Clearing 2023 - getting prepared short idiots guide to Clearing

[Ginola2345]

Long back story but DD will require a massive improvement in her results to be offered either her firm or insurance choice.

I have taken results the day off work to celebrate, relax or help with clearing. I don’t want to panic DD but if she misses out on both her firm and insurance I know she could would go into Clearing but I don’t know much about it.

Basically, in short what do we need to do first in 5 easy steps and what info do I/we need to have to hand to be ready to move quickly incase we need to? What I need is a short easy to understand ‘idiots guide to Clearing’ or 5 point brief instructions in bullet point form.

I have just googled and seen lots of links taking me back and forward I saw something about UCAS Extra and how do I find Clearing Helpline Numbers is it the normal admissions numbers or are these numbers different etc.

There are some good youtube videos that might help. I found the UCAS website difficult to navigate but these videos really help explain things.

UCAS Extra closed at the beginning of July, when Clearing opened.

The UCAS guide is the basic guide to what Clearing is and how it works.

As for whom / how to contact - I've just googled 'NTU', 'UEA' and 'University of Winchester' at random and the 'front page' that opens has 'join us in Clearing' all over it, along with how to contact them (phone number / live chat etc). Universities want to fill their courses, so are not going to hide the details away.

Your DD needs to have her Clearing number and personal ID no available - she will get this automatically if she hasn't met the conditions of either offer, or if she does still have a place, but decides she would rather not take it up and uses the facility on UCAS to put herself into Clearing instead. Giving the Clearing and ID nos. to universities she contacts allows them to access her details on UCAS ).

https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/clearing-and-results-day/what-clearing#:~:text=Where%20can%20I%20find%20my,Application%20status'%20in%20your%20application.

The day before results, have a look at which suitable courses are in clearing, make a list in order of preference with a note of how to contact them - could be phone, email, online chat. Might also be worth preparing one thing you can say that you like about each uni / course. (They may not ask this though.)

On the day, have your results, your UCAS ID and your clearing number to hand and start contacting. You might be on hold a lot, so rope in family members to help with the phoning so you can be speaking to one Uni while on hold to another.

Keep a record of which unis offer a place. You usually have a bit of time to make your decision so no need to just go with the first offer, spend the afternoon gathering a few options and then you can have a think about which you prefer. You could even visit before making your mind up if you have time.

I think that the unis confirm offers by email and then you add the one you choose to UCAS, but that might be wrong.

Help out your fellow students by promptly turning down anywhere you don't want, so they can offer that place to someone else.

Unis often have open days for clearing applicants after results, if you haven't been before.

Forgot to say - when making your list of possibles the day before, make a note of the exact title of the course with its UCAS code.

And any particular questions you have about each course or uni, eg how many people on this foundation course go on to the BSc, would I be guaranteed accommodation on campus, could I transfer to the masters after year 2 etc etc.

The thing I don’t understand is how you match your grades to universities in clearing.

Do they put their minimum required clearing grades on their website, and on UCAS?

I know often courses will drop required grades in clearing, but I don’t know how you know what they have dropped them to without phoning them, which seems very time consuming -surely then they are fielding lots of calls with people whose grades are too low for them? (In my day they were published in the newspaper).

Just confused as apparently clearing has already started.

@TabithaTwitchet
The best place to start is UCAS, you can search for courses in clearing and you will see a list of everything that's available, they all have a little bit of info like this pic (so including entry requirements). I searched for history and there were 1000+ courses at 100+ universities available but you can filter by entry requirements and by distance if you want.

Personally I would then check the uni website for any course you are interested in, I think UCAS is sometimes slow to update with changes.

Clearing is open now but the courses available (and maybe grades required) will change dramatically once they get the A level results and find out which of their offer holders are coming and which are not.

Ha forgot the attachment!

Also forgot to say that a uni might offer you a place on the spot, or might reject you on the spot if their course has already filled up, or might say they'll let you know by x date. This might be because they like you but have already maxed out their offers and are waiting for other clearing applicants to reject them. Or they might like you but they want to wait a bit to see if anyone with higher grades comes along.

So you might end the day with two yeses, a no and two maybes iyswim.

Students want the best uni they can get and unis want the best students they can get, so it's a bit of a juggle for a few days.

What others said; also there is a similar thread in H ed with some good answers.

A pp there had a great suggestion of a reporters notebook with the name of each uni on a fresh page - then add in grades needed, place y/n/maybe, accommodation? Open day etc.

I agree with roping folk in - some say “your 18yo must do it” and Yy they must sisal to the uni in the end but you need all the ppl you can get in the phones. It was me, dd and her head of sixth form at one point. DD’s lovely friend was there and kept our spirits up as it was a tough tough day. Dd pal was on hold to Cardiff for about 30 mins I recall.

The best websites list courses and grades needed on their home page but some are harder to find. Dd ended up at Uni of Leicester and in so many ways it was better for her.

Nice story ended the day - she had Leics offer and they had a clearing open day the next day (good idea!) - I said oh I cannot take another day off work (lots of ppl if fun school hols) and 16yo ds2, whose main occupation that summer was waiting for his GCSE results, says “I’ll go with her” bless him.

Best of luck to your dd @Ginola2345

Sisal the uni? Wtf? SPEAK TO the uni I meant

Sorry, I'm just very amused at the thought that short idiots might need a different guide from other idiots. Speaking as a tall idiot (as well as a fat oaf), I find this slightly reassuring.

I am no expert here but my friend was in the same position as you a couple of years ago
She managed to get her DC to contact a few universities on the Monday before results day and express her interest in their course.
On results day her DC was devastated by the results (even though they were expected) and in no position to make any decisions or calls herself.
But one of the unis called her about midday and offered her a place (in fact, from memory, 3 did). She accepted one of those places and is happily at that uni.
My friend thinks that she wouldn't have managed to sort anything out on results day itself and, although she might have done something in the day or two afterwards, it's unlikely she would have got the uni she went to.
From memory the unis she applied to were AAA-ABB, the uni that offered her a place was something like BBC on UCAS and she got CCD or CDD.
So if it's still possible to register an interest earlier that week it really might pay off.

Depending on which course you are looking for, you can pre-register with some universities now.

We have looked at Liverpool / Bangor and Exeter ( Exeter have really dropped the grades they are asking for already on their clearing courses on their websites)

You choose a course, give them your ucas details and Bangor for example call you on results day. They will be able to see your grades and the fact you are in clearing.

Have a look at Exeter clearing/ other uni and pre register for courses of interest

@Thefatbutteredpig she has offers from her firm and insurance and she would be happy with either its just the small matter of getting the grades.

In this instance surely she will still need to wait for results before applying to clearing or calling any Uni?

Exeter is about as far away from home as possible.

Having had a quick look at a few universities, some are inviting those who don't yet have results to register interest, e.g. Kent

https://www.kent.ac.uk/clearing/how-to-apply#priority-clearing

You can register interest now as a fall back

eg Bangor - you give them your details now and the course you wd like.

They then wait till results day, check your ucas and if they see you are in clearing and they see you have grades they would accept, they call you.

I only mentioned Exeter as this year they have also published the drop in grades they wd consider for clearing applicants.

This was what I meant. I forgot what it was called when I mentioned my friend above. My friend's dd registered an interest in 4 I think, 3 days before clearing. It was 3 of them that called her later on results day to offer her a place. My friend feels it was the most worthwhile thing they did during the whole process.

There is a Clearing Megathread on TSR (the details about the universities' ability to apply filters on the Clearing Plus facility are interesting, apart from anything else):
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7375264

So in order to do this, presumably you would have to find courses that displayed grade requirements as being lower than the offers you already had?

But wouldn't most applicants have a bit of a 'feel' for this, from when they first looked at courses, universities etc?

How did your DD come up with the universities she listed on her UCAS form?

Are her firm and insurance the (for want of a better word) 'better' universities in their respective locations, if there is more than one? If she l so, and she likes where they are, she could start by checking out the 'second' university there (NTU vs UoN / SHU vs Sheffield for example?).

I am in the same position as you OP.

DD needs AAB or ABB and is probably going to fall short.

She is first in family to go to Uni and I am feeling completely overwhelmed by information and process. Like you, we want to be prepared but I am not even sure where on the UCAS page the current clearing options are (would be grateful for a direct link). We also saw the clearing 'match' thing but can't see how to register.

Any prep we can do in advance would be great, but we aren't quite sure what that would be.

Feel so useless than I can't guide her very well.

@SlightlyJaded I may be wrong and there may now be a more efficient way of doing this, but four years ago we had to identify possible unis based on DD's criteria and then look on their websites and call them to see what their offer was and if she matched it.

So as an example; if your DC had offers for Uni of Nottingham and uni of Birmingham for biology with AAA, and they ended up with BBB, you could look now at less popular unis (so maybe Nott Trent or Leeds Beckett) to see what they were offering.

The uni still needs to be somewhere your DD will want to go - so you may have criteria around sizeof town/city, closeness to home etc - and the course obvs needs to be of interest.

To use my DD as an example, she had hoped to go to an RG uni and she finally took a place at Uni of Leicester - lower ranked as not RG and - well I don't know why it is lower ranked actually bc it was great. But anyway. If you know now that DD will miss her grades then it is a good idea to start looking. Where did she apply? Is there a lower ranked uni in those towns or cities that might work? I am thinking Leeds Beckett, NTU, UWE, Liverpool JM, Edge Hill, Birmingham City, Uni of Northumbria; if she really loved the city of Newcastle or Leeds then that is worth thinking about. HTH. If you want to say what and where for your DD I am sure we can search something up.

Here you go @SlightlyJaded

You can search by subject and it will list all the courses that are available. You can also filter for specific universities, how far from home, entry requirements etc

NB for courses with entry requirements listed as points instead of grades, you can convert as follows:

Å = 56 pts
A = 48
B = 40
C = 32
D = 24

So AAA = 144, BBB = 120, CCC = 96 etc

www.ucas.com/clearing-launch

All of the above and also don't hang about on the day. Get on the phone asap. Courses fill up in minutes, and you really need to have a priority list to work through. DD had to do it last year and had a choice of offers by 10am. However the first one she wanted literally disappeared as she was talking to admissions. She is so, so happy with what she ended up with though. Genuinely happier than I think she would have been at her first or second choice.

Gosh thanks

DD offers are both for Human Geog

AAB is Leeds
ABB is Newcastle

We are in London and she's pretty fixed on going "up north". Obviously these are both RG Unis and she may have to lower her aspirations but she'd really like to stick with Human Geog if she can.