Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Flip

Original poster

In clearing but so confused - we’re about to give up

17 replies

Lemons1571 · 17/08/2023 21:09

I feel like we have no idea what we’re doing, and probably doing it all wrong.

DS didn’t get the grades for his firm or insurance so both were unsuccessful and he had no offers. So he was put into clearing.

He got a clearing offer from a different uni and he added this into his ucas clearing portal. It now seems that this first clearing offer is now firm and binding? But he is working on other getting other clearing offers…. UCAS FAQ don’t seem to cover what to do next.

His insurance choice then accepted his clearing application but then said they’d probably reject him after all because of his grades. They spelt his email address wrong (they put icloudd with 2 D’s but they don’t know how many emails went astray because of this). So they think he should accept the provisional offer in the ucas hub so they can then formally reject him. We don’t understand this at all.

He can’t add their offer anyway because this other offer seems to be binding as we’ve prematurely added the application into ucas.

Honestly I can’t see the wood for the trees. Someone tell us what to do next!

OP posts:

LIZS · 17/08/2023 21:15

Has he called the ucas line? Think they open at 8am tomorrow if not. I thought a candidate could self release now.

Zanatdy · 17/08/2023 21:49

Are you in the ‘what I wish I knew about University’ group on FB? There’s some very knowledgeable people on there helping others.

Juja · 17/08/2023 21:50

Sorry I don't know about Clearing but here is a hand hold - sounds like a really tough day. Hope tomorrow brings more clarity ...

AdoraBell · 17/08/2023 21:56

Hang in there, my DD got caught up with the bloody algorithm in ‘20. Predicted A+ and allocated D by the genius government. Took a week to sort that but she got a place.

Rummikub · 17/08/2023 21:57

Does he want to go
to the uni he’s holding an offer for?

Self release is declining firm offer then going into clearing. I don’t know if can self release from a clearing offer.
if not then he can ask the uni to release him from this contract.

Then go back into clearing.

Today I had a student change their mind about their offer. They’ve rang the uni they want and have been told to reject then go into clearing. Which feels v risky for him. All I can do is go through pros and cons with him.

BaldButNotOut · 17/08/2023 22:12

I agree talk to ucas. Do it while logged into the Hub and reading out exactly what he sees on there.

Does he want the offer he's got with this new course? Is it Unconditional? If it is, and he wants it, he can reply Firm and that's it he's got a place.

I'm guessing the former insurance offer is an invitation to apply to them - no point doing that if they're going to reject him. Let them sort out their own paperwork.

On the other hand if they do want him, and he wants to go there, he'll have to Decline his existing offer and wait for the insurance to make him an Unconditional offer. Which is risky as they don't have to do that, and in the meantime he'll have declined the offer he's got.

But he doesn't have to do anything tonight. Bed for both of you, and ring ucas and the former insurance in the morning.

Bunnyannesummers · 17/08/2023 22:25

You can only add one clearing choice to UCAS at a time so the normal thing would be to get a few clearing offers and then pick the one you want most and add to UCAS.

Is the offer he’s added to UCAS from his insurance or another uni? Not totally clear from your post sorry.

He should be able to self release from his offer he’s added to UCAS but that means he will loose that clearing offer

Original poster

Lemons1571 · 17/08/2023 22:31

@Bunnyannesummers the offer he’s added to ucas clearing, is the offer from a completely different uni.

His original firm and insurance offers rejected him this morning.

The “insurance uni” new offer can’t be added as well. But it doesn’t even seem like a proper offer - their email suggested it can be added to the ucas hub but the insurance uni’s phone line clearing team say he’ll be rejected later down the line.

We've basically mucked it up by adding a clearing offer into ucas too soon. He may or may not eventually choose this. Depends what else happens.

OP posts:

Bunnyannesummers · 18/08/2023 00:16

What does the insurance unis email say? If it’s a ‘we want to make you an offer’ email it’s legally binding

Bunnyannesummers · 18/08/2023 00:20

He can carry on ringing round and getting clearing orders if he wants to. Nothing preventing that. He’ll just have to release himself from the clearing off he already has in ucas to swap it over.

The situation with his insurance sounds more complicated. Am I correct that

they were his original insurance choice
he has applied to them through again through clearing
they have emailed him an offer.

if that’s the case then it’s a legally binding offer. I’m not sure why you’ve also called them and where that conversation came from/what it entailed?

Original poster

Lemons1571 · 18/08/2023 03:31

@Bunnyannesummers the offer from the insurance says “we would like to make you a provisional offer”. It then says this offer is dependent on him meeting the clearing condition grades, and details out what these are and that they would be checked.

He didn’t quite get these grades. But the initial clearing person we spoke to had put that he did, based on him part meeting the grades.

He got the grade required in the core subject (part condition met). But not the total points from the 3 a level grades combined.

OP posts:

Fourcandlesx · 18/08/2023 06:58

We went through all this yesterday so I know exactly what you are talking about. You can get as many provisional offers as you like but, as someone else said, you only put the one you want to accept onto UCAS. If he definitely doesn't want the one he has accepted then he can decline it but will lose that place. As far as the university are concerned though he has accepted the place by adding them so he needs to decline it if he doesn't want to attend. He won't be able to add another choice until he rejects the current offer - important to note that there will be a deadline to add the next choice to UCAS too before the offer expires and this deadline will be in the provisional offer email.
With regards to his insurance choice we used an online form which led to a provisional offer within a minute (certainly before anyone would have read it) there were a number of boxes where you had you confirm you met criteria e g. Grade 4 and above in English, and there was a combination of A level grades. The provisional offer said it was subject to meeting the conditions on the form so I think that it is definitely possible he could get automatically rejected as it sounds like the person he spoke to on the phone has just filled out the online form on his behalf rather than making an actual decision. If he really wants the course at his insurance he might have to phone again and try and get a decision. I suspect that if he puts it on UCAS they will either reject him straight away or leave him waiting until they see if they have filled the course with meeting meeting the offer grades. It's far more automated than I was expecting and lots of my son's friends have been through similar, although the decisions were made quite quickly. The good thing is that it's the second day now so the universities will probably have a good idea how full the courses are and decisions will be made quickly. Anyway, in summary I think he needs to phone again if he really wants the course and see if he is able to get an offer over the phone with the grades he has. The alternative is to decline the one currently on there, add the insurance uni offer and wait and see what comes back.

Original poster

Lemons1571 · 18/08/2023 10:28

@Fourcandlesx thank you, that’s about it in a nutshell. It’s had to be abandoned today as we’re all at work for the next 3 days and it wasn’t possible to take a second / third day off. Not great but unavoidable. Going to try and visit some uni’s next week. I never realised that we might need to take up to a week of annual leave to sort out such a chaotic situation. Perhaps we’re unusual…

OP posts:

Rummikub · 18/08/2023 12:18

Could he go visit the uni by himself? He can walk around the uni area and town/ city. See if he likes it.

loveclipbook · 18/08/2023 12:25

Google Earth is good for getting a feel for places without travelling there.

titchy · 18/08/2023 12:31

He really needs to phone his insurance (and any others that he's interested in) back today, waiting till next week could mean they've filled whatever vacancies they had and he's stuck with the one he's formally accepted.

He must get a lunch break at work?

Postapocalypticcowgirl · 18/08/2023 12:43

Lemons1571 · 17/08/2023 22:31

@Bunnyannesummers the offer he’s added to ucas clearing, is the offer from a completely different uni.

His original firm and insurance offers rejected him this morning.

We've basically mucked it up by adding a clearing offer into ucas too soon. He may or may not eventually choose this. Depends what else happens.

Can he self release from this offer, like a firm or insurance offer? There should be a button to press if he can, and it will guide him through a few questions.

If he can do this, then he should then be able to add a new offer i.e. the one he now wants.

If he can't, if he hasn't already, then phoning UCAS for advice on next steps would be best!

Flip