Daughter wishes to go to university this year

[CountryClaire]

Daughter (19) has decided she wants to go to university this year.
She has found a private university that will take her. Will any of the main institutions consider an application at this late stage?

It depends where she wants to go and what she wants to study but if they have vacancies and she has the qualifications they will take her. You would need to phone the Admissions Departments to find out. Accommodation might be tricky as that will all be settled by now. She might be better off applying for next year and taking a purposeful gap year.

Which subject and where will be crucial

Thank you. She is interested in London, Birmingham, Reading, Oxford Brookes. We have family in all those locations. Criminology and Psychology.

By "this year" does she mean within the next few weeks? Some universities have courses starting twice a year, in September and January, eg London Met.

Clearing might still be open at some universities. But that option will greatly restrict the course options available to her, than if she applied for next year.

Is the private university genuine? What courses does it offer and is it a subject she definitely wants to study or is she just settling because she can start now?

Well she needs to get in the phone to the admission teams in each place now and ask if they have any space. I would have thought Birmingham university is unlikely given its RG. You might get a space in a London university which asks for lower grades.

Isn’t Buckingham the only private one?

Did she apply through UCAS at all this year? What’s the situation with student finance if she needs loans?

Best bet is to contact each place and just ask the question. But accommodation is going to be your biggest barrier. Many places can’t accommodate all applicants in the “usual” cycle

She might end up regretting accepting the only thing available just for the sake of starting a course this year. Better to take a gap year and get on a course that she actually chooses

Google says five but two of those are the old law school and are not universities as most would understand them

@Plexie
Thank you re London Met.
@Dannexe she would be OK with Aston. Elite wouldn't suit her.

Don't hang around talking about it; get on the bloody phone! It's freshers week this week at DD's Uni, teaching starts next Monday. Many others are a week ahead and teaching starts today. If she can find somewhere that can take her, you've got a lot to organise.

I would be very wary about private universities. The degree may not be worth the paper it's written on. Better to speak to established ones and she'll likely have a better time in a proper institution with proper support too.

If it’s Buckingham that has accepted her it’s legit and has been around gif decades

@VanCleefArpels
She didn't apply anywhere. She has had a gap year due to illness. She has worked a bit.

@Dannexe no, not Buckingham. It looks like a blended learning organisation.

It doesn't sound like that's going to be a degree worth having.

The mind boggles as to what a “blended learning institution” is!!

Really important to get this right countyclaire especially if she has already had some setbacks. Not all degrees are made equal!

@Novum
I have just checked London Met thanks @Plexie @VanCleefArpelsnd they have the course with a January start date.

Sorry phone playing up!

We were booking Dd onto open days the other day and each one the front page says apply with UCAS for this year and a phone number. So it's not too late get her UCAS application done and look at everywhere that has what she's looking for.

London Met is almost always bottom of University league tables. It was going bust a few years ago.

It’s not worth going into debt for a degree from a bottom ranked university. She’ll never get into a selective masters or good career path. Can she stick to the plan and take a gap year? Or resit & improve upon her a-levels to get in somewhere excellent next year?

Arden presumably? It's legit. (Offers a choice between distance, distance and face to face, and face to face only - that's what blended means.)

Arden yes. We have spoken to London Met now. She is dojng her research.

She needs to check out accommodation options - many uni halls are over flowing with demand met from private halls so London might be an issue.

She also needs to be aware that it'll take SFE a while to assess her for maintenance loan so you'll have to sub her till the loan comes through.

A "blended learning organisation" is likely to be mainly a scam for fleecing fees from you as quickly as possible. Only go with a reputable actual (non private) university. Private universities are not like private schools, you don't get a better quality. They are unregulated and may not offer good value for money.

Criminology and Psychology courses are always massively oversubscribed. No good quality course will have any places left now.

Clearing is open until 18 October so she should go onto UCAS and see whether the course she wants is available in clearing anywhere.

She needs to start a student finance applications as soon as possible too once she has a place if she intends to access finance