Rejected from all five choices

[Rolla23]

So I’ve no experience of further education and totally unsure how it works. My DD is at college and has applied through UCAS to university. She didn’t know her predicted grades before she applied so applied to 5 universities. She found out today that she has only been awarded a pass grade ( as a predicated grade) so this means she hasn’t been accepted to any of her chosen unis. They aren’t big posh ones I don’t think they are just normal ex poly type ones.
she has said no one gets rejected from all 5 choices.
Obviously her actual grade would possibly be different.
Do people get rejected from all five? If she does only get 75 ucas points can she still go to uni?
she said her chosen uni take people on a first come first served type offer so even if she passes now with a higher grade she won’t get in? Is this true?
if anyone could help a confused parent that would be amazing!!

Sounds like she was poorly advised by her college, which isn't great.

From March, she can use "UCAS Extra" to try finding a place.

https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/types-offer/extra-choices

If she has no success, she will need to use the "Clearing" system on results day in August which matches students with vacancies.

In either case, she should be looking at "foundation" courses in her chosen subject area. Good luck!

The tutor today started shouting at her saying she was being blamed. She applied to unis that needed 150 ucas points but she’d been predicted the bottom grade.
i didn’t know that it could be that they advised her badly? So should they have informed her she was predicted a low grade?

If they knew where/what she applied to then absolutely the college should have forewarned her if her pd would not meet the standard offers. However she can add more choices in line with their expectations.

This makes total sense! Thank you. I had no idea.

I can't speak for every school/college, but it's unusual that the student has no idea about predicted grades at the time of application.

Really?! They told her if she wanted to know she had to pay UCAS. Unless she has misunderstood.

Oh dear this is all sounding worrying. It is beginning to sound like she has been misadvised.
she’s at a college and her tutor doesn’t seem to be great to be honestly. I think she has lots of industry experience but isn’t the best teacher.
I just thought they knew what they were doing….

You get your predicted grades from your school or college, not UCAS. It sounds like either she's misunderstood or the tutor has!!

It sounds like she’s been badly advised, but it’s too late to change that now. If she thinks she’s predicted 75 UCAS points, she should spend time researching potential courses so that she’s ready to apply for them when UCAS extra opens.

75 ucas points is low, what does she want to do (re courses)

I would say, not only should she know her official predicted grades, at this stage she should have an idea anyway of what she's going to get anyway. Do the college not support them with uni applications at all?

I just checked with her and her tutor kept saying she wasn’t worried about her getting in but she must have known then that she was marked so low she wouldn’t

She should definitely have been told her predicted grades (by the school) before she applied, so that she could apply for places that she had a realistic chance of being offered.

Clearing could be a good option if she thinks that her actual grades will be better than her predictions. That's in August after the results come out.

It sounds like she might do better to reapply after she has her grades? Either via clearing or she takes a year out and applies again.

I think clearing is her best option. I also think she might do better at her final piece.
gosh this is so stressful. No one in my family has ever been to university so I have no experience of what to expect.

Where did she apply - 150 tariff points is Distinction/distinction star kind of grade - equivalent to 3 A grade A levels - that's not an ordinary ex-poly type of offer - that's a very selective university offer.

Did she think she was going to get a distinction? Did she check typical offers of the five she chose?

It does sound as if she has though been incredibly badly advised though. She (with your help) really needs to be a lot more careful now, and really read uni websites for typical offers and be much more realistic. As a pp has said, she can still apply but the process is a little different and dependent upon vacancies.

Firstly, she will not be the only 1 to receive no offers, but she will be given an extra choice, as others have said.

Secondly, while some schools/colleges don’t share the exact predicted grades her application has to be approved by the college and so they should have checked her choices and had a conversation about whether they were realistic. Unfortunately, unless she isn’t being upfront about what she was told, her college have provided very poor careers guidance/support.

75 UCAS points is pretty low, and also not a usual points offer. From your reference to a Pass I assume she’s studying BTECs of some kind. One other thing to be aware of is that not all unis/courses will accept BTECs.

When searching for another course she should use UCAS but then also double check the entry requirements on the university’s own website.

Oh sorry it was 120 points. So I think it was we Leeds Manchester met and Nottingham.
She got the lowest possible. 72 ucas points. Now you’ve said it I wonder why they let her apply when she had no hope. The principle told her today to stop panicking as she hadn’t heard from Nottingham but I looked at the course and could see it needed 120 points so she won’t get in.

Oh it’s 72 points not 75

What is she studying?

She absolutely should have had her predicted grades preapplication, that is not acceptable from the college if they didn't do that.

How could she not know her predicted grades? Is she doing A levels, because they should be giving her predicted grades, not points and 75 points is not a valid calculation. 72 points would be three Ds.

It sounds like either she has been misadvised or she has misunderstood information she has been given. It's also surprising there were no open evenings, seminars or online meetings for parents. At my son's state 6th form parents were given an almost overwhelming amount of info.

You should also establish what have they based her predicted grades on. Then you can work out if they are realistic, or if it's likely she can significantly improve upon them by May.

Also what course has she applied for?

The tutor today started shouting at her

In what world is this okay? Tutor probably has something to be defensive about, and just the shouting at her is worthy of a complaint regardless. If the tutor has an issue, that's for the tutor's line manager, not aimed at the student!

Firstly OP, to help you. It's generally called Higher Education for university, not Further Education. Firstly some ex-poly universities are considered prestigious now either in some subjects or across the board, and require high grades. Some are also very large while some reknowned universities are actually quite small.

Many that offer Foundation Degrees or lower entry grades for 3 year degrees do very well in the teaching rankings and do good work for local students who can't move away and also for slightly less able students and those that do not come from HE-experienced backgrounds, haven't had the same opportunities in school, etc. It's worth having a look at all the different types of guides including the teaching and student satisfaction, for specific subjects. Foundation Degrees are usually vocational, quite practical, and a 3rd-year top-up is often available for students that want to go in that direction. Advanced apprenticeships generally have Foundation Degree or degree-level study in them too.

She should be able to access careers advice independently, you could try asking the local council as a starting point. She could also try to speak to admissions tutors on the courses she is interested in, or go to Open Days at universities that might be offering at the right grades for her, and ask these questions. There is a lot of information on UCAS's website and university websites about likely offers.

Universities are keen to widen participation and are interested in students from backgrounds such as first-in-family. They often have schemes such as visit days, summer schools, mentoring, speak-to-a- student. Some universities also have Foundation Years (for which a student loan is available) for students such as your daughter, if they think they have potential but need more preparation. Universities often have bursaries to help towards costs for first-in-family and other underrepresented groups, if this applies.

Even if your daughter ends up resitting or doing an Access course, all is not lost. I've known people be rejected from all 5 at the first go who are doing very well now. In her case, it's obvious why this has happened. There are strategies for making the best of Clearing too. These days I believe that you can also change course during that August process if you have accepted somewhere before that, and do better than predicted, if places are available. Or you can reject the place and start again with UCAS the following year.

Although Man Met is an ex-poly, it's a pretty competitive one. The other two are Russell Group and very very competitive. She's chosen very poorly. Not helped by college.

What degree does she want to take at uni? Is there an option to do a foundation degree? Usually an extra year but lower starting point.

One other thing to be aware of is that not all unis/courses will accept BTECs.

It's also important to know that these days many will, at the right grade/points level and where the subject studied is relevant to the degree being applied for. I doubt this is the problem unless the student has applied for uni courses for which she simply wouldn't be qualified even with better grades. It'll likely be the grades mismatch.