DD is choosing A'levels,she has narrowed it down to 5! She needs to lose 1

[runaroundstartsnow]

DD is interested in doing Art/Textiles at uni.She has a list of A'levels she wants to do and has been told its one too many.
Her choices are:
Eng Lit
French
Chemistry
Art&Design
Creative Textiles
She is flat out refusing to drop any, what do i do?
Chem is her best subject and she should get an A at least at GCSE, English she is due an A/B, French a B/C ( but she will be spending all summer with her French friend and loves everything about France.
Art she needs for uni but due to joining school late she was not able to do it for GCSE, she does however spend most of her spare time drawing and creating and has a decent portfolio.The various colleges have seen it and are happy for her to do Art.
So which one to give up?

but i suppose if youre interesting in textiles chemistry would be useful in fabric development

I'd say French.

Can't she do five?

Chemistry may be useful In fabric technology but I don't know many garment technologists with chemistry A as a given (I am in the rag trade) and I am assuming she wants to be more involved in the design side?

French would be handy if she wanted to go and work in a fashion house - but nonessential. Plus she could just go to French conversation classes?

Eng lit isn't essential is it? I'd have thought history more for costume design etc but can't really see the relevance of that either.

Are the universities she's looking at giving subject guide lists?

I did 5 A Levels but one was General Studies. Others being Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I thought people often did more at AS and then dropped one at A2 level although not sure how many people generally start with.

What do her teachers say? What are the groupings likely to be like next year (ie some subject combinations won't be possible due to when they are timetabled).

A Level Chemistry is (or was at least) very different from GCSE - I found it pretty hard work. English I imagine needs lots of essay writing. Know nothing about Art or Creative Textiles but does sound like they go together.

I would drop Chemistry.

If her predicted French GCSE is B/C then I would suggest that she drops that one.

Chemistry -unless it is required for a good grade to get into uni. I did a chemistry degree and unless you are going to actually be a chemist/lab rat it is fecking useless -apart from accounting. But does not sound like she wants to be an accountant.

I did this level of education overseas so it's a bit baffling to me - I don't get why she can't do all 5 if she's prepared to put the work in - enough other youngsters seem to do that?

Sixth form will not allow her to do all 5 as she is not predicted all A grades at GCSE
She is predicted A in Drama, Chem, Resistant Materials and is borderline A/B for almost everything else.
She is very hardworking and very competitive and insists that she can cope with the work load.
One college has suggested she do 4 for the first yr, drop one after AS then do another as an AS while doing her A2s if that makes sense.
She likes that idea a little, but that is only offered at her least fave sixth form.

eng lit or french
whichever she thinks she will do wwrost in
eng lit more course work than french
loads of course work for art subjects so leave room for them
so she takes;
chem
a&d
creative textiles
either fre or eng

agree if she's getting b/c for gcse french she should drop

I'd drop Eng Lit, it didn't do me any good at all.

I would say drop English lit, the knowledge from chemistry could come in very useful and make her stand out and languages are always useful

I would drop English Lit from that list.

Even an E in chemistry has kudos from univerisities and employers. It is not about the facts, but about the logical thinking skills.

French is very useful should she be involved in fashion.

Presumably Art and Textiles are must-haves for her chosen HE course. They will have enough literacy in them to demonstrate similar skills as English Lit.

The other reason for keeping Chemistry in that list is because it is not coursework heavy. She will basically go to class and do normal amounts of homework. The other subjects require her to do a lot of independent work and to meet internal deadlines.

drop french.

If she's good at it and loves it and will spend lots of time in France, she will be far more confident at speaking it than many others and that will be more important in the world of work. And she's more likely to get a better result at english.

As someone connected to the kind of institution that you DD is aiming for, I would advise dropping either French (she can talk about her language skills/interests in her applications) or English.

How about asking if she can sit in on the french lessons but not do the exams? If the school would allow her this then she could keep up her conversational skills and indulge her passion but without the stress and workload of the full AS.

I'd drop Eng lit.

if she has to drop one I'd say English Lit. (though I loved it) definitely not French - it would be hard to keep it up informally and having a language is a huge advantage. we compete against Europeans these days and they all have 2 languages.

Just saw chippy's comment - I did a Chemistry degree (still don't know why ) and am an accountant .

drop French. If she is as interested/fluent then she can prove that immedately and doesnt need a bit op paper.