WHAT HAPPENS WITH UCAS ON A LEVEL RESULTS DAY?

This may mean that your universities are still waiting for information, perhaps A level grades from previous years, other qualifications or perhaps one of your results has not transferred electronically.

The first thing you need to do is contact your firm choice university to find out what is missing. After that contact the college and if an A level grade has not transferred electronically our Exams Officer Jason will be able to send confirmation of your A level results. You may need to wait some time on the phone to get through to your university, but be patient and make sure to find out the email address so we know where we need to send confirmation of your A level results.

If there is a different kind of problem, contact the college asap and our UCAS Adviser Virginia will help you resolve the issue.

The first thing you should do is give yourself a resounding pat on the back! You are into the university of your choice and after all your hard work and worrying you can relax.

You should receive further information from your university about any next steps and do pay attention to any communications – some universities also ask you to confirm in return that you are accepting your offer, so make sure you do this.

This means that your A level results did not meet the conditions of your firm/ first choice, but your insurance choice university has confirmed your place. Make sure you check your actual A level grades, as your insurance university may have confirmed you despite you getting lower grades.

If you are happy with your insurance choice university and degree course then you can celebrate the fact that your place is now guaranteed and you are definitely going on to study somewhere you really like. Keep an eye out for further communication from your insurance choice about next steps, and also whether they are asking you to confirm you are accepting your place.

If you feel a bit disappointed and don’t really want to go to your insurance choice, now is the time to leap into action. It is possible to click on the ‘Decline my place’ button and propel yourself into Clearing but DON’T do this immediately. It is vital that you do your research first and contact different universities in Clearing to find out if they will make you an offer on your grades. You should only decline your place once you have a better offer.  You can accept a Clearing offer after 1pm on A level results day, so spend the morning trying to secure other verbal offers, and then in the afternoon you can decline your existing place and accept your Clearing offer.

You can do this and, with expert advice, it is often possible to go to an even better university or find a course you much prefer. We rarely have students in Clearing because they missed their offers, instead the majority of those who go into Clearing have chosen to do so in order to ‘trade up’ to a better uni.

However, you MUST make sure that you get some offers in before you decline the place you have been confirmed at! Please also note that if you decline your firm choice place, you will not be confirmed at your insurance choice, and instead you will go straight into Clearing.

If you do want to change your university or course, you need to be on the case from first thing on A level results day. You will need to act quickly as the best places in Clearing get snapped up very quickly, so you need to spend the morning on results day calling around and often holding for a very long time to secure a better offer.

If you come into college Virginia will be able to help and advise on strategy – you can come in with your parents so they can give you moral support and the whole WT team will be on hand to help. Normally, with guts and determination, we find students have managed to secure one, two or even three offers by about 12pm.

At this point you can then take careful stock of your Clearing offers and look at the university websites to try to make an informed and sensible choice that really works for you. You should talk to Virginia and the rest of the team at college to discuss your options, and of course your family, so that you feel confident you are making the right decision.

From 1pm you are able to accept a place in Clearing, so if you are SURE about declining your place and going somewhere else, you can now click on the ‘Decline my place’ button. This will put you into Clearing, and you will then be able to accept the Clearing offer that you like best.

If you have been offered a different place at your university it means, unfortunately, that your A level grades are not high enough for your original course.

The first thing to do is to check carefully what the new course offer is. Increasingly, we have found students are being offered foundation courses instead of a degree course, which means an additional year at university and hence more fees, plus you will need to pass the foundation course to go on to your degree. Often this is definitely not what students want.

The second thing to do is read this additional information: if the different course offer is with your firm choice university, it may be that you can decline the different course at your firm choice and instead take up a place for an actual degree course at your insurance choice. This is the most common situation and generally what our students prefer to do.

However, it may be that your different course offer is from your insurance choice, or indeed only from your firm choice: check the information carefully. In this instance, your options are either to accept the changed course offer (you need to do this within 5 days) or to decline the offer and put yourself into Clearing.

In these kinds of situations, it is important to talk to Virginia and discuss your options. If your different place is simply a variation on the degree course you applied for, you may be happy to accept it. However, you may decide to research different options in Clearing and to try to secure a better offer from another university.

If you think you want to do this, you should start straight away on the morning of results day to get your best shot of an improved offer. Come into college so we can support and advise you, and DON’T decline your revised course offer until you are sure you have got an offer for a better place.

It is a terrible shock if you learn that you have missed your UCAS offers on A level results day but this is a time to swing into action rather than hide away in tears.

Unfortunately, if the universities have decided not to confirm your place they will not reverse their decision so there is little point in appealing, UNLESS you have narrowly missed your required grades. If this is the case, you need to notify the universities and immediately put in for a priority remark. In theory, the universities may wait and confirm your place(s) if your remark improves your grade(s). In reality, though, the more high-ranking the university is, the less likely they are to wait and confirm your place.

What this means is that you should immediately start to search for new courses in Clearing. As soon as you hear the bad news, gather yourself and come into college for  9am so Virginia and the rest of the team can support you. You can come in with your family so they are also able to support you. By 9am Virginia will have prepared advice and strategies for any students who are in Clearing and you will be surprised by what might be available first thing. This is why it is so important not to miss the boat.

There are universities and courses that rarely, if ever, enter Clearing. These include Oxford and Cambridge, and most often Imperial, LSE and UCL. In addition, you won’t see Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary Medicine in Clearing and you are very unlikely to see very competitive courses such as Economics or Law at top universities. You need to accept this reality and instead look as quickly as possible at whatever else is actually in Clearing. Often this will include some of the top Russell Group universities and some very interesting courses so be flexible and open-minded.

If we have students who find themselves in Clearing, it is a very intense morning while they call around other universities, often holding for very long times on the phone, but by midday we normally find that they have secured impressive alternative offers which may even be better than their original courses. Be strong and you will be rewarded.