Do universities like geography?

Education concept. Student studying and brainstorming campus con

Are you a student thinking of choosing A level geography? Deciding what A levels to choose shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially as they determine what university courses you can do. You also might be worried about if universities actually like students who do geography in college. If this sounds like you, read on to gain more information in this area!

An academic subject

There’s no doubt about it: geography is a facilitating, academic subject that can help students succeed. Universities do indeed like geography in most instances, including the top universities like Oxford and Cambridge. They recognise geography as a respected subject due to its academic challenge, workload, and effort needed to do well. You’ll come across a lot more complex questions and content than you wouldn’t have done at GCSE. You can’t expect to succeed in geography A level without putting in the effort to secure your grade. You’ll have to revise consistently and devote a lot of time to your studies in this subject. As said above, A levels shouldn’t be taken lightly due to their difficulty, making most of them liked by universities.

A wide range of topics

Geography, as a facilitating subject, is very broad in its specification, meaning you’ll learn a lot throughout the course. Covering the environment, population, ecosystems, water and carbon cycles, landscapes, and hazards, geography students gain a wide breadth of knowledge. Geography students also usually engage with field trip work, giving them practical abilities too. This knowledge might assist them at university, especially if students choose to study geography or geology at degree level.

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The skills you will gain

From these topics and years of study, students can also expect to gain a variety of skills that universities love. Students can gain written communication skills, teamwork skills, cartographic and IT skills, and data analysis skills amongst many more. These skills are very transferrable to degree level subjects, all of which build on from A level study. Therefore, with such a display of ability from geography students, it’s not surprising that universities like geography A level.

These skills will be particularly useful in directly relevant fields at degree level. This includes geography, geology, physics, biology, and chemistry, just to name a few. Picking A level geography can show universities that you have the ability to work hard and learn about complex content. It will show them that you have the potential to move on to a successful career in a broad range of fields. For example, you could end up as a geophysicist, an academic researcher, or a meteorologist.

When to avoid geography

You should probably avoid geography if your desired path is very specific – for example, medicine or dentistry. These fields are looking for very specific subjects, and geography is not one of them. Keep this in mind when thinking about what career you’d like to pursue.

Overall, universities do like geography due to its facilitating nature and respected academic rigour. There are certain situations where you should avoid it, but geography is usually a good option to take.

If you, or your parents would like to find out more, please just get in touch via email at info@exam.tips or call us on 0800 689 1272

If you, or your parents would like to find out more, please just get in touch via email at info@exam.tips or call us on 0800 689 1272

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