General studies or another a level?

[Star21]

My son is currently studying maths, physics and Geog A level, further maths AS level spread over 2 years and general studies A level. He wants to swap General studies a level for computer science a level in year 12 to give him the option to drop one subject at the end of the year depending on which subjects he is best at. There was no real discussion at school when he asked to do this, they just said be prepared for a lot of work and printed off a new timetable. Does this sound like too much work as although Further maths is only an AS level I believe it is quite tough?
Ultimately he intends to do 3 A levels and further maths in year 13 but this gives him options to chose his best 3 subjects at the end of year 12.

Most only do 4 AS and 3 A2s although with Maths/FM 4 A2 is not exceptional. How is he coping with workload so far? Forget General Studies it carries very little weight in the real world.

His work load seems strangely light at the moment, he hasn't had to do anything at home because he has been getting homework done in his free periods but then we are only 2 weeks in and I expect it will become much heavier. I was worried about dropping General studies as the school seem to really push this so interesting to hear it carries very little weight. I suppose my worry is that if he finds it too much in a few months time it will be too late to drop computer science and pick general studies back up.

There's a blog which shows that kids with General Studies A-lvel can do quite well at getting onto Uni courses (traditional subjects at RG universities).

Although TBF, that is based on data almost 3 yrs old.

No courses ever seem to actually count GS A level among the A levels they will offer on. The study may just have found the universities like the other A levels the GS applicants are taking. Why can't he do Further Maths at A2? Computer science is not needed by universities either I think, not even for computer science degrees. FM A2 says a lot more about a candidate. Lots more work than GS though because many schools get students to just take the exams in GS without much tuition or work.

General studies is irrelevant. Most people doing FM , are doing 4full a levels.

Computer studies would definitely be better than general studies but bear in mind that changing subjects does depend on it fitting in with his current timetable.

EPQ - the Extended Project Qualification - seems to be the new alternative to General Studies and IMO much better, because your son could genuinely choose something that's relevant to his future aims rather than just doing something for extra UCAS points. That means that, even if EPQ weren't counted for his UCAS points (and many unis do not count general studies for UCAS points - EPQ is new enough that there aren't reliable guidelines out there yet) then he could still use this project as part of his application, if it's relevant.

If, say, he wanted to study Geography at degree level then he could show that he's already come up with his own geography-related project, found out how to research it, conducted independent research and produced a project far bigger than any individual piece of coursework would be. It would also actually help him do better in his first year of uni because so much of it is independent work.

When he chose further maths as an option we were under the impression it was A2 but the school isn't offering that now, only an AS level spread over 2 years. He will ultimately end up (hopefully) with 3 A2 levels and the further maths AS.

I was surprised to find that some universities accept a grade in General Studies as long as other A levels are being studied.

At Lancaster it counts as long as you are doing 4 A levels (could be useful if you can get a good grade and have a nasty surprise in another subject):

www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/admissions/entry-requirements-and-qualifications/uk-qualifications/

Or here for Philosophy at Newcastle: www.ncl.ac.uk/undergraduate/degrees/v500/entryrequirements/

I realise those may not be the subjects your DS is interested in, but thought it might be worth mentioning in case others found it helpful.