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Philosophy or Italian self-taught as a 4th A Level?

Hi,

I started year 12 this year, doing 3 A levels: French, History, English Lit. I’ve been enjoying them and it’s going well.

Ideally I’d like to study Law at Oxford and I’m aware of how incredibly competitive this is - now I’ve got a sense of the workload of doing 3 (+ likely an EPQ) I’m thinking about self-teaching a 4th A Level to bolster my application. I’m torn between Edexcel Italian and AQA Pure Philosophy.

I self-taught Italian at GCSE and got a 9, and would like to continue learning the language in some capacity as I enjoy it, but I’m not sure of the value of two language A levels in a Law application? I feel like Philosophy would be harder for me to self-teach but I spent the summer learning most of the epistemology content and found it very interesting, despite being challenging. I know that pure philosophy is well respected.

Any ideas of which would be the better option?

Cheers
Doing 4 A levels is a total waste of time.

No UK University asks for more than 3 and you will not get any extra credit for doing 4. It doesnt 'boost' any application as the Uni will only score your application on 3 subjects. Taking 4 also risks getting lower grades in all your subjects - and you'll find that A*A*A* impresses Oxford a great deal more than ABBB.
Original post by McGinger
Doing 4 A levels is a total waste of time.

No UK University asks for more than 3 and you will not get any extra credit for doing 4. It doesnt 'boost' any application as the Uni will only score your application on 3 subjects. Taking 4 also risks getting lower grades in all your subjects - and you'll find that A*A*A* impresses Oxford a great deal more than ABBB.

At least a 4th A-level opens your options further because people aren't that sure about subjects at 16. Plus it's an extra A-level if you mess up one of your A-levels for whatever reason.

EPQ is still decent because it can show independent research etc. which universities will like.

So it's not a total waste of time.

Though I wonder how many free periods will someone taking 4 A-levels + EPQ have.
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LdC205
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The thing is I get that 4 A levels isn’t necessary, but it’s about what makes an application more competitive. Sure, ABBB is worse than A*A*A*, but what if Oxford has to choose between A*A*A*A* and A*A*A*?

Besides that, I genuinely enjoy both subjects and enjoy studying in general (hence why I feel I could manage the workload). I have a passion for the Italian language and equally feel Philosophy would complement the skills of logical reasoning and the articulation of arguments needed in a Law degree. It’s a shame we can only view it in terms of utility in a uni application.

I’ve heard people say that while a fourth A level didn’t necessarily do much for their uni application, it helped their applications to jobs in future as it showed employers they were committed from a young age.

My questions was more about which A level was better, not the merits of doing 4.

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