Anyone know about clearing?

[Cheek2cheek]

DD has a place at uni to study one subject but she’s now decided she wants to do a completely different subject.

Is this something she can do through clearing, or can you only use clearing if you miss your grades and for the same subject?

Thank you.

Anyone can use clearing to pick any course that's available (no guarantees all courses will be available). One potential risk might be accommodation - people going for their first choice place (and often their second choice) will have been able to apply for accommodation already. There will also be some admin to do about her student loan.

Yes you can, it's quite normal

Exactly this re accommodation. Don’t underestimate the impact of this in Y1. My DS ended up in accommodation sharing with people from different years and different unis and we were lucky to find that. One of his friends stayed in a hotel for two months.

It can be very isolating - DS is very confident and determined so he made it work but it was very hard and not something you’d choose, when all the other freshers are partying together in their accommodation.

Does she want to stay at the same uni or a different one?

I would try and avoid it and apply for next year. Accommodation can be a huge headache. If it’s the same uni it might be easier. Ask their admissions. If it’s in clearing they might just swap her over and she keeps her accommodation.

Yep, you can go for any course that's available. I entered through clearing...failed 3rd year of a 7 year course. Started a new one (now my career so should have gone with that in the first place!) immediately after the summer holidays by applying through clearing.

Quite a few universities retain accommodation for Clearing students so it might be worth looking at these if it’s important to have a guarantee of accommodation. It’s quite often an entire Halls kept aside too so everyone who applied through Clearing was in together and in the same situation

As examples, 2 of mine went though Clearing & got university accommodation for their first year- 1 at Reading and the 2nd at Heriot Watt. Both made some great friends and socialised within their halls

If she wants to stay with the same university, and just change the course, she could contact the university now to request this. Obviously, if it's something totally different and more popular / had higher entry requirements, they may say no. Presumably, she has taken any required A level(s) for the alternative subject?

If she wants to change university as well, then on results day, she can release herself into Clearing. As a pp has already suggested, it would be a bonus if the course she wants is offered by a university guaranteeing accommodation to Clearing applicants.

https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/making-changes-your-application-after-you-apply#university-or-college

She can ring them and ask, probably after she has results. How similar is the course, is it within the same faculty for example?

One of mine decided to go through Clearing and was offered places in a similar subject at the University of Cardiff and the University of Reading, and in a different subject at the University of Exeter.

Was told one of them came with 'guaranteed accommodation' - but watch that because it's usually the expensive private halls with the 48 week leases they can't shift to anyone else. So gird your loins for that.

(I was on brandy by 11am that day.)

One of my nieces had a good experience of Clearing (including accommodation). She decided on A level results day that she wanted to go to uni, having not applied before then. She got in touch with the University of Leicester and received a Clearing offer and an invitation to visit that weekend. She came back from her visit having seen the campus and the available accommodation options, and accepted her offer & booked accommodation that evening. She’s still at Leicester and enjoying it very much.