The Student Room Group

Did you go through Clearing to get a uni place last year?

Hey! I’m Evan. I’m a content producer for TSR and The Uni Guide. I’m writing an article about Clearing and I’m interested to hear from people who went through Clearing last year, to give this year's applicants an idea of what to expect.

I’d like to know what the experience was like, good or bad. Anything you want to share would be helpful.

What led to you applying through Clearing? Was it unexpected, or part of your plan?

Did you do any preparation for Clearing before results day?

What was your experience of phoning universities? Did it go well?

Did you end up on a course that you’re happy with?

What advice would you give to Clearing applicants this year?

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Reply 1
Hey, I went through clearing last year!

My entire plan was built around my firm university. I utterly loved it! I'd been for a summer school, an open day, applied for my accommodation, wrote an essay to get my hardship scholarship and I had my heart set on it. So much so that I didn't even think much about my insurance. There was no way I couldn't get in with the grades I'd been getting recently (and the extenuating circumstances marks I'd be given). I literally had no clearing plan. The grades fiasco meant I went from a BBB (with a scholarship) to CEE and nowhere to go. I couldn't wait another year because everything was so uncertain, and I didn't have the time! I'd wanted to do a placement year in my degree and was paranoid about being left behind while all my friends had fun. It was also utterly embarrassing to have to leave my uni groupchats! I'd made so many friends and we'd all planned to meet up together and followed eachother's social media, only to have to leave everything behind because some of us just weren't "good enough".

Panic set in and I resigned myself to a foundation year for a course I definitely hadn't wanted to do that was only mildly related to my subject (e.g. doing Chemical engineering instead of Chemistry). I'd given up for a few days but eventually, I decided my best bet would be to apply to as many places as possible (universities have 'online' clearing applications where you can apply and they get in touch with you before you put them down as a clearing choice).
Phoning up universities and telling them my grades was the hardest part. I'd phone up universities with a CCC grade requirement and still get turned down and it felt humiliating.

What I noticed was that some of the universities were very big fans of my Personal Statement and offered flexible grade boundaries for extenuating circumstances (I was a young carer and I'd had a tumour removed (funnily enough, those were some of the reasons my teachers downgraded me)). In the end, I got an offer from a university that was roughly in the top 20 ranking for my subject because they'd loved my personal statement and saw my GCSE's were vastly different (5 A*'s and 6 A's) to my A levels. I ended up doing the course I'd initially planned to do, although my plans have been completely different!

My advice for clearing this year is to keep going! I don't even think I confirmed my university place until a week after results day because I'd panicked and didn't want to admit I'd failed by going into clearing. But really, there wasn't much to be scared of at all :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by e.lma
Hey, I went through clearing last year!

My entire plan was built around my firm university. I utterly loved it! I'd been for a summer school, an open day, applied for my accommodation, wrote an essay to get my hardship scholarship and I had my heart set on it. So much so that I didn't even think much about my insurance. There was no way I couldn't get in with the grades I'd been getting recently (and the extenuating circumstances marks I'd be given). I literally had no clearing plan. The grades fiasco meant I went from a BBB (with a scholarship) to CEE and nowhere to go. I couldn't wait another year because everything was so uncertain, and I didn't have the time! I'd wanted to do a placement year in my degree and was paranoid about being left behind while all my friends had fun. It was also utterly embarrassing to have to leave my uni groupchats! I'd made so many friends and we'd all planned to meet up together and followed eachother's social media, only to have to leave everything behind because some of us just weren't "good enough".

Panic set in and I resigned myself to a foundation year for a course I definitely hadn't wanted to do that was only mildly related to my subject (e.g. doing Chemical engineering instead of Chemistry). I'd given up for a few days but eventually, I decided my best bet would be to apply to as many places as possible (universities have 'online' clearing applications where you can apply and they get in touch with you before you put them down as a clearing choice).
Phoning up universities and telling them my grades was the hardest part. I'd phone up universities with a CCC grade requirement and still get turned down and it felt humiliating.

What I noticed was that some of the universities were very big fans of my Personal Statement and offered flexible grade boundaries for extenuating circumstances (I was a young carer and I'd had a tumour removed (funnily enough, those were some of the reasons my teachers downgraded me)). In the end, I got an offer from a university that was roughly in the top 20 ranking for my subject because they'd loved my personal statement and saw my GCSE's were vastly different (5 A*'s and 6 A's) to my A levels. I ended up doing the course I'd initially planned to do, although my plans have been completely different!

My advice for clearing this year is to keep going! I don't even think I confirmed my university place until a week after results day because I'd panicked and didn't want to admit I'd failed by going into clearing. But really, there wasn't much to be scared of at all :smile:

Did you have an insurance choice?and if yes did you reject that before going into clearing and how?Thanks
(edited 2 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Koreeda
Hey! I’m Evan. I’m a content producer for TSR and The Uni Guide. I’m writing an article about Clearing and I’m interested to hear from people who went through Clearing last year, to give this year's applicants an idea of what to expect.

I’d like to know what the experience was like, good or bad. Anything you want to share would be helpful.

What led to you applying through Clearing? Was it unexpected, or part of your plan?

Did you do any preparation for Clearing before results day?

What was your experience of phoning universities? Did it go well?

Did you end up on a course that you’re happy with?

What advice would you give to Clearing applicants this year?

Yes, I went through clearing, and my advice would be to prepare. I had no prepared myself fully - I thought I'd take another year out. But, there was lots of courses available ranging from accounting to pharmacy. So a real blend, don't shy away from it - especially if you missed an offer. It was unexpected for me - but i'm glad I went through with it.
Reply 4
Original post by MKaur18
Yes, I went through clearing, and my advice would be to prepare. I had no prepared myself fully - I thought I'd take another year out. But, there was lots of courses available ranging from accounting to pharmacy. So a real blend, don't shy away from it - especially if you missed an offer. It was unexpected for me - but i'm glad I went through with it.

Where can you find the courses that are in clearing please?
Reply 5
Original post by Leemx
Where can you find the courses that are in clearing please?

I think, clearing will open in June/July? Not too sure about this year. So you'll need to wait till then - it'll be available on ucas - i remember emails were sent out in the run up to it opening
Original post by Leemx
Where can you find the courses that are in clearing please?

Universities will advertise them on their websites and you can apply after you get your results.

If you already have your results you can apply now to new unis via UCAS Extra.
Final question you should be asking is :

How long did you stay at that Uni / did you drop out in the first few weeks.
Reply 8
Hi,
I got my now current university place last year through clearing. I absolutely was not expecting to ever miss my firm (although it was high at A*AA for physics) not to talk of my insurance choice which had reasonably lower requirement i comparison. To put it simply, i (temporary) missed the grades and landed straight B's. I was really p*ssed off at that and had no doubt in my mind i couldve surely achieved my requirement because my firm was where my heart was - i realllyyy reallyy wanted to go there and no where else my insurance was just there for fun really so having my insurance say no was extremely disheartening for me i really wanted to just kms that morning of results day.
I ended up going to my college that morning to express how p*ssed off i was because surely i had performed much better than that and they calmed me down and basically said there was nothing they could do because of ongoing fiasco and the careers staff managed to convince me that there are other opportunities out there for the same course so we looked together and found the top unis for my course that i might like and called them up one by one and i managed to get maybe like 5 offers via phone call that day and like 1 or 2 more later [after like 2days i finally reached my insurance they were rude as hell and i didnt want to go anyways]
i went on an open day maybe a week later to ensure it was the place for me and loved it, added them as my clearing choice on UCAS, they confirmed that i do have an offer with them MSC Physics, it was all sorted and here we are.
Other than my insurance all the unis i spoke to were nice, they asked for grades had a discussion with me &my colleges career staff who was putting in a good word for me onbehalf of my teachers and it wasnt such a bad experience at all other than me being really madddd for not achieving the grades i know i worked hard for.
If i were to give advice, id say theres really no need to think about clearing especially if theres a place(s) you wish to go and if things dont work out, get the phone first thing in the morning and start reaching out to unis that may be able to offer you the same course starting with the ones closest in educational excellence to your firm and reallyyy argue your case. Dont beat yourself up though because it may be very heartbreaking, life happens sometimes and you can end up happier or in better place
Reply 9
Can I enter Clearing at the same uni and course since some lower their UCAS points?
Original post by crixina
Can I enter Clearing at the same uni and course since some lower their UCAS points?

The unis you have applied to will have considered your application before anyone in Clearing so No, if they have rejected you knowing your grades, they won't then accept people in Clearing with the same grades. If they are lowering their UCAS points, they will firstly offer places to the people who applied to them but narrowly missed the original offer.
Reply 11
Original post by harrysbar
The unis you have applied to will have considered your application before anyone in Clearing so No, if they have rejected you knowing your grades, they won't then accept people in Clearing with the same grades. If they are lowering their UCAS points, they will firstly offer places to the people who applied to them but narrowly missed the original offer.

Just concerned cause the entry requirement is AAB and I might get BBB :frown:
Reply 12
Original post by harrysbar
The unis you have applied to will have considered your application before anyone in Clearing so No, if they have rejected you knowing your grades, they won't then accept people in Clearing with the same grades. If they are lowering their UCAS points, they will firstly offer places to the people who applied to them but narrowly missed the original offer.

And I saw City Uni Clearing page of last year lowering points well below B ...
Reply 13
'If they are lowering their UCAS points, they will firstly offer places to the people who applied to them but narrowly missed the original offer." <3 Fingers crossed and thank you!
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by crixina
Just concerned cause the entry requirement is AAB and I might get BBB :frown:

Well if they are offering BBB in Clearing they will accept you with BBB.

Do you have an Insurance choice at all?
Reply 15
Original post by harrysbar
Well if they are offering BBB in Clearing they will accept you with BBB.

Do you have an Insurance choice at all?

I might reject that..
Original post by crixina
I might reject that..

Well Good Luck with City, there will be lots of options in Clearing I'm sure but hopefully you won't need them.
Reply 17
Original post by harrysbar
Well Good Luck with City, there will be lots of options in Clearing I'm sure but hopefully you won't need them.

Thank you
do any courses not in extra get added into clearing or does it really just depend on how many spaces are available? so in that case are unis added on results day that weren't previously there when clearing first opened? I've seen many say almost every uni is on clearing, but when looking at the UCAS website now that isn't the case, but it obviously depends on the course
Original post by lilacprague
do any courses not in extra get added into clearing or does it really just depend on how many spaces are available? so in that case are unis added on results day that weren't previously there when clearing first opened? I've seen many say almost every uni is on clearing, but when looking at the UCAS website now that isn't the case, but it obviously depends on the course

Extra unis and courses get added on results day or shortly before when they know how many people have met their offer requirements and how many haven't

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