A-level choices: engineering-----architecture

I wouldn’t encourage him to choose something he dislikes school is hard enough.
DS 16 doesn’t know what he wants to do and still doesn’t.
He is in year 12 and could have chosen almost anything for A levels, they did EPQ in lockdown (which has been handed in and is now thankfully out of the way). He choose Maths, Further Maths, Physics and French. I tried to sway him towards Chemistry or History rather than French but he’s always enjoyed French and was set on his subjects. Like others have said he finds a lot of crossover with Maths and Physics, but as he enjoys Maths and likes to be challenged he finds this a bit easy/boring.
I think he wishes he had chosen Chemistry (but all the kids he knows who have taken it find it very difficult) or History rather than French. But he loves Further Maths and is enjoying this the most.

Be aware that jobs can be difficult to come by in architecture.
SIL got MArch, Part 3 and just about holding on to his job. Many of his year never got a job offer in architecture post qualification. A third of his firm's architects have been let go in the last year.

I think he might also change his mind and decide to do natural sciences, for instance... I love the idea of natsoc at Cambridge - start wide and narrow down

BUT he dislikes maths

DS is in the first year of this course, studying physical natural sciences (physics, chemistry, materials science). The university can't ask for Further Maths A-level as an entry requirement, because many schools and sixth form colleges don't offer it. However, most applicants are taking Further Maths. In DS's offer, Further Maths was the only subject where they specified that he had to get an A*. Both interviews involved a lot of difficult maths. Now that he has started the course, he can see why. He said the most useful thing he did over the summer in terms of preparation was to teach himself extra Further Maths A-level modules which his school didn't choose as curriculum options.

At Surrey the first year is general then you diversify

My dd did maths physics and chemistry plus epq. Studying aerospace engineering at Surrey. She wishes she had done further maths as felt like everyone was ahead of her.
She's also done a placement year and has gained so much confidence and has a grad job lined up.

How about product design engineering at Loughborough university?

It covers lots of different engineering disciplines plus there’s a lot of technical drawing in it for the design element.

www.lboro.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/a-z/product-design-engineering-beng/

I found the most useful A levels for my engineering degree were Maths, Physics & Economics. With the economics, I didn't have to do any work for that subject at uni as I'd done it all and I found it a piece of cake at Alevel. But everyone is different

Maths is one of the few A-levels I'd do without loving it, assuming you're good at it. I never loved maths, didn't do Further Maths as a result. Got an easy A though (no A* in those days). The workload isn't too horrible, if you really don't get something there's only so much you can do (time wise) and once you have the answer you're done. It's about the easiest A-Level to do as a "necessary evil" as a means to an end. Always assuming you are good enough at the subject, so getting 8s.

DH is an architect he did Art, Physics, Economics and Maths. I think most of them did art (and you certainly need to be able to draw or sketch as they call it). DS and BIL did maths, f.maths, chemistry and physics BIL did engineering DS wants to do chemical engineering.

I'm a civil engineer and did Maths, Physics and Art at A level.

The different engeneering disciplines are very different even though they are all called engineering; a mechanical engineer wouldn't be able to walk into a chemical engineering job, and a structural engineer would probably struggle with fluid mechanics engineering.

However, I would say that any engineering degree opens up a lot of opportunities.

You do need maths, but we did the same 1st year maths as students on the maths degree course.

re Architecture.
Double check that Photography is OK not Art.
Otherwise I'd expect Maths & Physics would be needed. Physics would be hard without Maths, and engineers need generally to be competent at maths.

Architecture at university varies (according to a friend whose DD is currently studying it). Some courses are very Art based, some very Physics based, some a mix of the two.

Just because he has to choose now, doesn't mean he can't change his mind (provided the timetabling works.)

I think the big uni's will want very good maths skills for engineering. Not doing further maths might put him at a disadvantage.

DS did Maths, F maths, physics, chemistry and a Mini MBA (EPQ type thing) and said the work load was ok compared to his friends doing essay based subjects.

I personally think if you're going to do 4 A levels, then one should be F Maths, as it gets lumped in with maths and apparently (according again to DS) only feels like half an A level worth of extra work. Photog I imagine would be very time consuming???

Others have given good answers re the subjects. But I will say, if he's only getting 8s and isn't in the top set in Maths then Cambridge, and certainly Imperial, may well be out of his reach.

Oh and dd is doing engineering and really wishes she had further maths, most (75%) on her course do

For engineering he needs maths, physics and usually one more science (obviously chemistry for chemical engineering etc) for architecture maths and physics are also ideal. Very few do 4 a levels now unless the 4th is further maths, (dd was only one of 2 at her college.

I was going to say as above. Engineering is a lot of maths. Does architecture need maths?
I did a subject I didn't like and it was very painful.

I would double check the requirements for Architecture - I don't think they necessarily need you to have studied an Art & Design subject at GCSE/A-Level but to be able to submit a portfolio of creative work. - Might be wrong there though, as this was a conversation I had with one of DS's friends who has wanted to be an architect since he was about 5 (so he's done a lot of research).

....just to add Engineering students also put in a huge amount of hours (DS is in a house of students taking mixed degrees and his timetable and workload is easily double what the others have on their plates) drop out rate is pretty high.

Engineering is also heavily maths centred - if your DS doesn't truly love maths he may not enjoy the course at all.

Will he be allowed to do physics without maths? A lot of schools dont allow physics without taking maths