
Original post by elliemc24
The tutor support is really just for marking assignments, of which there are five in the course... So, could be better, I suppose? I'm just hoping my knowledge from GCSE hasn't failed me!
No idea yet, all I know is I want a campus university and I'm not fussed about Russell Group, more about the support in place for older students/returning to study/mental health. The thing I'm going to struggle with most is definitely picking out universities, because I have absolutely no idea where to aim in terms of entry requirements etc. so I think I'm going to look more at the course content than anything else, try and find something that grabs me.
Sort of starting to miss the sixth form attitude of "pick your favorite Russell groups and make sure to add Oxbridge in there" xD

Well, you've got two As so with a similar grade in Lit you should be pretty okay for unis. The only thing that concerns me slightly is the age of those first A levels, as some unis only consider qualifications from within the past 2 or 3 years.

It's certainly a tough process picking out unis, especially as you say you're not sure what course to go after yet
Reply 8
Original post by Sataris
Well, you've got two As so with a similar grade in Lit you should be pretty okay for unis. The only thing that concerns me slightly is the age of those first A levels, as some unis only consider qualifications from within the past 2 or 3 years.

It's certainly a tough process picking out unis, especially as you say you're not sure what course to go after yet

I spoke to the admissions team at one uni (I can't for the life of me remember which, was last summer) about entering in a year or two and she seemed to think my A levels were definitely not out of date. I think it'll be a case of finding the ones I'm interested in, and emailing them to ask before I submit an application that will get rejected based on subjects and/or age of qualifications.
Reply 9
Original post by elliemc24
The tutor support is really just for marking assignments, of which there are five in the course... So, could be better, I suppose? I'm just hoping my knowledge from GCSE hasn't failed me!
No idea yet, all I know is I want a campus university and I'm not fussed about Russell Group, more about the support in place for older students/returning to study/mental health. The thing I'm going to struggle with most is definitely picking out universities, because I have absolutely no idea where to aim in terms of entry requirements etc. so I think I'm going to look more at the course content than anything else, try and find something that grabs me.
Sort of starting to miss the sixth form attitude of "pick your favorite Russell groups and make sure to add Oxbridge in there" xD

Okay, that's a good sign. That sounds wise, I don't think it'll be a huge problem
Reply 10
Original post by Sataris
Okay, that's a good sign. That sounds wise, I don't think it'll be a huge problem

Hopefully not. And honestly in terms of subjects, I should go with a history/English lit combined degree, I've wanted to do it since I knew what university was. It's just the old "but you'll never do anything useful with it" banging away in my head that's making me unsure.
Original post by elliemc24
Hopefully not. And honestly in terms of subjects, I should go with a history/English lit combined degree, I've wanted to do it since I knew what university was. It's just the old "but you'll never do anything useful with it" banging away in my head that's making me unsure.

Yeah sounds nice! And of course it's totally possible to do something with the skillset that provides. Have you been doing anything to help with your personal statement yet?
Reply 12
Original post by Sataris
Yeah sounds nice! And of course it's totally possible to do something with the skillset that provides. Have you been doing anything to help with your personal statement yet?

Absolutely nothing! My life has basically been on hold waiting for various therapies etc. for three years, and about three weeks ago I decided that enough is enough and I'm not going to wait around any longer. So everything is sort of happening all at once with pretty minimal support from tutors etc - I might see if I can get some help from my old sixth form, at least with the personal statement, although I have absolutely no idea if they would be able to do anything. That, or with the college I'm going to sit my exams at, but it's the kind that charges for absolutely everything, and it ain't cheap.

I don't really know if there's anywhere available to go for academic support when you're not with a specific college. Private tutoring, I guess.

Don't even get me started on the reference. It's looking like it'll be my GP, if she'll do it. If not, old teachers from way back when or a tutor I get now. Being a recluse for three years really does have its perks. >.<
Original post by elliemc24
Absolutely nothing! My life has basically been on hold waiting for various therapies etc. for three years, and about three weeks ago I decided that enough is enough and I'm not going to wait around any longer. So everything is sort of happening all at once with pretty minimal support from tutors etc - I might see if I can get some help from my old sixth form, at least with the personal statement, although I have absolutely no idea if they would be able to do anything. That, or with the college I'm going to sit my exams at, but it's the kind that charges for absolutely everything, and it ain't cheap.

I don't really know if there's anywhere available to go for academic support when you're not with a specific college. Private tutoring, I guess.

Don't even get me started on the reference. It's looking like it'll be my GP, if she'll do it. If not, old teachers from way back when or a tutor I get now. Being a recluse for three years really does have its perks. >.<

Aha yeah. I failed out of a physics degree after two years, and when I reapplied my old head of sixth form seemed happy enough to write another reference. Not sure if I could bring myself to ask him again at this point though :lol:
Reply 14
Original post by Sataris
Aha yeah. I failed out of a physics degree after two years, and when I reapplied my old head of sixth form seemed happy enough to write another reference. Not sure if I could bring myself to ask him again at this point though :lol:

I'll have to see if my old French teacher is still about at the sixth form, she was my tutor and wrote my last one and it got me a cambridge interview so can't have been that bad xD
Original post by elliemc24
I'll have to see if my old French teacher is still about at the sixth form, she was my tutor and wrote my last one and it got me a cambridge interview so can't have been that bad xD

Well there you are then :biggrin: Who knew French teachers were so good at writing references?
Reply 16
Original post by Sataris
Well there you are then :biggrin: Who knew French teachers were so good at writing references?

Now, if only I could remember her name....... xD
Original post by elliemc24
Now, if only I could remember her name....... xD

Oh no :lol: I was actually trying to remember a few of my teachers the other day and it's crazy how many names you can forget in just a few years
i know a lot of people who got into law with stem subject alevels! i’m not sure about a history degree without a history alevel (you will just have to check the uni’s requirements) but since you are taking eng lit alevel universities will take you for an eng lit degree
Do you mind if I suggest instead of fast tracking an A level you actually take an Access to Humanities course as that might serve you better and would help with English, Law and History degrees. You will have A levels anyway and universities are just looking for recent study. They wont worry about your previous A levels as you are a mature student. Here is an example

https://exe-coll.ac.uk/course/access-to-humanities/

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