Dropping a subject after A2

[celestialsquirrels]

Hi. My dd is doing a English, Geography, History of Art and Photography AS levels. The Original idea was to drop photography after AS and keep going with the other 3. However she loves photography and really hasn't got on well with History of Art, which was a new subject for her. She is now thinking of dropping it, keeping on with English Geog and Photography with the aim of reading Geography at university.

Does this sound at all realistic? What will the geography admissions people think of this slightly strange combo? She is tentatively predicted AAAB in photography, English, Geog and HofA respectively (although hasn't done her mocks yet). So hopefully should get AAA in her A levels. Will the photography be treated like a "proper" A level? Or shoukd she pick up another AS to do in her A2 year, like Biology?

She is looking at Exeter, Southampton, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds unis at the moment.

All thoughts gratefully received.

Do you mean dropping a subject after AS?

I'm not an expert, but your DD would still be doing 2 facilitating subjects so I imagine would be OK. DS1's girlfriend is currently doing a degree for which the entry requirement is AAA and she did maths, psychology and film studies (achieved A,A,A) so the film studies, which is perhaps on a par with photography, didn't hold her back.

I noticed that when DS2 did his personal statement last term (to do geography), he tied in his other subjects (english and biology) and explained how they complemented his interest in geography. Could your DD tie her photography into her interest in geography (landscape, environment etc?) in a similar way?

Oh dear of course I meant AS, sorry!!
That's good to hear about your DSs girlfriend. I know the Russell group says they need 2 facilitating subjects but there is so much press and anecdote seemingly saying 3 facilitating subjects are needed that it is difficult to work out what's what.
Yes she is doing a lot of her photography on landscape to try and tie it all together!

Very surprised they have handing out A2 predictions when she hasn't even done any mocks yet!! What on earth are they basing that on?

You do not need 3 facilitating subjects. Two is fine. However you have a couple or more universities on your list that are competitive to get into. It is not worth doing another AS. I think you actually need to see if the universities are happy with photography as an A level because I think a lot of other candidates for the top universities will be offering subjects from the useful list (the next one down from facilitating - I cannot remember the name given to these subjects) but they include Economics, Government and Politics, Psychology etc. I suspect Photography is not on this list. My DD did photography A level but she was going into the arts. Also, there is a lot of water to go under the bridge from AS to A2. My DD did her photography AS and A2 in March both years with a written part slightly later. She didn't do a mock. Just the hard slog to get everything ready for March.

Bristol has a very interesting document about entry to Geography courses and the subjects they give a higher weighting to and a lower weighting to. Photography is not on the list at all and I am not sure I could see History of Art either. They have over 800 applicants for 135 places. I am just not sure how good this combination of subjects is for a competitive entry university.

They aren't handing out predictions, they have just said if she continues working hard she is on track for X at AS. Predictions come after mocks.

Milly I had a look at the bristol Geog admissions criteria and it says "to assist in balancing the streams, we use the following subject weightings:
? 1.0:
Biology; Chemistry; Computer Science, Computing, Economics; English Literature; Geography; Geology; Government and Politics; History; Information Technology; Latin; Marine Science; Maths or Further Maths; Philosophy; Physics; Statistics
? 0.8:
All other subjects (except General Studies and Critical Thinking which are given no weight"

So photography will be considered. I'm not saying that she has a particularly realistic possibility of getting into Bristol though - I accept that some of the most competitive courses are unlikely to be for her.

Upon looking at the various admissions doc etc though it seems that adding a biology AS is unlikely to make much difference really as you suggest...

The best thing for your daughter to do (not you, ideally) is to contact the Admissions Tutor or Admissions staff for each of the universities/courses she's interested in and ask for their opinion. If she says what her GCSE results were and what her likely A level results will be, they should be able to give a better idea. Good luck!

Agree she needs to contact admissions folk to check how they'd view her application. In all honesty I doubt swapping HoA for Photography will make much difference. Not having a science A level might however. I guess she wasn't focussed on Geography when she picked her original subjects?

Sorry that sounds really negative! Another route might be former 94 group rather than RG type institutions - UEA, Essex, RHUL etc, or BA instead of a BSc, or a combined degree, Geography and Development studies for instance.

Errm. Is there an A* available at AS? I thought there wasn't.

Sorry, re-reading, and I see you mean that these are tentative predictions for A2, not AS.

Geography is relatively undersubscribed. Some of the universities on the list above offer at ABB, which means they are taking at BBB or so in clearing. I don't think they could afford to turn away somebody with AAA predictions, even if one of the As was for photography or history of art.

Yes looking at the which guide to universities, many of those I have listed made offers to between 95-100% of those who applied last year. Exeter and Bristol were much lower - Bristol more like 30% I think. But if that is the case then it seems they are pretty undersubscribed.
Titchy yes she thought she would be looking at English and only recently started thinking about geog. She would def go for a BA with a human geography bias.

He other option is to go to a canadian university to do arts/social science and then she won't have to major until the second year, but that's a whole other thread...!

I think it is worth adding that Bristol did have a Second list of subjects where, if you were doing A levels from this list, you would get a lower offer. Hence my original comment about two lists . Also Bristol is a BSc so it is best to do homework about universities.