Successful Transfer Between Russell Group Universities After Completing First Year.

Hello!
I'm happy for you that you were able to find a solution to this problem!
I am having a similar problem whereby I am going to a uni which is barely in the top 40 due to getting CCC. I applied to University of Birmingham through A2B and the offer was BBC so I missed the requirements by two grades. With your experience going through this, do you think I would be able to transfer into UoB if I get 2:1 or 1:1?

Hi! Thank you I'm happy I found one too!
I'm guessing that A2B is some sort of access scheme so would assume that your offer of BBC is a contextual one. In this case I am not sure that they would be so lenient if you were two grades off. Also the content covered in the first years of the two unis may be at different levels.

However, if I've learnt anything its that if you want something really bad then just try and bend the rules as much as possible until you get there. Maybe try and ring Birmingham pretending to be a student who has just finished their first year at the uni you're going to with a high 2:1 but say that you would like to know if you could transfer into year 2 at Birmingham or even start again at first year. It's a bit late to transfer into this cycle so maybe pretend that you're taking an year out and would like to transfer into the 2018 cycle.

If they give you a straight no then it's probably a no but if they can't give you a straight answer then it's definitely worth a shot!

Hope it all works out!

Thought I'd make a post on here about how I managed to transfer between two Russell Group universities after completing my end of first year examinations.

At around this time last year, I received my A-Level results and was disappointed to see that I had achieved AAB instead of the AAA required for my firm choice. After being left on hold for a day, my firm finally contacted me to tell me that I could not be accepted onto the course that year. At first I was devastated and was adamant that I was going to take a year out and retake that one exam in order to get the three A's required for my course. However, due to changing circumstances at home combined with the fact that the firm university at that point in time could not give me an offer for the next year's cycle then and there, as well as the fact that I was mentally prepared to start university, I decided to go to my insurance university (after some persuading).

I was reluctant to start at the insurance uni as in my mind I still saw myself at the uni that I actually wanted to go to and was worried that this mind set would not change through 4 years at my insurance choice. Despite this, I went on to really enjoy the first semester socially and academically and was sure that I could be as happy here instead.

However, after spending the Christmas break with my friends and having nothing but exams to look forward to at the start of second semester, the idea of going back made me really depressed and this mindset never really improved even after exams had finished. I realised that I had no real connection to the city and began to distance myself from the friends that I'd made as I felt that I wasn't making the connections that I had wanted to. I basically went away every weekend to another friends uni and even spent a week with a friend in Holland to get away from my reality - the reality being that I still wanted to be at the university that I had originally applied to and that my fears about feeling this way were all coming true.

At first I didn't act on this feeling and let it eat me up whilst I isolated myself from the people around me causing second and third semester to be really depressing (when I was actually there). I also began to stop turning up to lectures as I was too depressed to get out of bed before about 2pm and too anxious to go to sleep til 4am - really healthy!!! After visiting a friend that goes to the university I wanted to be at, I decided that I would try one more time to get in so decided to put my head down for exams and achieve a good result that would better my application to transfer.

After I finished my exams, I then contacted the admissions tutor at the other uni and began the most arduous process of my entire life that culminated in an offer to transfer into Year 2 of the course I had originally applied for at the uni I wanted to be at!

I decided to make this post as student room was one of the first places I came to when I had made the decision to transfer universities. The threads I was reading were often really negative and rarely involved Russell Group unis so didn't apply to me. I hope that my experience proves that anything is possible if you want it that much and that you should always listen to your gut!

As a take home message - despite the uni making it clear on their website that they do not accept second year transfers for my course (especially for those that still haven't achieved the original entry requirements), I never lost the determination to get to where I wanted to be and managed to successfully transfer!