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Almost two years ago to the day I received an email from my college about attending a UCAS Fair to look at potential universities. Here we are, and that time is rolling round again, now for a new cohort of students to start thinking about applying to uni.
The summer after my UCAS fair, having set my heart on a particular group of institutions, I opened a set of first year exam results (a replacement for the AS-levels, abolished a short time before) and my heart went through the floor. My grades were generally lower than anticipated and one was well below where I wanted it to be.
I thought this was the end of me attending my dream university. But, after some pretty difficult conversations, first with family and friends, and then with college, we arrived at a solution.
I wrote about my new pathway for Whatuni (you can read it here) but it essentially boiled down to this: waiting and applying to uni after I’d got my A-level results. In short, this meant a gap year ahead, with a view to applying alongside those who had begun college a year later.
So that’s what I did.
Taking the pressure off...
The first advantage of applying to uni after I had my A-level results, mere weeks after completing that very article, became clear. Christmas came, the panic ensued: teachers chivvying students into submitting on time (especially for Oxbridge and medical courses) and students pestering teachers to compete references, all before a hiatus in which homework was expected, as well as any final touches to personal statements.
By contrast, my Christmas was quiet and relaxed… I had no looming UCAS deadline and no one worrying that I wouldn’t apply on time. Instead, I had six months of relative peace in which to be properly prepared for my A-levels.
On top of that, when the exams arrived, I wasn’t as worried as my friends who had high-grade offers to live up to. I knew that, whatever happened on results day, I could apply to universities with the confidence of knowing I met their entry requirements.
Well, the day came. I got my A-level results and I was astounded. Taking the pressure off and putting all my energy in to my studies and not my uni application meant I had exceeded my most optimistic wishes.
This put things into a bit of a tailspin though: I hadn’t wanted to even hope for this kind of outcome for fear of disappointment. Now came the time for action and here were further advantages to my gap year decision…
I had received the results in August and I knew that, because I wanted to meet the Oxbridge deadline, I had until the middle of October to submit my application. I had spoken to my college before leaving about my decision (something I would highly recommend doing) and had got an assurance from them that they would still be able to give help where needed and submit my application with their references attached.
This is essential, as it makes the whole process so much easier. I had an email sent so that when the college returned from the summer holidays it would be there waiting. In the meantime, I set about writing my personal statement.
Confidence is key
There’s a lot of advice out there on this but, for the most part, I found that doing what felt right for me was the best way to go. There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula.
I focused on what interested me most about the subject I was applying to uni to study, detailing how I had pursued it up to this point and what I hoped university would offer. I added in a few other relevant things I had done (like writing my article for Whatuni, for example) but even that felt like a squeeze.
If you’re as invested in a subject as you want to be in order to spend at least three years only studying that one thing, you could talk about it for a whole lot more than 4,000 characters. But, unlike all those people who had applied a year before, I had more than a month, uninterrupted by homework and A-level revision, in which I could work out how to condense what I loved about my subject into those limited words.
On top of that, I felt so much more confident writing it than the attempts I had made whilst at college. I knew I had my grades and they were enough to meet the basic requirements, I had all my time to concentrate on showing the universities exactly why I wanted to study with them and why, hopefully, they would want that too.
A lot of editing and back-and-forth emailing with college later, I submitted my application; my former college attached the reference and it was gone. Days later, I received an offer.
Nailing the interview
I had applied to four institutions and this one had the lowest entry requirements, it was also the first I had visited, and I had loved it. I was over the moon: a favourite immediately and it wasn’t even past the 15th of October deadline!
Nine days later and in came the next. Then a third. I couldn’t believe it. These offers were coming in so quickly, and much earlier than likely while at college, because they were unconditional – I had already fulfilled the university’s requirements by obtaining the required grades and so I could go to any one of these without further pressure.
But I knew that my fourth and final university wouldn’t be so stress-free a process…
I had already had to complete an admissions test but yet again, I was able to devote all the time I wanted to my preparation for it because I was not constrained by college timetables. I was shocked when I received an invitation to interview and, once again, found my college very helpful – even though I was no longer a student.
They arranged a mock-interview for me - which was actually more intense than the real thing a week later! Even so, I came out of my first of two interviews at the university very unhappy. I felt I had not done myself justice at all.
The next day, I went to a second. This one was a lot less difficult, but I was still totally in the dark as to what the tutors thought of me. I left that night and I could not have told anyone what I thought the result was likely to be.
The one thing that did strike me while there, however, was the position of so many people around me. To look at and, for the most part, to talk to, they seemed to be in exactly the same position as me.
However, the majority were taking time out of busy college schedules to be there and, even if, a month later, they did receive an offer, as well as it being one that required a very high standard of performance, they would have to battle through another hugely stressful situation (their A-levels) to be in with a chance.
Of the people I got to know best over those couple of days I met one who was in the same position as me. When, in January, we both found out we had been offered places, we were happily and confidently able to say to one another, “See you in October.”
There's always a plan 'B'…
When applying to uni there is a lot of pressure and you also have the pressure of studying to cope with too. But as my story has shown, it’s okay if things don’t go so well at first, as you’ve got a year to change it.
Don’t worry too much if you don’t feel one particular aspect went that well, things aren’t always as they seem; take the time to get right what you’ve got control over. And don’t forget that if you don’t get the results you want, there are many options available to you – including taking a gap year or to go through Clearing.
If you decide to take a gap year, Whatuni have plenty of advice on what you can do during your year out.
But if you really want to get to uni this year and don’t want to wait a whole year, then you have the option of going through Clearing.
If that’s your choice, then Whatuni will have everything you need to find the perfect university and course for you. Click here for advice on how to find success with Clearing.
Just be prepared for all outcomes, and you might well surprise yourself. Good luck!
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