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A-levels for Ivy League and such American schools

I'm not sure whether or not Ivy League schools and schools like MIT or Caltech would be okay with me choosing all STEM A-levels as I think in America they are interested in all-rounded high rigour in schoolwork. Also, American schools do look for students to do the hardest subjects they can and do well in them and do the most work available to them in school.

I know I'll be taking Maths, Further Maths, and Physics but I'm unsure of what to take as a fourth subject. I'm mostly interested in going to MIT and I plan on taking either Maths or Physics at Uni, as I am very good at both, but mostly Maths. I've got several options for a 4th one though.

- Chemistry: I like it and find it interesting, its high rigour as its a facilitating subject, it's simple at GCSE, relevant to my future I guess, but it doesn't fill my potential requirement of a non-STEM subject (mostly 9s a few 8s, predicted 9)

- Geography: it's fun and easy at GCSE, I find it interesting, is a humanity so fills the non-STEM requirement thing and kinda adds more variety, its also facilitating but I don't know how respected it would be to the admissions board (all 9s, predicted 9)

- French: easy for me, I'm really good at writing and I'm the best in my class and year group, non-STEM and definitely different to the rest of my subjects, facilitating and known as a hard A-level, though I don't enjoy it as much as my other subjects (all 9s, predicted 9)

- DT (Product Design): I think this is STEM, 50% of coursework done which is fun, I'm good at it and enjoy this subject a lot, I naturally find it pretty easy, though this is not a facilitating subject at all so I'm not sure how hard it'll be looked as (even number of 8s and 9s, predicted 9)

- English Literature: I find it difficult but its a subject American schools would look at as difficult and be impressed with if I'm taking it alongside 3 STEM subjects so it'd be impressive as its also facilitating, I like the subject but find it quite difficult though it interests me a lot, I enjoy reading and analysis, would definitely be good to have an essay-based subject - is Geography essay-based as well? (mostly 8s, a few 9s, predicted 8)

- Computing: I wasn't considering this initially but I love programming and Computing, though in my current school, they make it pretty boring, I find theory easy and it's fun in general, and I love programming and mostly learning about languages and game development using game engines like Unity and Unreal which I want to learn in my own time over the summer, however not a facilitating subject and considered an easy A-level from what I've heard in comparison to my other options (all 9s, predicted 9)

Sorry about the information overload but I've been thinking this over for a while and I'd like some other opinions to help me decide as I genuinely am not sure. I would do more than one more if I could but of course, with A-levels, it's not possible so here we are.

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Your subjects aren't enormously important outside of sometimes being able to place out of lower level classes and into higher level ones in first year (or for other colleges, gain credit for the A-levels and potentially graduate faster if you're clever in how you plan your classes; note that the "elite" colleges normally only grant placement, not credit).

They look for students to have done challenging pre-college courses, but this is not in terms of subject as you mistakenly believe, this is in terms of qualification. In the US students don't have to take AP classes (the closest equivalent to A-level) or IB. They can just take regular, non-honours classes which are considerably easier. The "elite" colleges usually expect students to be taking the honours classes or AP classes. The structure of high school education in the UK is completely different so effectively you tick that box by default as taking either A-levels or IB will be seen as suitable rigorous regardless of subject choices (although it may be worth noting, contrary to UK universities, doing 4 A-levels may be seen more favourably by US colleges).

Grades are the overriding concern as far as academics go. But you do need a lot more than just academics as you need a good range of extracurricular activities usually, at a high level. In the UK academics are really the only thing you need to tick off to make a competitive application, for "elite" colleges in the US excellent academics are expected but everyone has those, and so they do look to see how you distinguish yourself above and beyond those in your extracurricular activities (in contrast to the UK where universities tend to not put much emphasis on that, and where they might it's usually only for "supercurricular" activities).

Note that taking a language can be useful as a lot of colleges have foreign language gen ed requirements which you can place/test out of if you have studied the language to a certain level in high school. However as you've presumably done French to GCSE then you will at least most likely meet an admissions requirements - doing the A-level would just give you a bit more flexibility potentially once you start.