The Student Room Group

Redoing A-Levels and then returning to uni?

Hi, I could do with some opinions on my thoughts. So quick background info: was very bright at school, began falling in with the wrong crowd and my study and grades suffered because of it. Ended with GCSE's far lower than I was capable of. Went to college (moved away from that group of people) swapped and changed A Levels way too many times, and ended up with a Level 3 BTEC in IT. Then went to university to study Software Engineering in which I got to the end of the 2nd year but decided to leave due to personal reasons.

So I have been living at home since then, and I have really been regretting my decisions to do the BTEC as it wasn't really what I wanted to do. Because I had changed around so much I felt pressured into picking the right course this time, and my thinking was 'I can use computers I'll study that', when I had no interest in doing that before.

So I've been thinking that I'd like to go back to college, study some more traditional A-Levels and pursue something that I actually want to do at university, and as a career. The problem with this is that I have already used 2 years of student finance, so I would have to independently finance the final year, which will not be easy, but not impossible. What are your opinions on this?

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks.
Your story sounds depressingly familiar to mine, even down to the BTEC in IT!

First things first, as your correctly pointed out, you have already used up two years of funding, so will only be entitled to an additional two years of funding - 3 + 1 - 2 = 2

I have read that if you need to repeat a year due to 'compelling personal circumstances, and you have already used up your gift year, student finance may provide additional funding, but I believe this may only apply to students that are currently engaged in a course of study, so I don't know if it was even worth mentioning that...

Here's a link to a page from the University of Westminster providing further details on this process anyway - http://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/fees-and-funding/undergraduate-students/funding-for-repeat-years

so, let's assume you do have to self-fund a year's worth of tuition fees and living costs, here are some things you may need to consider -


•

Can you gather enough savings together (and this is usually done via a job) to cover your expenses for the year of study that you will need to self-fund?

•

Do you have to resit A-Levels? Or would you be able to get on to a degree programme of your choice by obtaining an Access to Higher Education Diploma?

•

Would you be able to enter a job sector you are interested in and make progress within that sector via alternative qualifications (or by simply starting at the bottom and working your way up) as opposed to going down the degree route?



You haven't specified what kind of career path you are aiming for, so I don't know if the last point is a valid one, but anyways, those are a few things to consider.

Sounds like you slipped through the educational cracks (like me!) and tried to take a route that you didn't necessarily feel was the right one. It happens though - we are human after all, complex organisms trying to make our way through a complex world.

Hopefully some more advice should be forthcoming from other members of this forum. Hope my reply was helpful in some way though.
(edited 9 years ago)
How old are you?

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