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!!

Does she need to go to uni for what she wants to do? Sounds similar to my brother who only just scraped an entry into university and did two years before having a near nervous breakdown and leaving in his third year. It was the best decision he could have made for him and he now out-earns everyone in the family by a long way. He felt pressured into going from both school and our parents. Some people are not great at learning through academic routes but absolutely thrive in the workplace and learning on the job.

A Foundation Degree is a two-year course, often with a 3rd-year top-up available at that uni or another one. It doesn't take an extra year.

Now, a Foundation Year, that is a different thing, and yes will take an extra year.

Sorry, cross post with@VeryHungrySeaCucumber . They’ve been much clearer in explaining options.

Pm me. I have recently been a Ucas advisor

OP, what were her GCSE grades?

Is she doing A levels or BTec? How many? Is she working hard and confident in her studying?

What would she like to study?

I do think for maximum worthwhile advice it would be worth letting us know what course your daughter is doing, and what degrees she's applied for. As a previous poster has advised she's applied to some decent universities, so not just some random "ex poly" types.

I'm also very surprised she had no idea she was getting the equivalent of 3 Ds before now (assuming BTEC/72 points).

Thank you all so much. It does appear she has been badly advised.
I am going to let her read these tomorrow and see what we can get from this. bloody hell what a shit show.

its fashion marketing. She is doing a level three in fashion marketing at college.
She didn’t get wildly good GCSE grades but she got 5.6,7 and an 8 so not to bad but not sure if that makes any difference to a uni application.

I don't want to be that person, but she doesn't seem to have even read the websites of the five she applied for - she can't have thought she'd get Distinction/ star if she's only gained a pass so far?

Which suggests that maybe her heart isn't really in university and she picked unachievable places so the decision was made for her. Which is obvs fine, but be aware she may be having second thoughts.

If she is only going to pass is it really the best course for her? Is it an extended level 3 ? What does she need to do to improve her grades? Gcses maybe considered , but primarily it would be her pg , reference and personal statement. Has she got any other UCAS points?

I agree with only being predicted 72 UCAS points she'll need to look at foundation courses. Whether these commonly come up in clearing I wouldn't know, but as it won't open until August you'll then have to think about student accommodation as most will have been booked up for months.

Did she really not know they were her predictions? I've never known a college to not give a student a general idea all the way through of how they're performing.

How did she pick the places she'd applied to? What was the criteria based on? Was there any input from her tutor or has she done it all herself?

@titchy thats the problem if I thought her heart wasn’t in it I’d be happy for her not to go but it’s all she wants.
she got good GCSE grades. All 9 were 5 and above.

In that case she needs to look at degrees with a foundation year eg https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduates/2024/45987-fashion-design-and-communication-ba-hons-fnd

Good luck.

She’s done it al herself. They said they would look through the personal statement but only did two days before it was submitted and not in person. That’s why her tutor shouted at her today because she said she was blaming her. They knew where she’d applied as they had to submit it and checked it all. Not the tutor but someone else at the college

*renowned

I think a foundation year looks like a good bet tbh. I did see one in Cardiff but maybe it’s booked up now though and she’s missed the space for this year

Another one to look at https://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/fashion-business-promotion-ba-hons-with-foundation-2024-25

Thank you all so much! Mumsnet is just the best when you need it. The foundation place looks like a good bet. I am going to arrange a meeting with the principle and see what’s happened.
her last piece is not submitted and she works really hard so hopefully she can pull her grade up anyhow. I have take.

Have you spoken to her fashion marketing teacher? Is it possible that her predicted grade is unfairly low, or is she struggling with the course?
If she really wants to do fashion marketing I would forget UCAS/university for now and concentrate on her level 3 course. How can she improve? The focus should be on gaining the highest possible mark she is capable of achieving.
She could then apply to university with her actual grade.

Another one to look at, UEL (University of East London)
Qualification requirements
UCAS Tariff - 64 points
A level - CC
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016) - MPP
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016) - MM

UCAS website seems to have 4 courses listed that have Foundation Years in Fashion Marketing. If she is willing to broaden into other related subjects, that will give her more options to research further. I haven't checked whether there are additional Foundation Degrees in this subject, they might have a different titles.

It is only January so hopefully she has scope to improve her grades, if that's too difficult to do in this short a time or she's stuck with a BTEC that she isn't going to be able to change and get the grades within, another option might be to do an Access course or single A-level (e.g. at nightschool) the following year while getting some relevant work experience. As before, do check with the uni departments what they would be looking for. IMO she might well get in with CD at A-level or PPP or MP in BTEC to a course listed as above if they have Extra or Clearing places, but IMO strategising while also upping her grades, even if only a bit, is the key thing IMO.

She could then apply to university with her actual grade.
This is also a good alternative strategy IMO.

Her GCSE grades are key here. I do find it difficult to believe that the college has given her no support with her application. If her personal statement was not properly checked is it because she waited until the last minute to submit it and there was no time to go through it?

If the college have given her no advice om applying for unis that give offers that are more achievable for her then they have indeed let her down. However, I am surprised that she does not seem to have looked on the websites for her chosen unis and looked at the likely grade offer.

Hi I know she’s not in sixth form but is she equivalent to yr 13? So has a year of post gcse study?

I'm currently going through UCAS and have received 3 of 5 of my decisions (3 offers)

The option of taking a gap year is a good one- she then knows what grade she holds in the subject she's studying and can make her choices accordingly for 2025 entry. She needs to find out what is pulling her grade down and how to make up the gap from where she is and where she wants to be. There is time. Is she able to resit any modules of her current course? Or alternatively if she doesn't achieve a high enough grade for the degree she'd like to do she can look at alternative options.

For example I have 'good' grades at A-level but not high enough or in the right subjects for the degree I want to do so I am currently studying an access course that's equal to 3 a levels and is a year long course. You do have to be 19 on the start date of the course but I believe there is a work around (as some of my class mates are 18!). I can ask around if you like to see how they got the course funded as mine is being funded through student finance.

Foundation years and foundation degrees are both viable options but not ones I know enough about to give you good advice.

The support from her college regarding applications sounds extremely poor but it seems like she may have been very close to their internal deadline and so her application was rushed through and not checked properly. But there realistically would have been enough time and wiggle room for this to be checked properly by the college as the UCAS deadline isn't till the end of the month. They should have given her a clear indication of her predicted grades though, as this is what unis base there offers on along side personal statements. I'm assuming there may be some portfolio based expectations for her course choice as well.

The advice I have always regarding picking courses is to make sure there is a good spread of entry requirements. For example my 5 choices ranged from A*AA thought to BBC. This covers you in terms of grades. The top grades being achievable but aspirational and the lowest being what you would get even if you got the lowest expected grades.

If she does go through UCAS again many unis offer workshops on writing personal statements. There are many exemplar personal statements to be found online if she struggles with formatting or simply the style Unis are looking for. To get into particularly competitive courses you have to show why you're a good candidate, what your experiences have taught you and to stroke the ego of academia somewhat. Going to and speaking to tutors at universities on open days is always a good idea as they may give her solutions to bridge the gap from where she is now to where she wants to be.

This isn't the end of the road for her passions though, she has plenty of options that she can succeed with.

Are you sure your daughter is being completely honest with you about her application? It doesn’t sound as if she has made particularly sensible choices on her UCAS form. It’s easy to blame the college, but right now you only have her word for it that the tutor shouted at her and that everything was rushed through at the last minute. There may be issues on both sides. In any case, it sounds as if a year out, getting some decent work experience and reapplying with grades in hand would not be a bad idea.