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I have no idea what A levels to take I'm highkey scared

Hii everyone! I'm Akito, a bit about me: I'm currently in Year 11 and I take triple science, maths, english lit and language, history, psychology, latin, spanish and RS at GCSE. For a while now (since year 8?) I really wanted to be a counsellor (helping people I think is something I think I'd enjoy as a job) so I knew I had to do a level psychology (I know you don't always need it at a level for a degree but a lot of top universities like Oxbridge require psychology a level). But I always had a feeling in the back of my head that a job like that would burn me out quickly. I don't exactly work very well under pressure, and yeah it's quite easy to make me cry (not very professional for a counsellor now is it).
Alongside this, I've always loved the humanities subjects (I adore English and History right now) and when I was a kid I always really found history interesting, so my other career options were being an English teacher or some sort of archaeologist/ museum curator. I don't know what it is, but I just know I would absolutely love having a job like that: writing essays and just being able to talk and teach others about something interesting sounds so fun sorry anyways. But obviously in this economy and with the way inflation is going, jobs in archaeology or museum curation will not pay my bills and it's not exactly a stable job (to be honest I had never thought about income whenever I thought about careers because the one thing I cared about was if I would actually be passionate and enjoy what I'm doing, it is my job after all).
So because of that, I have no clue what to put down for my A-levels. Going into counselling would probably be the safe option; it's well paid and it's not like I hate psychology and I'm doing well in it currently. But history, english and philosophy are subjects I love so so much and have so much passion for (and they're the subjects I'm getting the highest grades in right now) and I'm so worried that I'm making a mistake and condemning myself to years of having no money at all.

Reply 1

Original post
by akitopie
Hii everyone! I'm Akito, a bit about me: I'm currently in Year 11 and I take triple science, maths, english lit and language, history, psychology, latin, spanish and RS at GCSE. For a while now (since year 8?) I really wanted to be a counsellor (helping people I think is something I think I'd enjoy as a job) so I knew I had to do a level psychology (I know you don't always need it at a level for a degree but a lot of top universities like Oxbridge require psychology a level). But I always had a feeling in the back of my head that a job like that would burn me out quickly. I don't exactly work very well under pressure, and yeah it's quite easy to make me cry (not very professional for a counsellor now is it).
Alongside this, I've always loved the humanities subjects (I adore English and History right now) and when I was a kid I always really found history interesting, so my other career options were being an English teacher or some sort of archaeologist/ museum curator. I don't know what it is, but I just know I would absolutely love having a job like that: writing essays and just being able to talk and teach others about something interesting sounds so fun sorry anyways. But obviously in this economy and with the way inflation is going, jobs in archaeology or museum curation will not pay my bills and it's not exactly a stable job (to be honest I had never thought about income whenever I thought about careers because the one thing I cared about was if I would actually be passionate and enjoy what I'm doing, it is my job after all).
So because of that, I have no clue what to put down for my A-levels. Going into counselling would probably be the safe option; it's well paid and it's not like I hate psychology and I'm doing well in it currently. But history, english and philosophy are subjects I love so so much and have so much passion for (and they're the subjects I'm getting the highest grades in right now) and I'm so worried that I'm making a mistake and condemning myself to years of having no money at all.

Hey @akitopie,

First off, it's great to hear that you're passionate about so many subjects!

It's important to remember you don't have to decide your path right now; after all, you could keep both options open and study Psychology + two humanities subjects (e.g. History and English Lit) at A-Level. The two humanities subjects would allow you to apply to archaeology/art history courses if you decide that's what you want to pursue in the future, whilst Psychology would keep the counselling path open.

Nonetheless, it's always advisable to choose subjects you genuinely enjoy. If you do want to study History, English and Philosophy, remember that you can always apply to counselling courses that don't require A-Level Psychology; choosing those subjects doesn't close that path entirely. 🙂

Hope this helps and best of luck with your decision!
Eve (Kingston Rep).

Reply 2

hi! year 11 here, so my advice isn’t the best, but have you considered taking history, english, philosophy and psychology, and then dropping whichever one you like the least/are the worst at?

Reply 3

Original post
by akitopie
Hii everyone! I'm Akito, a bit about me: I'm currently in Year 11 and I take triple science, maths, english lit and language, history, psychology, latin, spanish and RS at GCSE. For a while now (since year 8?) I really wanted to be a counsellor (helping people I think is something I think I'd enjoy as a job) so I knew I had to do a level psychology (I know you don't always need it at a level for a degree but a lot of top universities like Oxbridge require psychology a level). But I always had a feeling in the back of my head that a job like that would burn me out quickly. I don't exactly work very well under pressure, and yeah it's quite easy to make me cry (not very professional for a counsellor now is it).
Alongside this, I've always loved the humanities subjects (I adore English and History right now) and when I was a kid I always really found history interesting, so my other career options were being an English teacher or some sort of archaeologist/ museum curator. I don't know what it is, but I just know I would absolutely love having a job like that: writing essays and just being able to talk and teach others about something interesting sounds so fun sorry anyways. But obviously in this economy and with the way inflation is going, jobs in archaeology or museum curation will not pay my bills and it's not exactly a stable job (to be honest I had never thought about income whenever I thought about careers because the one thing I cared about was if I would actually be passionate and enjoy what I'm doing, it is my job after all).
So because of that, I have no clue what to put down for my A-levels. Going into counselling would probably be the safe option; it's well paid and it's not like I hate psychology and I'm doing well in it currently. But history, english and philosophy are subjects I love so so much and have so much passion for (and they're the subjects I'm getting the highest grades in right now) and I'm so worried that I'm making a mistake and condemning myself to years of having no money at all.

These are great subject choices seen as you love these subjects and have career interests in them! Dont worry too much about your career at the moment though, you will have plenty of avenues to explore if you take subjects you love 🙂 Btw the psych course at oxford is experimental and science-focused, if you do end up looking at oxford PPL might be worth a look as its far less sciencey!
(edited 1 month ago)

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