If you received your A Level results last month but either did not have a university place lined up or did not meet your UCAS offer, and if since then you haven’t yet used clearing to get a place at university, at this point in September you may find yourself in a bit of a dilemma: Should I try–or even can I still try–to find a place at university for the 2013/2014 academic year, or should I hold fire and apply for entry in 2014?
This dilemma has both a “should” and a “can” element to it; let’s look at the “can” bit first. Even though it’s September and many universities start their new terms in the next couple of weeks, you can in fact still make a fresh UCAS application and find a place until clearing at this stage in the game. Clearing in fact runs all the way up to the end of this month, though you’ll need to complete a UCAS application by 20th September.
All this means that, as of today, you still have two weeks to put together a UCAS application from scratch if you haven’t previously submitted one, and over three weeks to find, get accepted on, and firmly accept a place.
So, the steps you’ll need to take are the following: 1) put together your UCAS application (if you haven’t put one together already); 2) establish what course you want to do; 3) consult the list of clearing vacancies (either through UCAS or The Daily Telegraph‘s service); 4) research the courses you’re interested in through the university’s website and get in touch with the university to express your interest in the course and find out more about whether it’s for you and whether they’d be interested in your application; 5) if you’re happy with the course and the university has indicated they’d like to accept you, put in an application to the course using the UCAS online system, and then firmly accept the offer once the university has made you one; 6) jump around and start getting excited about heading off to university.
Now, let’s get on to the “should” end of things. The key thing here is whether you feel the circumstances are right for you to go to uni this year, or whether you’d in fact benefit from waiting a year. In addition to important questions such as your financial circumstances, the key thing here is whether you feel applying now through clearing will get you a place on a course that will fulfil your interests and your academic potential.
Although clearing offers loads of great courses, it doesn’t offer the full selection that is available at the start of the UCAS cycle. So if you’re looking through the clearing lists and struggling to find something that really captures your imagination, it may well be worth waiting to apply in the next UCAS cycle, when the full range of courses will be open again.
A second important academic consideration is whether or not you’d be able to get onto a course that was a better fit for you if you spent a year either retaking A Levels, doing additional ones, or gaining some other form of training or work experience. If you feel this is the case, then it would probably make more sense in the long term to make the short-term sacrifice of a year spent paying your dues and getting ready to do a course you truly wanted to do rather than just settling for one based simply on the criterion of them being willing to accept you.