[KatyCatAshley]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss my offer, so I'm being organised and making a spreadsheet of the universities I'm going to contact during clearing. Obviously an important part of this is the contact details. As such, I have two questions;

Do you think it would be better to contact by phone or email?

Is the correct place to contact the admissions office? Or will they open some sort of special phone line/email address on the day?

Thank you!

[TheSownRose]

(Original post by KatyCatAshley)
I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss my offer, so I'm being organised and making a spreadsheet of the universities I'm going to contact during clearing. Obviously an important part of this is the contact details. As such, I have two questions;

Do you think it would be better to contact by phone or email?

Is the correct place to contact the admissions office? Or will they open some sort of special phone line/email address on the day?

Thank you!

Phone. Always phone - there isn't time to go messing around with e-mails. So if you're not a phone person ... get over it.

Many universities set up a special Clearing/results day line, so wait until a bit closer to the time to see what their published number is. If they don't publish any official number, the admissions office is the one to phone or you can also do a general enquiries number because they'll be able to redirect you.


Well done on being organised, it'll save a lot of stress on results day.

[carnationlilyrose]

To add to what TSR (you see what she did there?) says, it's worth laying your hands on more than one phone and a couple of people (parents?) to help you man them. There's a lot of time spent hanging on to an engaged signal and ringing more than one place at a time might help, although it's going to be you that has to do the talking. Also, keep your batteries charged up! Nothing more frustrating than finally getting through after waiting for what seems (and may actually be) hours, only to have your phone die on you.

[Juno]

Just to be annoying, I got my place through Clearing entirely by email with no phoning required.

[TenOfThem]

(Original post by KatyCatAshley)
I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss my offer, so I'm being organised and making a spreadsheet of the universities I'm going to contact during clearing. Obviously an important part of this is the contact details. As such, I have two questions;

Do you think it would be better to contact by phone or email?

Is the correct place to contact the admissions office? Or will they open some sort of special phone line/email address on the day?

Thank you!

My experience goes to supporting students in this situation

Some universities seem to have people responding to email and others responding to phones

Whilst phoning gives the direct contact which always helps ... many students ime find that they cannot get through on the phone lines but can get an email response

Sometimes an email will then bring about a phone call from the university

So ... both sets of details will be useful

[TheSownRose]

(Original post by carnationlilyrose)
To add to what TSR (you see what she did there?) says, it's worth laying your hands on more than one phone and a couple of people (parents?) to help you man them. There's a lot of time spent hanging on to an engaged signal and ringing more than one place at a time might help, although it's going to be you that has to do the talking. Also, keep your batteries charged up! Nothing more frustrating than finally getting through after waiting for what seems (and may actually be) hours, only to have your phone die on you. Definitely no emails. Life's too short.

It was from a song. I only realised it means I also have the acronym 'TSR' after a few months.

I have heard people suggest that you gather friends and family of the same sex and get them to pretend to be you. However, I can just see that unravelling. "My UCAS number, you say? Is that the long one...?"

[carnationlilyrose]

(Original post by TheSownRose)
It was from a song. I only realised it means I also have the acronym 'TSR' after a few months.

I have heard people suggest that you gather friends and family of the same sex and get them to pretend to be you. However, I can just see that unravelling. "My UCAS number, you say? Is that the long one...?"

Yes, choose your friends wisely.... Your relatives, you're stuck with. I really meant get them to act as place holders and hand the phone over to you immediately a real person answers. Universities aren't impressed by parents doing the thing for you.

Yeah, my user name is from the picture in my sig, but most people assume it's from The Family From One End Street, whose characters are also named from the painting, iirc. I've never read it.