Starting an Access to Higher Education course late

I just discovered that my best option into uni after failing my A Levels is an Access to HE course, seeing that it is now October and colleges started a month ago, would colleges still be happy to accept students or not?

Reply 1

KazStudies

7

Original post by ThrowawayRandom

I just discovered that my best option into uni after failing my A Levels is an Access to HE course, seeing that it is now October and colleges started a month ago, would colleges still be happy to accept students or not?

You might be too late for this year but I would contact the college and ask as they do accept late starters but there is a cut off point as the course is very intense.

Original post by ThrowawayRandom

I just discovered that my best option into uni after failing my A Levels is an Access to HE course, seeing that it is now October and colleges started a month ago, would colleges still be happy to accept students or not?

@ThrowawayRandom
Hello! I've worked in an FE college teaching Access for over 10 years, we had a late enroller who started last week. To increase your chances of getting on Access, I would email the college asking if its too late to enrol and send them a draft of a UCAS personal statement for Uni progression to show your commitment to the subject area. Some providers ask for a draft of a personal statement at enrolment now

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador

Reply 3

MimiiR

2

Original post by Arden University

@ThrowawayRandom
Hello! I've worked in an FE college teaching Access for over 10 years, we had a late enroller who started last week. To increase your chances of getting on Access, I would email the college asking if its too late to enrol and send them a draft of a UCAS personal statement for Uni progression to show your commitment to the subject area. Some providers ask for a draft of a personal statement at enrolment now
Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador

Hi how do students get predicted grades? My college is saying they can’t give us any predicted grades right now as we haven’t done any exams/coursework plus we have only been with them for 3 weeks so they dont know us well enough they said later on universities contact the college asking for grades and they will give the grades we have achieved so far in the course. I am so scared as my whole application is all done and really good but this predicted grades is stressing me alot. I did some research some people applying with predicted grades and some don’t and i have seen people saying unis assess access students applications differently than A levels. I will also get a guaranteed interview from bristol for med but i feel like it won’t happen cause of the predicted grades

Reply 4

KazStudies

7

Original post by MimiiR

Hi how do students get predicted grades? My college is saying they can’t give us any predicted grades right now as we haven’t done any exams/coursework plus we have only been with them for 3 weeks so they dont know us well enough they said later on universities contact the college asking for grades and they will give the grades we have achieved so far in the course. I am so scared as my whole application is all done and really good but this predicted grades is stressing me alot. I did some research some people applying with predicted grades and some don’t and i have seen people saying unis assess access students applications differently than A levels. I will also get a guaranteed interview from bristol for med but i feel like it won’t happen cause of the predicted grades

Hi, I did the access diploma this year. We got our predicted grades after the first assignments. They averaged the grade out across the whole course. If you are applying to medicine, oxbridge or conservatoires they can’t fairly give a predicted grade as you haven’t been studying long enough with them. If you are applying through the normal timeline I would wait a bit longer so you can get predictions.

Reply 5

MimiiR

2

Original post by KazStudies

Hi, I did the access diploma this year. We got our predicted grades after the first assignments. They averaged the grade out across the whole course. If you are applying to medicine, oxbridge or conservatoires they can’t fairly give a predicted grade as you haven’t been studying long enough with them. If you are applying through the normal timeline I would wait a bit longer so you can get predictions.

Im applying to medicine and i am so stressed cause my deadline is on Tuesday i cant even call my unis to confirm it with them 😣

Original post by MimiiR

Hi how do students get predicted grades? My college is saying they can’t give us any predicted grades right now as we haven’t done any exams/coursework plus we have only been with them for 3 weeks so they dont know us well enough they said later on universities contact the college asking for grades and they will give the grades we have achieved so far in the course. I am so scared as my whole application is all done and really good but this predicted grades is stressing me alot. I did some research some people applying with predicted grades and some don’t and i have seen people saying unis assess access students applications differently than A levels. I will also get a guaranteed interview from bristol for med but i feel like it won’t happen cause of the predicted grades

@MimiiR
We do not put predicted grades on the UCAS application, we put 'pending' on all the grades. We include a reference with our email address on so we can send them an updated reference or a summary of grades at a later date. There is an additional box where we can add information which might have impacted your grade, for instance, 'awaiting for an ADHD assessment'.

Universities love Access to HE students, some nursing courses have about 25-30% of their students from Access alone

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador

Reply 7

FUCC69420

7

Original post by ThrowawayRandom

I just discovered that my best option into uni after failing my A Levels is an Access to HE course, seeing that it is now October and colleges started a month ago, would colleges still be happy to accept students or not?

Unlikely.
It depends on when their first assignment due dates are. Before then, you could theoretically catch up, but obviously once the due date has passed you will fail it so will not allow you to join. I actually asked this to the Access staff at my centre because my friend was asking a similar question last October.

Some courses start in January though , usually nursing or social work so depends what you want to do.

I would start working full time in the meantime. You can work less during the Access course next year and by the time you get to uni you will have some spending money in addition to your maintenance loan.

Reply 8

FUCC69420

7

Original post by MimiiR

Hi how do students get predicted grades? My college is saying they can’t give us any predicted grades right now as we haven’t done any exams/coursework plus we have only been with them for 3 weeks so they dont know us well enough they said later on universities contact the college asking for grades and they will give the grades we have achieved so far in the course. I am so scared as my whole application is all done and really good but this predicted grades is stressing me alot. I did some research some people applying with predicted grades and some don’t and i have seen people saying unis assess access students applications differently than A levels. I will also get a guaranteed interview from bristol for med but i feel like it won’t happen cause of the predicted grades

Another person said otherwise, but for me they did not give predicted grades, at least as far as I know, but I never found anything about predicted grades in any documents or AIM documents.

You probably won't be able to do an access course right away, you usually have to be 19. If you get in at 18 its because the admin didn't care (as happened to me when I first tried Access at 18 before I finished one properly this year)

Starting an Access to Higher Education course late

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