Help with subject choices! (Study journalism at university or maybe biology?)

[Guest nemo]

Ok so I feel really lost concerning my subject choices...

The first dilemma: Becoming a journalist has been my main aim but I'm also really interested in nature and therefore considering to somehow work with wildlife... (I really don't wanna become a doctor and my chemistry skills kinda suck anyway, so it's just biology that I'm interested in (physics a bit as well). I guess I would make physics or chemistry SL but HL is probably not to consider..

The social sciences and writing are however stuff that I have no troubles with getting good grades in, so maybe this is to prefer after all. Since I'm not sure though, I would like to make my IB education as broad as possible.

Another dilemma is what language to take as A, the literature course. As I said I wanna become a journalist and aiming to attend a university abroad. Therefore I guess it seems most likely to take English lit HL but I'm kinda reluctant since everybody here in my school says that you will fail if you're not a native speaker, which I am not... I do however read thick English books and have been since I was 12... What do you think, would English lit HL be too hard? I'm ready to struggle, but I've also heard that all you have to do to get into an English university if you apply with English as a language B is to pass a simple English test.

At the same time though, if I would change my mind and attend a Swedish university (I'm a Sweede ya know), Swedish lit is required to get in. So if I take both English and Swedish lit, I hope I can skip the language B group instead...

So either I could do this, which would be the (broader?) choice that I hope could lead to something in either journalism or biology?

English lit/B HL (lit or B, lit or B...)

Psychology HL (Really interested in this subject, and already know a lot. Feels like it could be useful in both areas)

Biology HL

Swedish lit SL

Mathematics SL

Chemistry or Physics SL

Or, more of a "journalist option" (but still maybe being able to do something in bology?! Or is it a waste of time and I should rather have history HL and biology SL?)

English lit/B HL

Psychology HL

Biology HL

Swedish A SL

History SL

mathematics SL

Sorry for lots of thoughts, but I would be really grateful if someone could make me a bit less lost 8) :3

Edited January 29, 2013 by nemo

[~Lc~]

It is very difficult to get a 7 in English HL, and you don't need it to apply for Journalism courses. It would look impressive though.

I had a similar intention to you at your age, and I was misguided to attending a Media studies course which didn't necessarily lead into journalism. So let me take you a few years into your future and get some difficult decision making a bit earlier:

What kind of journalist do you want to be? Writing, Tv or Radio? otherwise: a reporter, a specialist so financial, environmental, political etc.?

What is the sort of salary you would be happy to live by?

Where do you want to live long term?

I started out as a reported at the national news paper where I was planning to settle down, and it bored me to death after a few months. I realized I'd rather do larger project like case studies and academic research instead of reporting.

Are you thinking of studying in the UK? If yes then I will give you a bit more advice on how to go about getting the best out of the system here.

[Guest nemo]

It is very difficult to get a 7 in English HL, and you don't need it to apply for Journalism courses. It would look impressive though.

I had a similar intention to you at your age, and I was misguided to attending a Media studies course which didn't necessarily lead into journalism. So let me take you a few years into your future and get some difficult decision making a bit earlier:

What kind of journalist do you want to be? Writing, Tv or Radio? otherwise: a reporter, a specialist so financial, environmental, political etc.?

What is the sort of salary you would be happy to live by?

Where do you want to live long term?

I started out as a reported at the national news paper where I was planning to settle down, and it bored me to death after a few months. I realized I'd rather do larger project like case studies and academic research instead of reporting.

Are you thinking of studying in the UK? If yes then I will give you a bit more advice on how to go about getting the best out of the system here.

Yeah that's what everybody says about English lit, so I guess I could as well just take it as language B.

I want to be a writing journalist, and would like to write about world news and international issues (I of course realize that you gotta start from scratch and this is something you won't be able to do till later when you're more experienced). Actually what I really wanna become though, is an author but since this is really hard to make a living from, I thought a journalist career would be a better start.

About salary and where to live, I have no idea really. What has attracted me with the journalist calling is the writing and the ability to travel within your work. A high salary isn't something I give priority to.

I don't really know where to study after IB, but UK is an option for sure. I might apply to a Scottish university since they are free, that depends if I could get a scholarship or not.

I'm sorry that being a reporter was not what you expected, do you work with research now or do you do further studying to work with it later? And if I may ask out of curiosity, what is it that you do research on/wanna do research on? Thanks for your help!

[~Lc~]

Yeah that's what everybody says about English lit, so I guess I could as well just take it as language B.

I want to be a writing journalist, and would like to write about world news and international issues (I of course realize that you gotta start from scratch and this is something you won't be able to do till later when you're more experienced). Actually what I really wanna become though, is an author but since this is really hard to make a living from, I thought a journalist career would be a better start.

About salary and where to live, I have no idea really. What has attracted me with the journalist calling is the writing and the ability to travel within your work. A high salary isn't something I give priority to.

I don't really know where to study after IB, but UK is an option for sure. I might apply to a Scottish university since they are free, that depends if I could get a scholarship or not.

I'm sorry that being a reporter was not what you expected, do you work with research now or do you do further studying to work with it later? And if I may ask out of curiosity, what is it that you do research on/wanna do research on? Thanks for your help!

That's not a problem! I'm not sorry at all, you change while you grow, and the things you want will change as well.

Journalism in the UK isn't a specialization. In fact you can study biology if you like, then complete an NCJT course (to get your license to be a journalist) and then you can get a job from then onward. I suggest specializing in a field (English, history, economics, sciences, geography, politics) and then endeavoring to be a journalist. It is much more valuable to do that, then to complete a straight journalism or media studies course, as technically all you need is the license to be able to get a job!

You could opt to do a course which has the license included, I think they have them in Cardiff and Bournemouth. The market is ridiculously competitive at the moment, a friend and I both applied to Reuters, and she got through probably because she's been on journalism internships for the past 2 years, while I didn't probably because I went into more business/financial markets career paths. So it is essential than you don't fall off the bandwagon. Keep writing, and try to get as much published as you can. (don't panic you have 3 years in uni to do this).

I would suggest doing the A1 if you are interested in writing, it will help develop your skills to say the least. Don't worry so munch about getting a 7 in everything. Unlike what the top schools are advocating, sometimes you need to do things to actually learn and develop rather than perform.

I'm going into Economic research hopefully, I haven't chosen my topic yet but the road to the PhD isn't till another 2 years so I've got time I would like to still write, but I'm more interested in academic writing.

I hope this helps and goodluck!