Any Ideas - daughter had 4 rejections

Rikki

Janeyjaz wrote: »

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

I'm wondering if the school didn't play a part in her getting the rejections. They should have advised her that the two English exams counted as one A level. Meaning her predicted results were lower than the the universitys she applied for.

As has been said before work hard and get the best results she can, get good grades, either look at university extra or take a year out and reapply next year. What about a joint honours with either French or History?

My son started university last year and I know what fun it all is. :eek:

graduate2012

If you have no offers, you are able to apply through UCAS extra at some point, she will get a letter with this

aqueoushumour01

She may have excellent results at GCSE level but there's a lot of competition these dasys and the better universities are very strict with their criteria. She's probably in competition with students getting 3 A's.

Did she go into detail about her outside activities, especially the website? This could be a good selling point if marketed intelligently.

jobbingmusician

Has she thought of studying journalism instead? Just wondered, as this seems to be what she's most interested in.

(Sorry, just sticking my beak in - I know nothing about UCAS selections)

masterkay

I know there is no point in saying this now but considering she may be taking a year out and reapplying. She should think about having a back up University, one that only needs BBB to get in. I picked one that you only needed BBB to get into as a back up plan and then had the rest as my top picks.

It was ambitious going for those universities when her predicted grades were not matching. No point applying to somewhere when your predicted grades don't meet the criteria as people who do meet the criteria will get rejected.

She could apply next years when she has good grades (assuming she beats the predictions).

The choice of Lang and Lit together may have not helped either as I think they often get grouped together.

Shame on the school for:
a) suggesting/allowing her to do lang and lit together
b) not suggesting that she aim her sights at a course that matches her predicted grades

Some bad advice or no advice from the careers department I think.

Voyager2002

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Has she thought of studying journalism instead? Just wondered, as this seems to be what she's most interested in.

(Sorry, just sticking my beak in - I know nothing about UCAS selections)

This could be worthy of serious consideration. A degree in English is not exactly a passport to a specific job, so if she studies English she will have to compete with hordes of other graduates for opportunities in any discipline. And in that situation, graduates from "top" universities come first. So if she can't get into a top university, she should consider courses that will lead naturally into a career.

amaseal

UCAS Extra will allow her to apply for one course at a time until she gets a place. My daughter was allowed into her Uni despite failing to get the grades specified. Her friend was offered a place at Leeds for English but lost it as she dropped a grade, she got a place in clearing at UEA.
Your daughter should get a place this year - it is disheartening to get rejections but no-one is sure of their place until they have their results.
Encourage her to look at courses and Universities that she may apply for in UCAS Extra.
I am so pleased that my daughter didn't have a year out - those I know that have done this seem to be marking time. One AAAA student I know is drawing the dole!

pinkshoes

Actually, I think a gap year can be one of the most beneficial things a student can do nowadays, especially if the gap year is relevant to what they'd like to do as a future career. I would recommend it to the OP's daughter because:

1) When applying to jobs after uni, companies get 1000s of applicants, but usually prefer someone who has a degree as well as good work experience.

2) She can save up some money for uni.

3) She can apply to university after she's already got your grades, so takes away some of the stress.

4) She'll get more out of university because she's already lived a year in the real world.

5) She can get a head start on the reading list of her chosen university!!

Janeyjaz

Thanks again for the suggestions - the idea was that she got a good English degree and then did a course on Journalism - I kept telling her that a degree from a good university meant more than a degree from an unknown uni - maybe me being too optimistic, but lets face it, her teachers have been singing her praises for years and are also in a state of shock - that doesn't do her any good

sockospice

Journalism is highly competitive. If she can get some work experience in this field in a year out, she'd find herself in an advantageous position. I don't know what the financial position is but getting paid/unpaid experience in as many different media outlets as possible will look great on her CV.

Maybe she could research into unis with good media departments (eg good links to local/national media) and aim her application to one of those for next year. With media, it's not necessarily 'a good uni' that opens doors, it's good contacts. For example, if she was looking at Manchester, why not consider Salford, who are supposed to be linking up with the BBC when they move up to the north west? I guess it depends on what area of journalism she's looking into.

Yes it's a knockback, but if she wants to go into journalism she'll face plenty of those. It's tough (I did a degree in English at Manchester, and was looking towards journalism for most of it, ended up a trolley dolly then a social worker, but there you go) but if she can treat this as a positive and make something of a year out, she'll possibly end up in a better position than she would have done had she been offered a place doing English.