last minute doubt on career plan

You absolutely don’t have to decide what career you want to pursue for the rest of your life when you’re applying to Uni. There are 3 key things that schools don’t make clear enough to 6th formers, but which my Uni tutor helped me understand during my first year when I was struggling with the same quandaries as yourself:

1. You can have more than one career in your life, and you can change paths at any point. Many successful people have worked across different sectors doing different jobs to get to where they are. Most jobs requiring a degree aren’t too picky on the subject, unless you’re required to be highly numerate or sciency.

2. Vocational subjects like medicine & law can be pursued at any stage of your life, and you don’t necessarily need an undergrad degree in those specific subjects to pursue them. With law, for example, it’s not uncommon for people to study a generic subject at Uni (from English to Biology) and then study a law conversion course, the GDL, prior to training to become a solicitor/barrister. This is because most people don’t get the chance to try out law before Uni, and are unsure of pursuing that as a career.

3. You can train after Uni for many careers/jobs with any degree. I had a friend who went on to develop a career in accountancy after having studied Environmental Biology at Uni, and his company funded his entire qualification without him even having studied maths beyond GCSEs. He’s very good at his job and earns a great salary.

You’re right to bear in mind that if you’re thinking about going into the sciences/engineering/medicine at some point in your career, a STEM degree will likely be ideal to get you there. And yes, some employers prefer humanities subjects, particularly if you wanted to pursue something like journalism where your writing skills will need to be high quality.

Most importantly, consider which subjects you enjoy at GCSE/A level. These will be the ones you excel at at Uni level, as the learning is largely all down to you and your motivation. Choosing law because someone has told you that you’d be good at it is really not a solid enough reason for choosing that course - you’ll need to be prepared for doing lots of reading of dry content and writing lengthy essays on similar matters. You may well be a great lawyer in the future, but you could entertain that thought later down the line if you’re not sure at the moment.

You don't have to decide what job you want for the rest of your life as a school leaver. Plenty of people go to university with no fixed idea in mind - they just choose a subject they enjoy and are reasonably good at, trusting that their interests will become clear in time. Plenty of other people change careers, sometimes more than once. I had ten years as a special school teacher before I decided to apply to medicine, and I don't regret that.

You don't need an undergraduate law degree to become a lawyer, as training is set at postgraduate level, so if that's what you're drawn to you could choose an undergraduate degree that interests you and take time to explore the possibility properly when you're at uni. Right now you seem to be considering medicine because you feel obliged to look into it than because you're actually interested, and law because other people think it would suit you - it sounds as if you need some time to work out what you'd enjoy for its own sake. Take a gap year if necessary, but don't overthink it. You aren't committing to one particular job forever at this stage.

Thank you for your advice! I agree that sixth form doesn't really inform people of careers outside medicine or dentistry or law which makes it hard to believe there's anything better than them sometimes.

1.i know that most graduate jobs aren't too picky but my concern was also that there's not rlly much job security unlike in med which maybe isn't too important if I go to a good uni and get a good degree but it's still something I'm wary of.

2. I know that the GDL is available for law and that many people do that but I'm sure it's not very easy and is probably quite expensive so I'm not sure it's as simple as it seems really :/ Same for medicine I know it's much more competitive to get into as a graduate and more expensive which is why I'm so confused rn

3. That's something I wasn't really aware of, it's good that opportunities like that exist for the future if you're unsure at the moment!

I think a huge factor of being so confused is because so many people in my school try for medicine and law etc and it makes me feel like I should've too maybe? Cos my school is a grammar school where everyone is super smart there's a lot of pressure for everyone to do something like that, even if not everyone is interested in it.

I think even if it's harder to do vocational training down the line it's good to know it's still an opportunity and yes I'm more steered towards stem subjects so hopefully I'm leaving my options open!

So what are you going to apply for at university?

Honestly I might go with what I originally planned to since I have the personal statement for it and pretty much a guaranteed spot given when I retake I get the grade required. I feel like I might regret not at least trying to become successful in a business role since it's what I've always wanted but at the same time I don't want to regret not trying for something scientific but also a good career (med). Idk I'm just in a very confused state of mind rn lol

Interesting. Your original course was data science? That is an excellent degree choice. What university are you doing it at?
Medicine can still be done later in life and so can business, which other people have already pointed out. I have learnt that it is okay to be confused as the vast majority of people have no clue what they are doing.