Dropping out and reapplying

Hey everyone,

I'm currently a student at Loughborough University studying Transport and Business Management. Last year I experienced doubts about my course, though I persuaded myself to stick to it into my second year. Over the past week or so I've really become extremely depressed regarding my course and I've been looking at doing Geography (a subject I've always enjoyed) at other universities.

To be clear, I have found the teaching at Loughborough excellent, and the uni itself is very good, though I feel a little isolated, despite making several friends for life here. I do not enjoy my course at all, so I feel transferring to a different university to do Geography would be much more fulfilling and hopefully lead to better prospects once I graduate.

So tonight, I started off my UCAS application (I know I've left it right until the last minute) and I've scheduled an interview with my tutor for tomorrow to discuss my decision. I have a few quick questions and I hope you guys wouldn't mind answering these for me if you can:

1) Does my current personal tutor at uni have to be my referee for my UCAS application?

2) Does this affect student finance in any way? Like, would I still be eligible to apply for student finance for my new course?

3) Can I still stay at university whilst the UCAS application is going through? Or would I have to drop-out.

By the way, I'm applying to Sussex, Edinburgh, Hull and Queen Mary to do Geography, do I need to contact these universities or just apply through UCAS as per?

Thanks for your help guys.

Shane

Reply 1

Illmatic511

Firstly, I will say make sure that you have looked at the Geography courses in detail and make sure that you will enjoy studying it because you don't want to have to drop out again or change courses. With regards to student finance, i think because your already into the second year I don't know if you will have enough loan to cover another 3 year course - hopefully someone knows for certain though. Why don't you want to do Geography at Loughborough? and out of curiosity, by dropping out how much do you stand to lose money wise?

To try and help you out, what grades do you have (gcse and a level) because although Edinburgh say BBB I applied with ABB and I didn't get in and I know many with straight A's didn't get in. Maybe give it some though as you don't want to waste a choice.

Reply 2

gilbo

1) Does my current personal tutor at uni have to be my referee for my UCAS application?
No if you apply as an individual your reference can be written by anyone who knows you well for a period of years

2) Does this affect student finance in any way? Like, would I still be eligible to apply for student finance for my new course?
Your LEA will provide you with loan for the duration of your first chosen course + one year.
e.g if you are doing a 3 year BSc right now, you qualify for 4 years of loan. So if you do another 3 year course you will have to fund yourself for one of the years

3) Can I still stay at university whilst the UCAS application is going through? Or would I have to drop-out.
There is no reason why you cannot finish your year apart from it being completely pointless and you have to pay your second installment of tuition fee.

This is all information from 08/09 when I dropped out in my second year this time last year.

Reply 3

89sr11

Thanks for the responses.

I've looked into detail at the geography courses, specifically at Sussex and Queen Mary as these are the places I would most like to go. The reason for not doing Geography at Loughborough is solely for the reason that if I want to do a whole new course, I may as well do it somewhere else because Loughborough isn't an especially great place to be honest. The uni is nice, the town isn't though. My housemates and friends are all on placement next year so they won't be here, I may as well start anew.

I am considering what you said about Edinburgh though, to be honest I wouldn't really like to go to university in Scotland anyway, I just really liked the course at Edinburgh. Though looking at it, with student finance only being able to pay for 2 years towards my degree, and with the course at Edinburgh at 4 years I don't think I could afford it anyway, and I only got BBB.

By dropping out, I'll lose about £10,000 I think. Which sounds like an awful lot I know, though it'll be worth it once I'm doing a course that I have a genuine interest in.

I've spoken to my mum about it (standard) and she told me that she'll support me no matter what I choose to decide. I think I've already decided. The only thing that worries me is what to do if I don't get any offers from the university and I've already dropped out? That's why I'd like to stay in the meantime, though if that means paying my next half of the tuition fees, I doubt I'd stay.

Reply 4

nessargh

erm the deadline for ucas applications was the 15th Jan?
You've missed the deadline

Reply 5

amh

The deadline for ucas was extended this year because of the snow and schools and colleges being closed. Not sure till when though as it was my sister who got the email.

Reply 6

89sr11

It's been extended to the 22nd January I believe. Something to do with the snow.

Reply 7

Kittykatkat

nessargh

erm the deadline for ucas applications was the 15th Jan?
You've missed the deadline

Deadline was extended till the 22nd.

I dropped out after two years of uni (at a place I loved) to do a course which I think is more suited to me. If you drop out now you can raise some funds for going back to uni. And if you hate your course so much that you're leaving why would you want to stay until June?

Oh, and as someone up there said, Edinburgh is a wasted UCAS space. If you want to go to Scotland go to Glasgow or Aberdeen.

Reply 8

ben1990

1) no anyone can do you reference when you reapply...i got my old college lecturers to do it.

2) most students only get 4 years of finance dont they?? correct me if im wrong but thats what ive been told.

3) no idea.

Reply 9

Gardocki

If you do it in Scotland, as long as you hand in the form before the 30th of November in your first year they just write it off as you never went there in the first place. You don't lose any of the funding that SAAS provide and you're free to reapply whenever you want. That's what I'm doing at the minute and I've already reapplied to UCAS with my reference written by an old teacher I went up to visit.

Reply 10

Tombola

89sr11

It's been extended to the 22nd January I believe. Something to do with the snow.

The deadline is 22nd January for equal consideration.

It's possible to apply afterwards though if you don't manage, it's just you won't get equal consideration. I applied 4-5 months after the January deadline. It's like August 30th is the absolute final deadline for 10 application, granted, most universities have already given away all their places by then.

See if you can transfer to another university, rather than going through UCAS process as it saves on Grants and stuff.

Reply 11

89sr11

Would I be able to transfer onto a totally different degree at another university though?
I thought it was only possible if you were on a similar sort of course?

Reply 12

Otter71

89sr11

Would I be able to transfer onto a totally different degree at another university though?
I thought it was only possible if you were on a similar sort of course?

Depends if they think there's any element of similarity in the first year (you may be surprised) - I did chemical engineering 20 years ago, am now doing nursing and was quite shocked when I recently was asked if anyone knew about a particular law. I was the only one who did but kindof assumed that they must be talking something else. Never really thought that flow through pipework on a chemical plant would follow the same rules as blood flow through the body... Some courses also have a kindof common or free element in their points. :o: