Help Needed :(

rename

Heya, I've only got 2 offers for English. :frown:

and i'm not sure wat to choose now. Southampton or Royal Holloway?
Everywhere else pretty much rejected me after i got rejected from oxford.
It went oxford rejection, warwick rejection, kings interview (then rejection) and i was hoping i would be able to get an interview with UCL but they rejected me 2 days ago ... which was one day after my bday (sucky!) ...
So I have no idea wat to do. I really wanted to go to kings or ucl .. and wen kings rejected me ... obviously UCL ... so i dont know now. Is there anything i can do? Are we allowed to appeal decisions? because i didnt mind being rejected by 2 .. or even 3 .. but now its 4 .. i'm wondering wat the hell happened.
Advice or Help anyone? :confused:

My predicted grades are AAA at A level.
I got ABBb at AS.
If tht'll help.

Did you put your AS grades on your UCAS form? Because that may have been it.

Basically, you need to find out everything you can about Southampton and Royal Holloway. Visit both and see if you think you'd be happy to go to either of them. Don't be too disheartened, because they're both good universities. I have a friend doing English at RHUL and he really likes it there. Check out the TSR subforums for both places because they usually contain quite a lot of information. I got rejected from Warwick last year, which was my first choice, but talking to people on the Bristol subforum here helped me become much more enthusiastic about going to Bristol, even though it wasn't my original plan.

If you don't think you want to go to either of those universities, it's not a problem. You just need to take a gap year and re-apply. If you decide to do that, the best thing to do is get as well-paid a job as you can find and then earn some money while you re-apply. I worked for the whole year in mine, but my cousin worked until January and then went travelling. You could do either. An unplanned gap year isn't really a big deal. Before I came to uni I hadn't realised quite how many people take a gap year (or two). Loads of people do. And there will be people who drop out of uni and start again, such as a girl on my floor who dropped out of Warwick last year and ended up coming here.

Probably the best thing to do is research both universities thoroughly anyway and accept one of your offers even if you think you'll re-apply, and then you can still go to uni this year if you change your mind in a few months' time. Your A-level year is very stressful, so it's probably best to avoid making any final decisions until your exams are over.

Don't worry, this happens to lots of people, especially for English. Just concentrate on getting the best grades you can, and then if you do decide to re-apply, you'll probably get more offers next time.

Reply 3

Clarence

14

I applied with **** AS Grades lol. BBCE with predictions of ABB....so im sure AS grades don't count!!

Reply 4

Tyler Durden

17

If you are actually going to get three As then it might be worth your while re-applying. Other than that I'd say Holloway out of the two of them.

Reply 5

Clarence

I applied with **** AS Grades lol. BBCE with predictions of ABB....so im sure AS grades don't count!!

That said, the universities you've got offers from are pretty similar to the ones the OP has offers from....

So it might make a difference. Trying to get Bs at AS level up to As at A-level is difficult, especially in more than one subject. Sure you can resit units, but then you could spend too much time concentrating on AS resits and neglect your A2s. Maybe the universities who rejected her didn't think she would achieve her predicted grades.

Reply 6

notsoperfect

susiemakemeblue

That said, the universities you've got offers from are pretty similar to the ones the OP has offers from....

what do you mean by her university offers being similar? like in standards of university?

to the original poster, maybe consider taking a year out and reapplying when you have your full grades. that way you can earn some money, maybe do some travelling/charity work etc and if your full a-levels go well then you may have more chance of getting into the university you really want to go to next year. that's what i'm doing, anyway.

Reply 7

notsoperfect

what do you mean by her university offers being similar? like in standards of university?

Yeah that's what I mean. They both have offers from RHUL and I think Leeds and Sheffield are in the same kind of league as Southampton. All good places anyway.

Reply 8

worldwide

the times has sheffield very high for english. I think it's an excellent course too, so i'd probably rank it higher than Leeds and certainly Southampton. In general though, regarding all subjects, all three are roughly equal, just i think that Sheffield is slightly ahead on Q300 and possible humanities as a whole. I know, for instance, that Southampton is excellent for medicine.

Reply 9

EnjoyingLife

the times has sheffield very high for english. I think it's an excellent course too, so i'd probably rank it higher than Leeds and certainly Southampton. In general though, regarding all subjects, all three are roughly equal, just i think that Sheffield is slightly ahead on Q300 and possible humanities as a whole. I know, for instance, that Southampton is excellent for medicine.

Maybe you're right, but I don't think there's all that much difference between them. Southampton is underrated anyway. I think it's because it's quite a small uni.

Reply 10

supercat

I don't know about its English, but Southampton as a uni is really nice; I went to visit my friend there and it was lovely. Royal Holloway, I've heard, is really good for English as well. Don't be downhearted! Visit, and then if you really don't like either, you can decline the offers and look at unis that are in Extra and try with that. If that fails, then there's clearing, and if you don't fancy any of them, take a gap year and reapply. There's so many options open to you I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

Good luck :smile:

Reply 11

rename

OP

thank you all for your advice ... i spoke to my english teacher/reference writer ... and about the fact tht a few of the top students in the year had been rejected from the london uni's they applied for ...
my teacher said it might be tht i applied for oxbridge .. and got rejected.
either way i'm going to go chat to my ucas co ordinator on monday and my teach will have a word with him. Maybe call up UCL and try and persaude them/ask them why they've rejected so many from our school, which i doubt will work somehow ... I'm thinking about clearing as a gap year is really not a good idea for me ... personally. If worst comes to worst then maybe.
Does anyone know how i can find out wat sort of courses come up for clearing? I mean there must be some general ones that i can think about just so i'm not totally stumped if i decide against SOTON and RH ... i duno yet though ... thanks again for your help.
if anyone knows wat sort of courses or a site where i can find more out about wat courses tend to be on clearing at which uni's plz do let me know.
thanks agen guys xXx

Reply 12

Elusive Moose

There are links to 2003 clearing lists in this thread. I don't know about getting hold of information for EXTRA, which would probably have more courses avaliable. Presumably you could browse through first, though, to see if there were any that interested you more than the offers you already have.

You never know though, you might visit SOTON and RH and fall in love with one of them :smile:

And even if none of that works out, a GAP year may be the best thing you ever do. I'm sure it'll all work out for you in the end :smile:

Reply 13

kateykat

Clarence

I applied with **** AS Grades lol. BBCE with predictions of ABB....so im sure AS grades don't count!!

Same here, hehe...ACDD at AS-level...eep! I'm predicted ABB too. For some reason universities seem to judge people by their predicted grades rather than their AS results. Hmm.

Reply 14

Elusive Moose

Probably because so many people don't really buckle down and work until A2s, after being scared by AS results. My boyfriend got CCCE at AS and ended up with AAA at A2. (Obviously they weren't his predicted grades, but it's a good thing universities can't have taken too much notice at his ASs!). Obviously his is a more extreme example, but he wasn't the only one who got significantly better A2 results than AS :smile:

Reply 15

mousey

I know it's hard (i was in your position last year) but getting four rejections when you apply to such competitive unis is perfectly normal even though it's hard to see it at the time. I doubt oxbridge had anything to do with it, the other unis wouldn't know you were rejected, even if they can guess that you applied.

Don't write off the universities you have offers from - go and visit them. Royal Holloway i think is lovely, if a little quiet but if nightlife is really important to you then Southampton would accommodate that. You could always accept an offer now then pull out when you get results (even though this isn't really allowed) if you feel like there are courses in clearing that you would like, or if you would like to reapply.

You may feel like Royal Hollway and Southampton are a bit beneath you after applying to Oxbridge and top London universities with an AAA prediction, but they're both good universities with interesting English courses and i wouldn't rule them out. If you do think that i suggest you get over it because it may cause you to have an unnecessary year out - what made you apply to those universities in the first place? Something must have attracted you. xx

Reply 16

I agree. Think seriously about Soton and RHUL. They're much better universities than any which are likely to come up in Clearing, or even Extra.

Your best chance of getting into a "better" university is to take a gap year, so if you're dead set against that, going to one of them would probably be your best bet.

Reply 17

rename

OP

mousey

I know it's hard (i was in your position last year) but getting four rejections when you apply to such competitive unis is perfectly normal even though it's hard to see it at the time. I doubt oxbridge had anything to do with it, the other unis wouldn't know you were rejected, even if they can guess that you applied.

Don't write off the universities you have offers from - go and visit them. Royal Holloway i think is lovely, if a little quiet but if nightlife is really important to you then Southampton would accommodate that. You could always accept an offer now then pull out when you get results (even though this isn't really allowed) if you feel like there are courses in clearing that you would like, or if you would like to reapply.

You may feel like Royal Hollway and Southampton are a bit beneath you after applying to Oxbridge and top London universities with an AAA prediction, but they're both good universities with interesting English courses and i wouldn't rule them out. If you do think that i suggest you get over it because it may cause you to have an unnecessary year out - what made you apply to those universities in the first place? Something must have attracted you. xx

Its not that they're beneath me its just tht i would have rather stayed in london... i don't know. I didn't actually think i'd get into oxbridge but i thought it was worth a try. And uni's can find out where else ur applying if they want to. Most uni's do know but i don't know if all check them... but even thought they're not meant to know .. its well known that they do know the other uni's u apply to. I guess i'll see wen i go to the open days... my ucas coordinator basically said go to southampton its the better out of the two ... and stuff like tht. I think i'll go speak to my reference writer again ... cuz he just confused me. thanks again to everyone. do you think a phone call to ucl might make any difference? is it at least worth a try..

Reply 18

mousey

You can try - but i don't think it will make a difference. But if you don't try you won't know. Getting a tutor to phone might be better than you phoning yourself.

If you wouldn't be happy at Southampton or RHUL then don't go to them.

I think it's a common myth that unis can find out if they want to. xx

Reply 19

supercat