Just not that into you

Dynamic programming is a method for working out the best route to a destination. An economist can help you – if you have defined preferences – both with the issue of choosing your endpoint and the route there.

Suppose you are about to enter the Sixth Form and have decided that you want a career in the literary world. You do some research – and get advice – and decide that getting an undergraduate degree in English Studies at Durham University is your first ambition. You look at their website and see that a standard offer is A*AA including English literature. You now need to choose your A-levels and your strategy of achieving the requisite grades. The Russell Group has a planner called ‘informed choices’ to help you in this decision-making. For English literature, it advises you to do the A-level in that subject, but also History and Religious Studies.

While this seems straightforward enough, two points quickly follow. One is that going to Durham is only a starting point for what universities are now calling ‘the student journey’. In this one case, the current jargon might actually be accurate. You will show up with your newly purchased bed linen and dishes and start off on what your childhood reading might have labelled ‘an adventure’. Going to Durham to read English is not a stationary outcome – your interests and knowledge develop over the three years of your degree. But it is a plan – you go through the three years, get your degree and seek to find a job in the literary sector.

You may have to recalibrate all along the plan, both the part of the plan of getting to Durham and the journey that follows thereafter. You may fail to achieve A*AA and find you have to go to your insurance choice of university or enter clearing. We regularly advise 18 year olds that clearing is not a disaster – they will find a good programme and (provided they put in the effort they may not have done at A-level stage) they will succeed. After completing your first-class degree, you may still find that getting a job in the literary world is too difficult an ambition, and may decide to follow a different career.