Any Ideas - daughter had 4 rejections

Gingernutmeg

If she gets no offers or declines all of those she does get, then she can go through Extra, which starts before Clearing and may give her a better shot at getting onto the courses she wants.

pinkshoes

Janeyjaz wrote: »

It is English Literature - and it does not include General Studies , which she already has an A for - her predicted A's are for Language & Lit - B for History and C for French.Anyway she only has Manchester left

CloudRuler wrote: »

Leeds - AAB
Durham - AAA (Single Honours English)
Manchester - AAA-AAB for Lit, ABB for Language
UCL - AAA-AAB

So her predicted grades are A (English Lit), B (History), C (French)? General studies isn't usually counted when applying to uni, so her predicted grades are all lower than the entry requirements for the universities she's applied for, hence she probably got automatic rejection. York also requires AAA or AAB.

The problem nowadays is that lots of kids are getting 3As or similar, so competition for the places at top universities is fierce, and they probably won't consider an applicant that doesn't have the minimum predicted grades.

I would talk to the school, as I presume they were the ones who predicted ABC for her? Are they sure she's not going to get any higher?

Voyager2002

Her best strategy now is to forget everything except work and ensure that she gets even higher grades than predicted at 'A' level.

Prestigous universities do not usually have places available through clearing, or even Extra, and for a subject like English it is important to go to a well-respected university. So she should accept that she will have to have a year off, and plan something constructive for it -- a year in a French-speaking country would be a good idea.

Of course, Manchester may yet come up with the goods. It is a superb university and a fantastic city for a young person.

Baltar

I have to be honest and probably say it's down to how her personal statement was written. A lot of my friends didn't get in to medicine with AAAA at As purely cos their personal statement wasn't great.
English is terribly hard to get in to because they expect your personal statement to be top notch!

She should definately get her head down and pass her exams, clearing is fantastic and a gap year is a good thing to have. In my halls of residence, only 3 people out of 11 hadn't had a gap xxxx

Janeyjaz

Thank you for your advice - Pinkshoes - it's 2 A's - one for Literature and one for Language, B for history - but been told she could easily get an A and a C for French, plus the A in General Studies she already holds.
School said her personal statement was brilliant - but thanks for the suggestions

Janeyjaz

WELL - MAKE THAT 5 REJECTIONS - Manchester have just rejected her

melancholly

i'm so sorry..... try not to let her get upset about it. i think at this point she should concentrate on getting the best grades she can, to just stick it to the people who said no! then she can work out something useful for a gap year and reapply next year with her grades already known. if she gets good grades then don't let her be put off oxbridge - i went to a cambridge open day and was really reluctant to apply, but it turned out the snooty posh people didn't seem to get in and the actual intake of students was really nice!

i know this won't help your daughter, but this is something other students can take on board - it can often be a good strategy to have at least one application with lower grades than the others as a fall back (this is only good advice if it's a university you actually want to go to though, so isn't appropriate for everyone).

sockospice

Am I reading it right that your daughter is doing 2 English A levels (one in lit and one in lang)? If her personal statement was fine, this may have impacted. It's a while since I did my A levels, but we were advised against studying both lang and lit as separate A levels as they were quite similar, and that top unis would count them both together when making offers. If this is still the case they'd look at her predicted grades and see ABC rather than AABC.

ETA just read the posts above, sorry to hear she didn't get in to Manchester. It's not the end of the world though, she needs to work out whether she'd be happy at another uni which requires lower grades, or whether to wait a year and try again. Either way, I hope this doesn't dishearten her and that she continues to do the best she can in her A levels. Good luck to her!

Janeyjaz

Thanks everyone for your advice

Rikki

sockospice wrote: »

Am I reading it right that your daughter is doing 2 English A levels (one in lit and one in lang)? If her personal statement was fine, this may have impacted. It's a while since I did my A levels, but we were advised against studying both lang and lit as separate A levels as they were quite similar, and that top unis would count them both together when making offers. If this is still the case they'd look at her predicted grades and see ABC rather than AABC.

ETA just read the posts above, sorry to hear she didn't get in to Manchester. It's not the end of the world though, she needs to work out whether she'd be happy at another uni which requires lower grades, or whether to wait a year and try again. Either way, I hope this doesn't dishearten her and that she continues to do the best she can in her A levels. Good luck to her!

English Studies BA Hons

Required subjects:
Grade A in English Literature or English Language or combined Language and Literature A level.
No fewer than 4 GCSE passes at Grade A, including at least a Grade B in another language.