Any Ideas - daughter had 4 rejections

Janeyjaz

thank you very good advice

kr15snw

Year out is an amazing thing. I took mine after my GCSE's as I just didnt know where to go. I spent a year working full time and ended up doing a little bit of design work for them (as I was on reception and good with computers). I loved this so much I then looked at studying design. The year after I started a BTEC in design and now am just finishing my degree in design

If she is interested in journalism tell her to start getting work experience now. Its all about your experience when you start looking at jobs, they dont care about your grades!

Gingernutmeg

Janeyjaz wrote: »

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

No offence meant at all here, but please don't get sucked into the mindset that only 'some' degrees from 'some' universities matter. Particularly in the case of more vocationally oriented courses, it's often the case that the lower ranked universities have certain courses and departments that are actually world class in that particular field. It's far more worthwhile to look at the reputation of particular course, the reputation/skills of the tutors and how it's viewed in the field before you dismiss it for being at an 'inferior' university. One example I can think of is the CASS business school at City University - City's not particularly highly rated, but CASS has a very prestigious reputation, with lots of people choosing it over somewhere like LSE. Same as somewhere like Westminster for Fashion, or Roehampton for Education/Philosophy of Education, or UEA for Creative Writing. If your daughter's looking at taking a degree in Journalism, then you're really going to have to be a bit more open minded about what's a 'good' university ...

Frozenace

I only got a conditional offer from Reading when I was living in Beijing and the University still offered me a place, so I got on a plane and travelled 10,000km to come to the UK and study.

Your daughter will make it.

Oldernotwiser

kr15snw wrote: »

If she is interested in journalism tell her to start getting work experience now. Its all about your experience when you start looking at jobs, they dont care about your grades!

Work experience - excellent; doing it now - not a good idea. She needs to be concentrating on getting the best possible grades to get into a good university.

Oldernotwiser

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

No offence meant at all here, but please don't get sucked into the mindset that only 'some' degrees from 'some' universities matter. Particularly in the case of more vocationally oriented courses, it's often the case that the lower ranked universities have certain courses and departments that are actually world class in that particular field. It's far more worthwhile to look at the reputation of particular course, the reputation/skills of the tutors and how it's viewed in the field before you dismiss it for being at an 'inferior' university. One example I can think of is the CASS business school at City University - City's not particularly highly rated, but CASS has a very prestigious reputation, with lots of people choosing it over somewhere like LSE. Same as somewhere like Westminster for Fashion, or Roehampton for Education/Philosophy of Education, or UEA for Creative Writing. If your daughter's looking at taking a degree in Journalism, then you're really going to have to be a bit more open minded about what's a 'good' university ...

Not necessarily for English though.

Gingernutmeg

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Not necessarily for English though.

True, not necessarily for English, but I don't think that's the case for Journalism. I really don't mean to be rude, but the fact the OPs daughter has applied at a very narrow range of universities in terms of 'rankings' will have contributed to her situation in no small way. I agree with a previous poster who mentioned that the OPs daughter doesn't seem to have had much in the way of sensible university guidance - given her predicted grades it wasn't wise to apply to universities where she isn't, at the moment, meeting the minimum entry requirements. Bad, bad advice on the part of the school, and a very distressing experience for the poor girl.

Oldernotwiser

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

True, not necessarily for English, but I don't think that's the case for Journalism. I really don't mean to be rude, but the fact the OPs daughter has applied at a very narrow range of universities in terms of 'rankings' will have contributed to her situation in no small way. I agree with a previous poster who mentioned that the OPs daughter doesn't seem to have had much in the way of sensible university guidance - given her predicted grades it wasn't wise to apply to universities where she isn't, at the moment, meeting the minimum entry requirements. Bad, bad advice on the part of the school, and a very distressing experience for the poor girl.

I agree with you on this 100%; everybody should have at least one "insurance" choice on their UCAS application. She also seems to have been misled by the school's over enthusism for her academic prowess when, in fact, her anticipated grades are not that special.

aah

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.
quote]

Please do disregard this.

My daughter - in first year of A levels - was so advised when at her school for GCSE's. The reason turned out to be just that the school did not want to make the timetable fit the A levels she wanted to do.

I telephoned two Russell group universities and spoke to the admissions tutor for English and was told that they would definitely look at English Lit and English lang as 2 separate subjects; they only disregarded Critical Thinking and General Studies.

And they make offers on 3 A levels, not 4.

I am a qualified careers adviser, although writing this in a personal capacity.

System

Janeyjaz, your thread attracted my attention as I have been in a similar situation myself.

AS results are sent to universities - the one thing I learnt was that GCSEs are not important to unis,

I personally got mainly A*s & a few As at GCSE also, but when it came to AS levels I got ABBC , so I got rejected from all my unis (which, like your daughters were all top unis that required AAB and AAA).

Your daughter still stands a chance in clearing & extra.

Tell her not to give up! The important thing is that she gets good A levels, then in the worst case scenario - she can take a gap year and assess her options. If she gets good A levels more opportunities will open up to her!

When I got rejected from all my unis I (embarrassingly) completely gave up on revision and adopted a "what's the point" attitude, which obviously, led me nowhere.

I spent my gap year privately retaking a-levels and working hard. Then I went onto do another course. Now I think getting rejected from my unis was the best thing that's happened to me, as it allowed me to re-assess my life and work harder than ever to get a first degree at uni!

At the same time I saw other people (who'd got into uni first time round), completely fail their degrees and drop out of uni. So I guess it taught me a valuable lesson too.

I know how your daughter feels getting brilliant GCSEs and feeling all the hard work was for nothing - especially when you see people getting lower results and still getting into unis (it can be really frustrating) ... but tell her that she's got to keep her mind focused on A-levels!