Posting this in behalf of a friend.

Since the lady has not done her education in Britain, she is clueless. Her daughter is very good in maths, wants to take maths degree and wants work in the financial sector. She wants to take up Maths, further maths, economics and latin for her A levels.

My friend doesn't really get how Latin fits in the scheme of things. Please advise as I have no clue.

Thank you.

I don’t think latin does fit but I don't think it matters at all. If she wants to take Latin because she likes it and is good as at, then she should go for it,

Most unis are only really interested in three A levels anyway, (and many schools are moving to students doing 3 not 4) so she could drop one later, depending on the school’s stance.

Thank you Tinkers. Yes the child likes Latin but also has the idea that Latin is well respected by Unis and will make her stand out.

Mother thinks computer science would be a better and more practical fit.

It will only be well repsected if she gets good grades in it (and A level Latin is much, much harder than GCSE) and she doesn't get worse grades in 4 than if she only did 3.

There is absolutely no need to do 4 A levels and the majority of Grammar schools/Secondary schools are now actively dissuading pupils from doing 4 as Universities offers are based on 3.

Thank you Kenyancowgirl.
It is 4 subjects in their school.
So for a career in maths relating to finance in some way would maths, further maths, economics and computer science be a more sensible option than Latin.
She is not a science girl.

For a maths degree maths and further maths are essential (if offered)
If when the DD is old enough to understand what this means then the opportunities of a career in finance will not be affected by her other A levels. Latin is tough and therefore respected, not to be done for the kudos but for the love and the ability. It seems to me your friend's DD needs to be making her own decisions and bear in mind that she is not in a position to make well informed choices about her long term career choices yet, so good results, a good degree and breadth and depth are key.

_________________
mad?

Thank you, will pass on your valuable advice, she seems to be one of the toppers in latin in school and loves it but probably she would need to do more research on the rigours of Latin at A level ( and if she still loves it enough to pursue )and how it generally fits in with her career interests.

I know that 3 A levels is generally sufficient but is that still always true when Further Maths is one of them? At DS's school they typically take 3 unless doing FM in which case they take 4.

This is the case in dd's school as well. I always assumed (maybe incorrectly) that FM wasn't counted as a "proper" 3rd A level. They only have 50% teaching time for FM compared with their other A levels (so those doing M/FM get 150% of the time compared with those just doing maths).

My daughter did A level Latin.

It is four separate papers and she had separate teachers for each paper which made parents evening quite time consuming!

They started with 12 in the class and were down to 8 before the end of the first term. Only those for whom Latin was their passion continued.

She was the only one in the year to get an A star but she did it in one year with no other A levels so she had the time to devote to it.

She was very motivated as she wanted to read Classics in the original language.

She is now reading Classics and is in the middle of Mods right now.

Latin is absolutely not the A level for those who are not passionate about it and who need to be focusing on other subjects that they are going to be doing at degree level.

It certainly is not an A level to do just to impress University admissions.

The school were predicting her a B right until the exams as she had not done the GCSE and had a lot of ground to make up.

Getting embroiled in a very tough A level that she does not even need and is not interested in continuing to degree level could backfire on your dd quite badly. It is a risk not worth taking in my and my dd's opinion. DG