What should I do?

I have an offer to study Computing BEng at Imperial provided I meet A*AAA in Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Computer Science and I also have to get a grade 2 in STEP II. The A level shouldn't be too problematic 🤞but I'm really worried about the STEP. I've been trying to lock in for the past couple of months and I'm making some decent progress but it's been on and off in terms of how often I've been hitting what I need to hit. If I don't meet my offer for the STEP and I get rejected, I'm not going to apply through Clearing for any courses because there aren't any universities that are of interest to me after looking at previous year's places up for grabs. I have an insurance choice in Manchester/Edinburgh but I don't feel like going to either of those places so my plan would be to reapply for two reasons:

1) I really want to go Imperial.

2) I would get a second chance to go for Cambridge after the unprecedented and unfortunate series of unlucky events that lead to me getting rejected pre-interview. Saw the wrong end timing in the admissions test, slowed down the rate I was working at, ran out of time as I was transferring my answers to my answer sheet from the question paper where I had finished and answered every question and I only managed to transfer half of the questions onto my answer sheet for the first paper. The second paper is always the one where I performed a bit worse so I knew that I was going to be rejected.

If I do end up getting rejected from both Cambridge and Imperial, that's fine by me and at that point, I'll go for any other university I have an offer from but I want to get a fair shot at it.

The problem is my parents aren't supporting me taking a gap year. They don't want me in the house next year, taking a gap year, and would rather me be at university. I hope that I meet the requirements but if worst comes to worst and I don't, what should I do?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Reply 1

ageshallnot

Original post by vnayak

I have an offer to study Computing BEng at Imperial provided I meet A*AAA in Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Computer Science and I also have to get a grade 2 in STEP II. The A level shouldn't be too problematic 🤞but I'm really worried about the STEP. I've been trying to lock in for the past couple of months and I'm making some decent progress but it's been on and off in terms of how often I've been hitting what I need to hit. If I don't meet my offer for the STEP and I get rejected, I'm not going to apply through Clearing for any courses because there aren't any universities that are of interest to me after looking at previous year's places up for grabs. I have an insurance choice in Manchester/Edinburgh but I don't feel like going to either of those places so my plan would be to reapply for two reasons:
1) I really want to go Imperial.
2) I would get a second chance to go for Cambridge after the unprecedented and unfortunate series of unlucky events that lead to me getting rejected pre-interview. Saw the wrong end timing in the admissions test, slowed down the rate I was working at, ran out of time as I was transferring my answers to my answer sheet from the question paper where I had finished and answered every question and I only managed to transfer half of the questions onto my answer sheet for the first paper. The second paper is always the one where I performed a bit worse so I knew that I was going to be rejected.
If I do end up getting rejected from both Cambridge and Imperial, that's fine by me and at that point, I'll go for any other university I have an offer from but I want to get a fair shot at it.
The problem is my parents aren't supporting me taking a gap year. They don't want me in the house next year, taking a gap year, and would rather me be at university. I hope that I meet the requirements but if worst comes to worst and I don't, what should I do?
Any advice is much appreciated.

Why are your parents so unsupportive?

Get a job and move out?

Reply 2

username5443984

Original post by ageshallnot

Why are your parents so unsupportive?
Get a job and move out?

My parents are generally very supportive of me and have said that they will cover costs at university but they've been quite staunch on the fact that I can't take a gap year. It might be to make me work harder (and if it's the case, it's deffo working) but they seem quite serious about not taking a gap year.

Where do I go if I do choose to move out? I wouldn't know where to go. As for a job, I already have a couple of jobs so employment isn't a problem (though I could potentially move jobs and increase earning potential when I turn 18).