Rejected to do nursing

[jemimapyjama]

Hi, I have just heard that I won't be offered an interview to do nursing and they won't give me any feedback as to why and I really don't know what to do next. I emailed the admissions tutor a few months ago looking for advice as to what I can do to make myself eligible and she advised me to do a short OU course which I did and got really high marks in so I was stupidly feeling quite confident about my application when I handed it in.

Without knowing why I was rejected it's really hard to know what to do, should I try and get work experience (I have lots but it was a long time ago) maybe I should do another OU course, I'm quite happy to do whatever it takes but without knowing what the problem was it's hard to know how to fix it. There's also always the chance I was rejected because of the mental health problems I suffered, though I've been well for 4 years now I was poorly for a long time and maybe that put them off.

So gutted.

Sorry for the long winded post and any advice would be gratefully received.

It's very odd that they aren't offering feedback. Although I'm sure It would take ages to give feedback to every single applicant, I would expect them to give a one-liner to someone who was bothered enough to ask for it. Do you know anyone on the admissions or course team by name that you could drop a call or email to?

If that fails, go to the next open day for the course and go through your application with an admissions tutor again to see where it needs to be strengthened. You could discuss your medical then and if it is the bar to entry you will at least know to stop wasting your time and money with further OU courses for a degree programme you have no chance of getting onto.

I've been looking at applying to do nursing next year, have been to a few open days at unis.
Do you have 5 gcse s at c or above? One admissions tutor I spoke to said they do not accept the level 2 literacy and numeracy but this varies from university to university.
If your experience was a long time ago, you should try and get some up to date experience. Apparently they are quite keen on community experience rather than ward experience, and if someone has worked in a care home, they also like them to have clinical experience, so people who work in care homes also have to do some volunteering!
If you look on the website of the university, it will tell you what they like their mature students to have, some will accept nvq 3, but some othere will only accept access, and some will only accept access with a certain amount of credits at merit and distinction.
One thing that an admissions tutor said puts him straight off is if on the application form you say 'I want to get a job as a nurse' apparently he wants you to say 'I want to become a nurse' to show that you realise it's more than just a job
Have you applied to more than one uni if possible? I will be applying to 3 and what they will accept varies quite a lot.
Sorry I don't know anything about whether they are allowed to reject you due to past health problems. Isn't that discrimination?
Both the unis I have looked at have 10 applicants for one place, so I think you really have to do a lot to stand out.
Good luck!

Did you apply for this year? Could it just be that you applied late and they are full up?

It was very competitive this year, so I've been told. At the uni I was accepted for I think it had almost double the applicants than last year.

What quals do you have other than the OU? I only had gcses so have done an access course, this could be an option?

Also, I'd recommend applying for more than one uni. I applied for 5, got offered interviews at all of them and was accepted by the two that I went to the interviews for. I think as long as it's doable for you, it's better to not place all your eggs in one basket iyswim?

Your mental health issues don't matter at all - theyre not allowed to discriminate. I have a history of PND and i think this actually helped me to get accepted onto my (mental health nursing) course as they could see how passionate I was about doing it.

Could you try to go through clearing? I know of at least two people that were offered places on my course and chose to go elsewhere so there's always that option?

Thanks to you all for your advice, after quite some time moping I have decided to get up and on and try again for next year. I can't do an access course as I cant get any funding for my childcare but there is an OU equivalent I can get on in time if I pay for it myself (£700!!). I'm also applying to work as a mentor to ex-prisoners and will try and get a shift in a care home so I'm covering all bases, hopefully. Congratulations MrsMeow on getting onto a course and I'm going to take your advice about applying to different uni's, it's tricky as I'm a single mum and would have to move if I only got offered a place the one thats a couple of hours away but I guess it would all be worth it in the end.

x