Any Ideas - daughter had 4 rejections

pandora205

Hi

If your daughter is interested in journalism here are some thoughts....

My daughter was planning to do broadcast journalism (currently on a gap year and reconsidering but that's another story!) so we looked at lots of courses when she applied. She decided not to go down the pure academic route and to look for degrees that have a vocational element. We discovered that some are dual academic and vocational qualifications. The industry accreditation for print journalism is NCJT (National Council for Training of Journalism) and only some courses meet these requirements. There is also one course which has dual accreditation by NCJT and BJTC (Broadcast Journalism Training Council), which is the Multimedia Journalism Course at Bournemouth
http://courses.bournemouth.ac.uk/3details.asp?programmeCode=BAMMJ

My daughter was offered a conditional place there so we went for interview and it was very impressive....... especially for someone who is already writing on the internet. Print, broadcast and online journalism are all becoming much more interlinked, so this course is very much cutting edge. The programme director was a BBC Foreign Correspondent and many of the tutors were industry professionals. The place had a real buzz.

This course is very competitive to get into and required not just an interview but a portfolio of work, etc, and minimum of three A levels at grade B.

(We looked at others but they were mainly broadcast journalism, although University of Westminster Media Studies with Journalism looked very good and is a prestigious course). Interestingly many of the top courses for journalism are not in the traditional universities.

Good luck to your daughter no matter what she decides.

Janeyjaz

Thats great advice - Thank you

barneydean

Hey. I just read your daughter's situation and I can totally sympathise.

Last year I applied for veterinary medicine/science at Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham and Royal Veterinary College. I was predicted three As in my A-Levels, and managed to get four interviews (one at each of the unis), but I eventually ended up with four rejections which really devastated me.

My advice to your daughter (as cliched as this may sound) is to not let
it get her down. This year I've taken a gap year. I've saved money, travelled, and generally had a fantastic time and done things that I wouldn't have done otherwise (at uni).

I ended up getting AAB in my A-Levels, and found out last week that I have been given an unconditional offer at Liverpool Uni to study Veterinary Science, starting in September.

I hope my story can at least give your daughter a little encouragement to not give up her dream and to persevere, even if she feels as though all hope is lost (I know that's how I felt this time last year!).

Best of luck to her.

System

It's better getting rejected now than getting rejected halfway through the degree because you fail exams (also wasting £3000+ a year).

Getting rejected & taking a gap year only made me appreciate my degree more when I eventually got onto the course.

melancholly

findingmyownway wrote: »

i got a standard 1st from a very standard uni, a PhD from a good uni and was headhunted into my current job.

i'd never heard of this super-dooper-first before

like i said, it's very impressive but not really all that much extra help. it's also not common at all. you also find most of the people who get it don't boast about it - trust me, having a 'normal' first from cambridge can often be a hindrance as people make wild assumptions about what your background must be and about how dull and boring you must be! gets a bit tedious! i'm in no way saying that other degrees don't result in being headhunted, but it's much more rare after an undergrad degree alone. the only person i know with a double starred first ended up with multiple job offers with 6 figure starting salaries - and they were also really nice with it - how unfair is that!!

Christa1

My friend's daughter applied to 6 universities and didn't get one single offer, her twin daughter on the other hand did. They were in the newspaper after taking their GCSE's as they had shed loads between, they each did lots of extra curricular activities too. They both got interviewed, one for Oxford, one for Cambridge, neither got in. Eventually one twin took an offer from another prestigious uni, whilst the other took a year out went abroad and learnt a language. She then decoded to apply for Cambridge( Oxford last time) and hey ho she got in. I think the moral of this story is that don't be put off because you don't know why you got rejected. Very bright kids get rejected for simply being that maybe. Do you get to see your reference from school? I think taking a year out and trying agin is a good idea especially if you make good use of that year.

poet123

barneydean wrote: »

Hey. I just read your daughter's situation and I can totally sympathise.

Last year I applied for veterinary medicine/science at Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham and Royal Veterinary College. I was predicted three As in my A-Levels, and managed to get four interviews (one at each of the unis), but I eventually ended up with four rejections which really devastated me.

My advice to your daughter (as cliched as this may sound) is to not let
it get her down. This year I've taken a gap year. I've saved money, travelled, and generally had a fantastic time and done things that I wouldn't have done otherwise (at uni).

I ended up getting AAB in my A-Levels, and found out last week that I have been given an unconditional offer at Liverpool Uni to study Veterinary Science, starting in September.

I hope my story can at least give your daughter a little encouragement to not give up her dream and to persevere, even if she feels as though all hope is lost (I know that's how I felt this time last year!).

Best of luck to her.

Well done,you will love liverpool,one of my sons is there doing Law and he says the nightlife is great!!! if you need details of good, non halls accom, let me know my son has great accom closer to the uni and cheaper than the halls of residence,with a tv/pool room,laundrette and 24 hr security on site. It is not well advertised though.

Janeyjaz

Can I say thank you to everyone for their great advice, it makes wonderful reading

judyjetson

I just wanted to say don't give up. My son decided half way through his A levels (five years ago) that he didn't want to go to uni after all. His choice, he talked it through with us, got the first job he was offered, stayed there until he found a better job, and worked up to assistant manager in the store he was working in.

Last summer he decided he was going to go to uni after all to do business studies. So, with no A levels in hand (although he has done other courses, etc to do with his job), he applied to Northumbria. He spoke to the course head, who advised there were places left and his experience would count in his application as a mature student. He was rejected at first, when they said there were no places left, but my boy is not one to give up. He really wanted that place so, phoned the course head again to find there were places, so he badgered them until he finally got in. He's doing just fine there now, and just passed his first lot of exams.

I had to leave it to him though, which was hard - sometimes you just want to get in there and do your bit for them. He asked for advice when he needed it, and there were lots of hugs needed when he got a bit demoralised and thought he would never get in. I'm so proud of him for his determination and refusal not be beaten.

green_beanie

Hi Janeyjaz,

I read your post and, from personal experience, I would say don't give up before the miracle happens!

My story goes that just before I began studying for the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB, equivalent to A levels, but somewhat more intense) I was an all around A to A* student, one of the top 5 in the whole year. I was well liked by my teachers, the staff in the school and my peers, and everyone had -very- high hopes for me

When the IB Diploma years came around, everything fell apart - I went completely off the rails. Where I was predicted to get a minimum of 38-40 out of a total of 45 points in the IB (around 600 to 650 UCAS points), I ended up with only 29 points. I was just 6 IB points shy of failing the diploma. Sadly my entire year also did quite poorly compared to previous years.

So from being provisionally accepted into universities such as Imperial,UCL and making it to interviews at Oxford, I was rejected by every single university I applied to. I didn't even have high enough grades to make it to my lowest choices.

Lucky (SO lucky) for me I was good friends with the careers adviser and she got into contact with a university that had foundation year courses in the sciences. She let me know and I put myself out there as soon as I knew of the opportunity. I also sent them my grade history and shockingly they said I could go straight into the Biochem BSc course and skip the foundation year. I didn't even have enough points to make it into the course.

Why? I can only assume it's because they had spaces left to fill and hopefully because someone saw that I did have potential (even if my IB grades didn't show it).Whoever it was I'm so glad they took the risk.

Fast forward 3 years (working my tail off) and I now have 1st class Hons BSc from the Uni. of London. I'm also studying for my MSc at Imperial College on the course of my dreams (completely different from my original degree too). Looking back I put all that success down to being given a chance and then grabbing it as hard as I could and working my hardest to make the absolute best of it.

What's the moral of the story? Get daughter on the phone tostart talking to admin staff at the university. Your daughter needs to put herself out there. If possible, get her to send some references out. If you talk to people they are more likely to respond because you cease to be just an application form and you become a person to them.

All is NOT lost. If your daughter has such shining potential ,someone WILL notice it. And whatever happens your daughter WILL be okay. She's a winner and you know it, just make sure she doesn't start to lose hope and keep encouraging her to think that she's a winner from the get go. Whatever happens, just know that she can handle it.

Sorry if this post is a bit long-winded, but I hope it's helped. Good luck!

Beanie