three out of five are rejections, should i be worrying? Please help!

Hi.

I applied to university to study English Literature (BA Honours) at Glasgow, Strathclyde, Stirling, Edinburgh Napier and Aberdeen, and as of today, Glasgow Strathclyde and Aberdeen have turned me down. Glasgow and Strathclyde were understandable as I am below entry requirements, but I was one grade above for Aberdeen and they still rejected me, and said on my application that i was below requirements! (I got AABC and they wanted BBBB). A friend said my C might have put them off straight away, but I don't know. :confused:

I left school halfway through sixth year (and halfway through an Advanced Higher English course) and I'm kicking myself now, but I was suffering pretty severely with mental illness and my school was not very understanding about the whole thing, so I dropped out last October.

So I'm left with two choices, and I'm starting to think about what'll happen if I'm rejected from the last two? I've been looking forward to University for as long as I can remember, English is kind of my star subject and not many colleges (if any, from what I've found) offer any kind of course in it.

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks. :smile:

Reply 1

sarah1345

Original post by RMBx

Don't worry, wait for your other replies, Edinburgh Napier and Stirling are still yet to reply. There's nothing you can do now, so just relax :smile:

Unless of course you don't really want to go to those universities... I hope you told them about your mental illness through your reference or something because it obviously affected your performance :smile:

Reply 2

RMBx

Original post by sarah1345

Don't worry, wait for your other replies, Edinburgh Napier and Stirling are still yet to reply. There's nothing you can do now, so just relax :smile:

At the recommendation of my school I didn't mention my illness because they thought it might worsen my chances.. I don't know if I should now. I just really wanna do English, somewhere, anywhere. I wish someone had interviewed me so i could have explained it or something. My bad :frown:

Reply 3

sarah1345

Original post by RMBx

Try not to worry about it, not now anyway, you still have two shots left. Do you meet the requirements for the last two uni's? and if you met Aberdeen's minimum entry, maybe your personal statement wasn't good enough? :/

Reply 4

HopeForTheFuture

I would definitely get in touch with the admissions offices and explain your situation to them - did you leave school before completing your studies?

Universities aren't allowed to discriminate against you because you're suffering from illness!

Reply 5

catoswyn

These are your options:

1. Wait for the other two to reply. One or the other may be a yes! Try not to worry. Its all incredibly stressful I know.

2. You can start looking at who else still has places available in the extra system so that if you are rejected by the other two you are ready. For this look at 'courses' in UCAS. Any with an x by them are saying they still haven't filled the course. Those with a c by them are closed to further applicants. Read the guidance on UCAS about how it will work. They recommend ringing the uni's who still have places left and checking they would consider you etc. Make a list of universities you would be interested in ( and whose grade requirements you meet ) No need to ring yet... but hope for the best and be prepared for the worse.

Unfortunately I think it is too late to approach your current choices and explain your extenuating circumstances. This should have been done by your referee. Their comments on the fact that it would prejudice your application show how prejudiced they are! It should not have prejudiced anything unless you were applying to a course which needs medical clearance like medicine and the like. Depression is an illness not a personal failing!!!!

Good luck
:smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 6

RMBx

Original post by sarah1345

I'm above requirements for the other two, but this didn't seem to make a difference with Aberdeen :s-smilie:

I think because I dropped out of sixth year they maybe think I didn't want to do the work or something

Reply 7

RMBx

Original post by HopeForTheFuture

I did my four Highers in fifth year (English A, RMPS A, History B and Modern Studies C) and then went on to do Higher Sociology and Adv Higher English in sixth year and didn't complete those because of illness. I'm really regretting that, but at the time it seemed like it was impossible. Maybe I should have just stuck it out, but it's kinda too late now.

I emailed Aberdeen admissions to inquire why I'd received a rejection based on my grades when they seemed to be above requirements, so I'll just have to wait and see I guess!

Reply 8

Ronda

If you've got AABC and Aberdeen want BBBB, then you haven't met the requirements. Having an A won't make up for the fact you don't have the B for one of your subjects. That's your problem, you've applied to 3 places out of 5 where you haven't met the requirements. And your school should have flagged this up before your application was sent.

If you meet the requirements for the other 2 then I wouldn't worry until you've heard the decision!

Reply 9

RMBx

Original post by Ronda

My school seemed to be under the impression that one grade made up for another, I honestly didn't know that wasn't the case! Thanks for the feedback.

Reply 10

Ronda

Original post by RMBx

My school seemed to be under the impression that one grade made up for another, I honestly didn't know that wasn't the case! Thanks for the feedback.

Some unis are more lenient than others about it, but generally you will need at least the 4 Bs if that's what it is asking for. It's a shame that your school has been giving you some bad advice though. A bit like my school really, if I'd applied now rather than two years ago, I'd do things totally differently.

Good luck with the other two, and don't give up hoping until you have to! :smile:

Reply 11

RMBx

Original post by ellathecat

wow this just shows how stupid the system is, when you - the student and applicant - have to suffer from your school's mistakes :frown:

I don't really blame my school, maybe my grades aren't good enough, maybe I should have applied for different Universities, maybe I should have stuck out sixth year. Too late now, just gotta keep hoping that this is the end of the rejections!

Reply 12

Darkarium

I would say your grades are fine. No offense but your personal statement or your reference must've been weak. Last year I applied to UCAS with bbbc at AS for ABB/AAB universities and got offers from all 5. This year I applied with ABbc at A2/AS for AAB/AAA universities and have so far got 4 offers and an interview with my last choice. I am 2 years behind due to illness, which I mentioned briefly in my personal statement and asked my referee (old college) to mention. I think it's terrible advice for you to not mention that you were ill, they can't hold it against you whereas if it looks like you just took a year out for no good reason then they definitely can and will.

Reply 13

RMBx

Original post by Darkarium

Not to badmouth my referee or anything, but she was not my biggest fan, and I never saw my reference. Do you really think that could make a huge difference?

Reply 14

Pen Island

Stirling is generally pretty late at giving out offers - I know people last year who didn't hear from them until April. Also, they had 14500 applicants this year so they're obviously going to take a while getting through the applications! Edinburgh Napier I don't know about but there's someone at college who hasn't heard from them either.

I wouldn't worry too much - your grades are good so as long as you had a good personal statement you should be OK :smile:

Reply 15

catoswyn

Original post by RMBx

Not to badmouth my referee or anything, but she was not my biggest fan, and I never saw my reference. Do you really think that could make a huge difference?

In short. Yes.

No one ever gets to see their reference as its confidential.

If you have to re-apply at any time then choose another referee. In fact insist on it. Your school has failed to give good advice all round. Do NOT blame yourself.... it is part of a school's job to get these things right and you were ill and could not finish sixth form. You're allowed a bit of righteous anger on this one!!!

But what is done is done and now you have to just wait and see and think of your next move if necessary. Lets hope an offer comes through soon though... your grades are fine!!!

:smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 16

RMBx

I just got an unconditional to Stirling University! So happy! :smile:

Reply 17

JackE5

Original post by RMBx

I just got an unconditional to Stirling University! So happy! :smile:

Really happy for you :biggrin:

I hope you enjoy uni :wink:

I hope one day I'll get to university... :rolleyes:

Reply 18

jido2011

Original post by RMBx

I just got an unconditional to Stirling University! So happy! :smile:

Great so glad to hear it, at least you do not have to worry anymore. :smile:

Reply 19

Ocarinaoftime

Original post by RMBx

The reason you received a rejection is because Aberdeen don't take, for example, two C's as one B so basically AABC - the two A's don't make up for the C. Even though AABC is very good, and I'd consider AABC better than BBBB because an A is harder to achieve. English literature is also very popular so they were not likely to make an exceptions. :/

Glasgow is a fairly prestigious uni and only people with what would be considered excellent grades will receive and offer, much like Edinburgh uni. They lay out their minimum entry requirements, but in reality most applicants will be predicted to achieve much higher (AAAA/AAAB) etc.

Strathclyde usually have 5 higher offers, like AABBC so it might be because you only have 4 Highers? I really don't know!

I don't know much about Edinburgh Napier but if you have the exact grades or over what they are asking I'd expect you to receive an offer.

This leaves Stirling, I didn't apply here because I want to get away from Stirling and experience somewhere else! The uni is really lovely though, the campus is especially aesthetic. Based on the fact that a lot of my friends went here and I know their grades, I think you'll get an offer.

Hold off a bit and wait for the uni's replies. I've heard stirling take a while to reply, maybe check out the Stirling and Napier applicants thread on the website and you'll get a good idea of the grades people have, and which subjects offers have been given out for. If worst comes to worst, you can apply for English Literature at another uni, through Extra?

If that doesn't work, I'd apply to college right now to do Highers for 2012/2013 as a back up because you need to apply for them now. Get a couple more Highers, different to what you already have and this will stand you in good stead for re-applying next year. :smile:

Did you mention the mental illness in your application, you definitely should have as that acts as a contextual factor for most places, they'll definitely take that into account. If you haven't email all the uni's and explain this to them.

Best of luck to ya. :smile: