Clearing

Hey guys! This blog is going to be all about the UCAS process known as Clearing. For those of you who don’t know Clearing is something that you are entered into when you do not hold any UCAS offers of a place at University. Once you are in Clearing you can contact universities individually to see if they will accept you onto their course.

Clearing is a very high pressured and daunting situation. You have hundreds of thousands of potential students all fighting over the last few remaining places at university. Yet, there’s no reason to fear or to worry or to stress out, as long as you properly prepare and think about your actions!

Research what university you want to go to properly and what course you want to undertake. Ultimately it’s your choice to make as it’s your degree and you who pays the tuition loan so make sure you pick the choice that’s right for you!

There are plenty of good independent websites online that will provide you with impartial and accurate information about what university you want to do and where a certain course can take you in terms of your career and educational progressions. Once you have selected the universities and courses that you wish to apply for, then get prepared! Get all your affairs in order, so when you contact the university you can give them your UCAS number and then hopefully they can take an application from you and you can get a place. You also have to make sure that when contacting universities that you are actually in Clearing, i.e. you’re not holding offers or referred to any other institutions. You know you are in Clearing as it will say on your |UCAS track status: ‘In Clearing’.

Ultimately, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. If you are worried about receiving your results on August 16th, it doesn’t hurt to spend a few hours already online, looking at alternative universities and courses. So that if the worse should happen on results day, you are already prepared!

I hope that this little nugget of advice helps all of you who are reading this. Finally remember, the only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask…