August 13th 2015 will just be a normal day, unless of course you’re a student waiting for those all important A Level results! Most students will be praying their hard work paid off and they have the grades they need to get into their number one choice University, however for some this sadly isn’t the case. All is not lost though as Clearing is here to help match you with a course and University if you are left in the lurch!
It may be that you never even applied to UCAS before the deadline, or perhaps the offers you received were not for the Universities of your choice? The fact is you are not alone! Around 10% of new students each year secured their place through the clearing process! Want to know the best way to do this? Read our advice here:
- Firstly don’t let the fact that you are going through clearing get you down. You may not have secured your first choice but you now have a method to find and select an alternative! If you had applied for a job, were rejected, then offered 10 alternative jobs you probably wouldn’t feel disheartened would you?
- Register and apply through UCAS as normal including a personal statement – the only difference here is you don’t add your course choices as you may have done if you applied previously. Once this is complete you will be assigned a clearing number so you can apply to Universities that still have places left. For more information visit the UCAS website.
- Try and be flexible in your course selection. You may have initially applied for ‘Graphic Design’ but in clearing decide to apply for a course that is ‘Graphic Design with Computer Science’. Do plenty of research on the course / modules and select something that interests you!
- Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone to the University you initially applied for to see if there is any movement on an offer. You may feel you fell short of the required grades / been rejected previously but you don’t know what may have changed on their end either. Always worth a try!
- Don’t jump into a decision before you’re ready. There is still time to have a look around the area and the campus before jumping in head first!
Well there is a quick guide to clearing, want to get even more prepared for University? Read these 9 Things you will experience at University.
Sophie Heaton (Digital Campaign Manager)