The Student Room Group

My options after not being accepted to the university

Hello!
I graduated from high school in Estonia (russian national this year, next year will get estonian citizenship) this year and applied to study Biological Sciences in the University of Edinburgh. I got an offer (85/100 in biology, mathematics and a random subject in national examination + successful language test). I completed everything but only got 84 in biology, e-mailed the university a print screen of my TOEFL result (16.07) and scanned in my paper copy as soon as I received it (23.07). But it turned out that 17.07 my application was marked as unsuccessful. I was sure I would get accepted to Edinburgh so I put my insurance choice more or less randomly, to get there I had to have grade 5 in chemistry, which I don't have.
As I am not from the UK I don't know much about my options - what can I do now? These are the options I've currently heard about:
1) Apply for A-levels programme in the UK - not sure which place would be good for that and if it's a good idea
2) Apply for the foundation programme, for example in the Bellerbys College - at Bellerbys it will cost 20000 pounds for a year + housing - rather expensive
3) Try to get a place in a university through clearing - not sure how good option is that
4) Start my 1st year in the University of Tartu in Estonia and apply to UK universities again through UCAS for the next year
5) Start my 1st year in Tartu and try to transfer to a Top 20? UK university next year
6) Study in Tartu for 3 years to get my BA and then try to apply for masters in a Top 20? university in the UK - I have no idea how easy or hard is it to get accepted to UK masters with Estonian BA.

Here, in Estonia, BA is not really important, only Masters degree has some kind of value, we take masters straight after bachelors (3+2 years). But I've been told today that the British get their Bachelors degree, then work, get experience and money and only after couple of years apply for Masters programme. I was also told that the british universities don't like TOEFL scores as much and I should take IELTS next year though I already have gotten a great result in TOEFL, is it true?

Are there any options that I'm currently unaware of? What do you think I should do? Is the statement about the british not taking masters straight after bachelors true?
All help will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance!
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by memeansip
Hello!
I graduated from high school in Estonia (russian national this year, next year will get estonian citizenship) this year and applied to study Biological Sciences in the University of Edinburgh. I got an offer (85/100 in biology, mathematics and a random subject in national examination + successful language test). I completed everything but only got 84 in biology, e-mailed the university a print screen of my TOEFL result (16.07) and scanned in my paper copy as soon as I received it (23.07). But it turned out that 17.07 my application was marked as unsuccessful. I was sure I would get accepted to Edinburgh so I put my insurance choice more or less randomly, to get there I had to have grade 5 in chemistry, which I don't have.
As I am not from the UK I don't know much about my options - what can I do now? These are the options I've currently heard about:
1) Apply for A-levels programme in the UK - not sure which place would be good for that and if it's a good idea
2) Apply for the foundation programme, for example in the Bellerbys College - at Bellerbys it will cost 20000 pounds for a year + housing - rather expensive
3) Try to get a place in a university through clearing - not sure how good option is that
4) Start my 1st year in the University of Tartu in Estonia and apply to UK universities again through UCAS for the next year
5) Start my 1st year in Tartu and try to transfer to a Top 20? UK university next year
6) Study in Tartu for 3 years to get my BA and then try to apply for masters in a Top 20? university in the UK - I have no idea how easy or hard is it to get accepted to UK masters with Estonian BA.

Here, in Estonia, BA is not really important, only Masters degree has some kind of value, we take masters straight after bachelors (3+2 years). But I've been told today that the British get their Bachelors degree, then work, get experience and money and only after couple of years apply for Masters programme. I was also told that the british universities don't like TOEFL scores as much and I should take IELTS next year though I already have gotten a great result in TOEFL, is it true?

Are there any options that I'm currently unaware of? What do you think I should do? Is the statement about the british not taking masters straight after bachelors true?
All help will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance!


You could take a gap year, work and earn some money whilst at the same time reapplying to university with the time to look at them again so you could find another uni you liked.

And as far as British Masters go, many UK students can't afford to do one at all. Here a BA with some work experience is usually enough to get a job whilst an MA can cost £3000-£30,000 of a students own money as there is no government help and only limited university bursaries
Reply 2
Just go for clearing procedure and look a place for yourself within the TOP 20 UNI. Dont stick with old rankings though. Forexample, University of Kent just made the 20th University in Guardian Rankings and it is just 1 point below of Edinburgh(which suprisingly has the 19th place.)
Reply 3
Look in clearing you never know what might happen. However don't be surprised if many do not know what your Estonian grades are straight way most will need to research it.
Also top 20 uni? sometimes the top uni's are not the best due to the fact they are high up in the rankings due to research not due to how good they are for the students. i would go for top 50.
Some UK students do go straight into a masters after a BSc which I am doing. But it is not loads... yet.

Quick Reply