advice on unis please......!

vicky04

hi, im in the middle of finishing my A2 exams and am hopefully going to uni in septemeber. Thing is i messed up my AS exams so this year even though ive worked hard and have hopefully aced the exams i will probably end up with BBC or CCC overall. I did get nearly straight A's for my GCSE and a few A*s.

I have applied for london metropolitan university to do business and management, but am hearing form some people that it isn't very good.

I dont know whether to apply to somewhere else quickly, wait for clearing, or to resit some of my modules and go to uni the year after.

I really wanted to go to Bath, Cardiff, or a really decent uni.

What would you do? and what do you think is the best route?

Also is you get better grades than predicted can you apply to better uni's through clearing after you have your grades??

please help all advice welcome!!!

Marmiter

Hi Vicky04.I'm afraid I can't give you any specific advice on London Met, some unis have a good repuation, and some don't. But the most important thing is the type of course they do, and whether that course suits you.All I can suggest is that you visit that uni as many times as you can and talk to the lecturers or some of the students if possible. Have you been to an Open Day there.Another important thing is not to panic!!I applied to Cardiff, but unfortunately I didn't get the grades to get in, and because of that I decided that I didn't want to go to another uni that year. So I took a year out and applied to unis that I knew I would get in to as I already knew my grades. I worked throughout this year and saved about £4000 to take to uni with me, which was a bonus! If you take a year out, you will also be able to resit some exams, or even do a different a-level, at evening classes for example, to bring up your points. Good luck in whatever you decide to do. Personally, taking a year out was the best thing that I did, it gave me some extra money and some practical working experience which I used throughout my degree and since I graduated.If you're certain you want to go to uni this year, wait until your grades arrive, you may be surprised at what you get, and you might find a really good uni through clearing.

Stu_Dent

I go to Birmingham University and its Brilliant!, the lecturers, the campus, the city, the students and general life/social life...

My advice is that look around different unis for the course you want to do and the requirements..find the uni that has a good rating for teaching for that course and that you'd like to go to. Visit the university and yes, if you get better grades you are able to reject an offer and go through clearing, although if you reject your offer then get rejected through clearing then you're in trouble...

any more questions feel free to ask..

Stu

Eoin_McLove

If you get better grades, and decide to go through clearing, then you can 'bargain' with better universities to let you in. However, this is usually fiercely competitive, so you'll need very good grades if you want to get into a top 20 university. One of my old friends got AAB in 2002, and she was Head Prefect of the best grammar school in Kent; she was rejected from Bristol, Nottingham, Durham, Oxford, York, and Warwick when she first applied, so she had to go through clearing. Fortunately she managed to get a place at Nottingham (studing History), but they were demanding AAA; it was only that she was Head Girl that got her a place in the end.

It may have changed now, but when I began my first degree in 2002, you had to choose six universities initially, and then once you'd been accepted/rejected, you had to pick a first and a second choice out of these. It was my understanding that once you have picked these two, you are obliged to go to those universities, i.e. if you get the grades for university A, you are obliged to take the place, otherwise you forfeit your opportunity to go to university that academic year. I might be wrong.

Personally, I wouldn't go to a university which wasn't in the top 30 or 40. Everyone is getting a degree these days, so it really, really counts to attend a top university when you come to apply for jobs. With grades BBC, you should be able to get into the top 40 without too much fuss, particularly doing the subject you've chosen. London Metropolitan University is very poor, to be honest, and with BBC you should be looking to go to enter a top 40 or 50 university. In fact, I've just checked The Times Good University Guide 2007, and it says 'For the third year running, London Metropolitan refused to allow the release of data, and so it does not appear in this table.' It sounds harsh, but I think that says it all. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/displayPopup/0,,102571,00.html

There's no harm in taking a year out to re-sit some of your modules to improve your grades, but if you were to get BBC, you ought to be able to get into a top 40 university through clearing. However, you're doing Business and Management, so let me assume, probably wrongly, that you want to go into accountancy after you graduate. I applied for lots of trainee chartered accountancy positions earlier in the year, and nearly all require at least 300 UCAS points (i.e. BBB) as standard. It pays to bear that in mind, if you're looking at a finance/accountancy career.

Anyway, the chances are you'll do much better than you expect to, so you could be in a good position for clearing. I was initially predicted AAA, but only got BBB for AS in 2001; somehow I managed to pull this up to AAAB in the following year (I did that hugely intellectual subject, General Studies, because my school was offering it for 'free' if we fancied another 'A' Level, and I wangled an 'A').

Good luck! I'm sure you'll be fine.

vicky04

yea at the moment im thinking about retaking some of my modules next year to get my grades up. But would a university like bath or cardiff still let me in if they knew i had retaken them??

also which universities accept BBB or BBC that are decent. Ive had a good look at the ucas website but its hard to find them!!! Hence why i want to up my grades to A's!

Eoin_McLove

vicky04 wrote:

yea at the moment im thinking about retaking some of my modules next year to get my grades up. But would a university like bath or cardiff still let me in if they knew i had retaken them??

also which universities accept BBB or BBC that are decent. Ive had a good look at the ucas website but its hard to find them!!! Hence why i want to up my grades to A's!

I don't think universities have the ability to know whether or not you've retaken your modules. All they will know is your final grade, unless of course the academic referee on your UCAS application (usually the Head of Sixth Form) actually states that you have re-taken certain modules. I re-took about five AS modules in History, Latin, and French when I came to do my 'A' Level final exams, and obviously the universities I applied to weren't to know that. The chances are that you won't re-take every single module in your 'A' Levels, so it's not that drastic anyway.

I have no idea which universities accept BBB now, but when I applied to study History in 2002, decent universities like Reading, Southampton and Exeter only wanted BBB. However, five of the six universities I applied to - UCL, LSE, Nottingham, York, Southampton, and Royal Holloway, University of London - all asked for ABB. I imagine the grade requirements have gone up a lot since then, seeing as so many people are getting As and Bs. For Business and Management, I have no idea what the grade requirements are, although I suspect that they're lower than those for History. The best thing to do is look at each university's website. Have a look back at The Times University Table 2007, and systematically visit the website of each of the top 40 universities, starting with #40. For the record, I would have thought that both Bath and Cardiff would let you in with BBB.

melancholly

if you don't find what you want in clearing (and given that it's 3 years of your life and a lot of your money, it's worth finding something you actually *want* to do!) then maybe take a year out. you can get some experience in a job (which many graduates find would help them when they leave!), get some money together, maybe go abroad..... then when you apply you'll be applying with known grades and should find out quite early whether universities will accpet you. if you can find something you want this summer, that's great, but a plan B of a gap year would be a good fall back.

different departments within the same university have different entry requirements, so bear that in mind when you're looking. i also think you need to officially reject your place that you have been offered before you can enter clearing..... someone else may know - but it's important to know exactly what the procedure is so that you don't lose time when the clearing rush starts!! someone in your school/college should be able to tell you how it works

Cheeky_2

Eoin_McLove wrote:

For Business and Management, I have no idea what the grade requirements are, although I suspect that they're lower than those for History. The best thing to do is look at each university's website. Have a look back at The Times University Table 2007, and systematically visit the website of each of the top 40 universities, starting with #40. For the record, I would have thought that both Bath and Cardiff would let you in with BBB.

Business tends to be pretty high as so many people want to do it! When i applied grades required for Business were higher than History at Cardiff.

My offer from Bath(4 years ago now) was AAA, I got the Grades but went to Cardiff instead, at the time Cardiff wanted BBB but now it's gone up to AAB or ABB depending on the Business route you choose I think.

If you can get to Cardiff go, it's brilliant! :T

Eoin_McLove

melancholly wrote:

i also think you need to officially reject your place that you have been offered before you can enter clearing..... someone else may know - but it's important to know exactly what the procedure is so that you don't lose time when the clearing rush starts!! someone in your school/college should be able to tell you how it works

This is what I mentioned in my first post. If you get the grades for either your first or second choice university, then you are obliged to go there. If you get the grades for your first choice, you are obliged to take your place there; you can't refuse it and decide you want your second choice, for example, or go through clearing. Likewise, if you don't get the grades for your first choice, but get the grades for your second choice, then you are obliged to take the place offered to you by your second-choice university. This was hammered into us when I was picking universities.

As I said, I may be wrong, but I got the impression when I was applying that if you decide not to take your place at your first or second choice university, then you are unable to attend university that academic year. And as I'm aware, you can't go through clearing either; you can only do that if you haven't got the grades for your first or second choice universities, or if - like the friend I mentioned in my first post who got AAB and was Head Girl of Kent's best grammar school - you were rejected from all six of the universities you initially applied for, and therefore have no choice but to use the clearing system to attend university in the forthcoming academic year.

I am slightly confused though, because if you say that you are in the middle of your A2 exams, then by now you surely would have specified your first and second choice universities. I think I did this at the very start of Year 13. If you have already specified your first and second choices (which you ought to have done, seeing as you'll be going to university in just a few months' time), then you are obliged to go to them if you get the grades. If you aren't sure that you want to go to either of these universities, then, as melancholly says, you probably need to officially withdraw your applications to them before you get your grades back - because if you don't, then you will be obliged to take your place at one of them. Obviously they can't force you to go, but as I understand it, you forfeit your opportunity to attend university that academic year, because you aren't permitted to use clearing.

Eoin_McLove

Cheeky wrote:

Business tends to be pretty high as so many people want to do it! When i applied grades required for Business were higher than History at Cardiff.

My offer from Bath(4 years ago now) was AAA, I got the Grades but went to Cardiff instead, at the time Cardiff wanted BBB but now it's gone up to AAB or ABB depending on the Business route you choose I think.

If you can get to Cardiff go, it's brilliant! :T

Cardiff's a wicked place. Excellent for real clubbing and good dance music. :j

kingmonkey

If you can get to Cardiff go, it's brilliant!

I agree its ace.

I think Cardiff is one of the cheapest places in the UK to go out.