The Student Room Group

Uni Application (UCAS, Clearing and so on)

Hi everyone. This is going to be a long one.

So, I'm currently an international student (for UK unis) and I'm in my final year of iAL. Throughout Year 12, my grades WERE alright (maybe the first 1 and a half month) and then it started plunging like crazy. You may wonder why. Well the reason was because I was an idiot for not putting enough effort into iAL, thinking that it would be similar to iGCSE. And what's worse is that despite my first series of externals in Year 12 came back really bad, I STILL HADN'T PICK UP THE MESSAGE, and continued wasting time, not focusing in class (with my old friend group) and just letting my parents down.

During the summer, I've seen my AS results and I was genuinely scared because AS is technically 50% of the whole course and my grades are SO BAD. Therefore, I decided to break off from my old friend group, and started a journey of "come back". It is working now and I feel confident for my next externals series (Jan). Then here comes the real problem.

I am applying through UCAS, and UCAS uses PREDICTED GRADES to do applications. In my school, teachers predict our grades strictly based on past data. And as you may have read above, my HORRIBLE PAST, is horrible. I am trying to do an Aerospace Engineering degree at a above average uni (such as Manchester, Southampton and so on).

But due to these grades, I might only get offers from "below average" unis. I do hear people say that if I go through Clearing with my final grade, I might end up in a better place. The thing is that Clearing starts at early July (right? idk correct me if I'm wrong) and iAL final results only comes out during mid August. Clearing is first come first serve basis (right? x2) and if my grades only comes out a month and a half after clearing starts, won't I be a little bit too late?

Let's say my final grades are good enough for me to enter Uni A through Clearing. Uni A only have 2 spots left for the course. 2 person took the spot before iAL results come back (for me). What do I do?

I know some of you might say: "Oh consider foundation course then." My parents does not have the resources for me to go to foundation and the only "back up" I have is an International Year One program (which are only offered in a few unis).

So yeah please help me :frown:
Thank you so much for your time reading!!
Reply 1
Original post by jia_jie0728
Hi everyone. This is going to be a long one.
So, I'm currently an international student (for UK unis) and I'm in my final year of iAL. Throughout Year 12, my grades WERE alright (maybe the first 1 and a half month) and then it started plunging like crazy. You may wonder why. Well the reason was because I was an idiot for not putting enough effort into iAL, thinking that it would be similar to iGCSE. And what's worse is that despite my first series of externals in Year 12 came back really bad, I STILL HADN'T PICK UP THE MESSAGE, and continued wasting time, not focusing in class (with my old friend group) and just letting my parents down.
During the summer, I've seen my AS results and I was genuinely scared because AS is technically 50% of the whole course and my grades are SO BAD. Therefore, I decided to break off from my old friend group, and started a journey of "come back". It is working now and I feel confident for my next externals series (Jan). Then here comes the real problem.
I am applying through UCAS, and UCAS uses PREDICTED GRADES to do applications. In my school, teachers predict our grades strictly based on past data. And as you may have read above, my HORRIBLE PAST, is horrible. I am trying to do an Aerospace Engineering degree at a above average uni (such as Manchester, Southampton and so on).
But due to these grades, I might only get offers from "below average" unis. I do hear people say that if I go through Clearing with my final grade, I might end up in a better place. The thing is that Clearing starts at early July (right? idk correct me if I'm wrong) and iAL final results only comes out during mid August. Clearing is first come first serve basis (right? x2) and if my grades only comes out a month and a half after clearing starts, won't I be a little bit too late?
Let's say my final grades are good enough for me to enter Uni A through Clearing. Uni A only have 2 spots left for the course. 2 person took the spot before iAL results come back (for me). What do I do?
I know some of you might say: "Oh consider foundation course then." My parents does not have the resources for me to go to foundation and the only "back up" I have is an International Year One program (which are only offered in a few unis).
So yeah please help me :frown:
Thank you so much for your time reading!!

The vast majority of Unis do not put mass vacancies in 'Early Clearing' - for the very simple reason that, until A level results are published in August, they dont have a clue if they will have any vacancies (think about it). A few 'hard to fill' courses may be trying to recruit IB students with early results, but everyone else wont actually have their results. And, just remember that competitive / high grade courses etc will not be in Clearing at all.
Reply 2
Original post by McGinger
The vast majority of Unis do not put mass vacancies in 'Early Clearing' - for the very simple reason that, until A level results are published in August, they dont have a clue if they will have any vacancies (think about it). A few 'hard to fill' courses may be trying to recruit IB students with early results, but everyone else wont actually have their results. And, just remember that competitive / high grade courses etc will not be in Clearing at all.

Hi.
So from your response, I guess if I were to go into Clearing, I will have to be quick right?
I just checked the results release date for Edexcel, for June 25 series, it will be on the 14th August (same goes to UK). I wonder if the release time is going to be the same (morning in UK/afternoon in Malaysia) or different?
Because if its different, I actually would have an advantage :\
Reply 3
Unis are not allowed to open their Clearing lines until 8am on A level Results Day - the time when results are released via schools. So it doesn't matter when you get your results if you live overseas, you are on exactly the same timetable as everyone else.
If you want to maximise your chances of an offer then don’t wait for clearing.

Apply now to the universities that you would like to go to. Even if your past grades and predictions are low some universities will happily make aspirational offers above your predictions. And if you list a university in your original 5 choices then they will have access to your results in August automatically making it simpler to apply back to them in clearing.

Clearing is part of UCAS. You need a full UCAS application to use clearing so you might as well apply for 5 choices you like before the deadline even if you expect to end up using clearing.

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