Busting Some Popular Clearing Myths!

Clearing can seem like a bit of an unknown territory at times, especially if you didn't expect to have to enter it. But it's important to know that Clearing definitely has its perks - so let's bust some popular misconceptions about the Clearing process!

#1. Clearing is only for people who didn’t meet the conditions of their offer.
Nope. Whilst a lot of students do enter clearing on Results Day because they’ve fallen a grade or two short of their firm or insurance choice, the Clearing process isn’t limited to just those students. Often, students choose to enter Clearing for one of the following reasons:

- they’ve changed their mind on what or where they would like to study, and have used Self Release

- they’ve applied after 6pm on 30 June

- they didn't receive any offers

- they received offers that you decided not to accept

It’s important to remember that the couple of months in between sending off your UCAS application and sitting your exams can make you reconsider what subject/field you want to study at uni – especially if you felt rushed sending off your application in the first place. It’s not uncommon to see students switch from Psychology to Law, or Maths to Criminology – so if you feel like you might be in that boat, definitely take a look at the options available to you in Clearing! :smile:

#2. Clearing begins on A-Level Results Day.
A-Level Results is a BIG day for any university Clearing hotlines, but it by far not the only one. For most unis, Clearing is already open – so if you just decided you want to apply for 2023 courses now, or haven’t received an offer yet and want to see what’s still available, feel free to start looking now – the sooner the better!

#3. Clearing courses are just ‘reject’ courses.
Definitely not. Literally ANY course can come up in Clearing – it all depends on how many places the university has left to fill up, or how many students meet their offer on Results Day. Lots of highly employable STEM courses such as electrical engineering or biochemistry can be found in Clearing, alongside popular humanities subjects such as Economics and Law – so don’t think you can’t find something perfect for you if you end up entering Clearing!

#4. People will judge me for applying through Clearing.
In the nicest way possible: no one really cares! Clearing can seem like a big deal when you’re in it, or when you get to Results Day, but it never comes up at university and any supposed ‘stigma’ over Clearing is completely made up. Over 70,000 students went through Clearing in 2020, so you certainly won’t be the only one on your course or even in your friend group. :biggrin:

#5. If a university rejected me before, I can’t apply for it through Clearing.
Once again – nope! Even if a university didn't make you an offer orginally, if they’re still advertising places for your original course (or a different one!) in Clearing, you can apply just like everyone else. If you want to go to a certain university but didn’t make it in the first time, Clearing might be the best option for you, especially if they still have courses in a similar field available.

Hope this was helpful - has anyone gone through Clearing this year yet? How have you found it?

- Eve (Kingston Rep).

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 1

normaw

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by Kingston Reps

#5. If a university rejected me, I can’t apply for it through Clearing.
Once again – nope! Even if a university rejected you, if they’re still advertising places for your original course (or a different one!) in Clearing, you can apply just like everyone else. If you want to go to a certain university but didn’t make it in the first time, Clearing might be the best option for you, especially if they still have courses in a similar field available.

#5 is incorrect. If a student has been rejected by their firm and/or insurance unis, they cannot reapply for the same course through clearing. Unis receive results around a week prior to results day. If they decided to reject a student who had missed their grades, they are not going to reconsider them because they applied through clearing as they still have lower grades.

(edited 9 months ago)

OP

Original post by normaw

#5 is incorrect. If a student has been rejected by their firm and/or insurance unis, they cannot reapply for the same course through clearing. Unis receive results around a week prior to results day. If they decided to reject a student who had missed their grades, they are not going to reconsider them because they applied through clearing as they still have lower grades.

Hi!

Whilst yes, students are extremely unlikely to get into their firm/insurance choice that they've just missed out on by reapplying through Clearing, to my knowledge they can use Clearing to apply for the same course at a university they applied to originally and didn't get an offer from.

For example, if I applied to a course in Edinburgh using my initial five UCAS choices and wasn't made an offer, if I saw that same course in Clearing several months later, I could still apply to that course despite not being made an offer originally. This is a common occurence in arts-based courses, where admission is more portfolio-based than grades-based, and students who didn't recieve an offer in the first round may make it on the course through Clearing.

I've edited my post to be clearer on this point - thank you for pointing it out!

- Eve.

Reply 3

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

For arts based courses if an applicant was rejected due to their portfolio in the main cycle then that decision isn’t likely to change in clearing. The exception would be if an applicant has substantially improved their portfolio but unfortunately having dealt with these sorts of applications what we generally get when we give applicants the opportunity to resubmit their portfolio is an almost identical portfolio resubmitted instead of them using their time to produce additional work or improve the curation/presentation of their work to better meet the requirements.

OP

Original post by PQ

For arts based courses if an applicant was rejected due to their portfolio in the main cycle then that decision isn’t likely to change in clearing. The exception would be if an applicant has substantially improved their portfolio but unfortunately having dealt with these sorts of applications what we generally get when we give applicants the opportunity to resubmit their portfolio is an almost identical portfolio resubmitted instead of them using their time to produce additional work or improve the curation/presentation of their work to better meet the requirements.

That's some really good advice to have - you'd think people would have the sense to update the rejected portfolio, but I guess not! I know one or two people on my course who were rejected the first time but later made it through Clearing, but they must be more of an exception than the rule and must have actually updated their portfolios to include more recent, varied work.

#5 focused more on the ability to reapply to unis that rejected you in the original run, but as you said for arts based courses, without some evidence of substantial improvement in either skills/curation, it's fairly unlikely they'll reconsider.

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 5

swanseajack1

19

Original post by Kingston Reps

That's some really good advice to have - you'd think people would have the sense to update the rejected portfolio, but I guess not! I know one or two people on my course who were rejected the first time but later made it through Clearing, but they must be more of an exception than the rule and must have actually updated their portfolios to include more recent, varied work.

#5 focused more on the ability to reapply to unis that rejected you in the original run, but as you said for arts based courses, without some evidence of substantial improvement in either skills/curation, it's fairly unlikely they'll reconsider.

The reality is that if you are rejected in the original run it is highly unlikely you will be accepted by that university in clearing.

Other than the top 10 or so universities rejection rates are very low other than things like medicine. Most of the top universities either wont be in clearing or have very few courses available and these would normally be their least popular ones.

Most rejections wont be because of grades. It will be because of wrong subjects taken or not meeting GCSE requirements and this wont change in clearing. Those that were because of predicted grades would be where a university felt they were able to easily achieve their places. The evidence shows the vast majority of students dont reach their predicted grades and a very small amount exceed them. The university will have had the option of making an offer and rejecting you on results day if you dont meet them but they have rejected that.

It is highly unlikely anyone rejected will get in through clearing other than universities who are desperate to fill spaces.

Busting Some Popular Clearing Myths!

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you