I got A*AA for my A levels and was pushed straight into university. I went to 2 RG universities but dropped out when I realized that I didn't like university. I jacked in university completely and decided to do an engineering apprenticeship but while I am waiting to hear if I got in my dad convinced me to give university one more try. I looked at why I hated it last time and agreed.
Why I went last time:
Went to look smart
Went to make friends
Went to get lost in the world of research.
Now that I'm a couple of years older and fees are so expensive i am going purely to get a bachelors and then get a job i.e career plan. So my requirements now are that I want somewhere that's in London (not too far from Tottenham), somewhere that does clearing for this year and LSBU ticks all those boxes. Ive looked at City and Queen Mary university but they are more highly ranked so I doubt they do clearing for mech eng. Brunel, Kingston etc is too far.
So to summarize If in August bot Queen Mary and City university aren't in clearing for mech eng will saving a year of waiting and just going to South Bank university massively disadvantage me in my career? I don't care about rep so long as employers don't care.
PS even with A*AA I somehow don't have the grades for Imperial College. Done with super big name universities anyway.