Cardiff is a great Uni having visited it recently. DS applied to do Business there this year having opted for a gap year he didn’t have the exact grades but was offered a place.
However, he had also applied for a wild card course at Cardiff Met ( course is not available at most RG/top unis at undergraduate level usually only as MSc) and has totally changed direction. He can still go back to business at MSc level if he wants but the course he has chosen is vocational. It won’t lead to a super high salary but it will facilitate travel post graduate.
My Dniece has just graduated from Cardiff, she took her A levels ( or rather didn’t ) in 2020, realised her choice of Uni had been based entirely on where her friends were going and went into clearing, picking up a place at Cardiff which was far better than her insurance Uni. She spent a yr out with a global company and is now doing her MSc this coming year at Cardiff. She didn’t get the job she wanted because she lacked the MSc despite being short listed with those that did. So hopefully she will be successful in the future. Her first yr was spent locked up in halls, she was lucky that she was allowed on campus due to lab time needed. I think she is looking forward to an extra year as a normal student after her first two years were during the pandemic.
A gap year is a great time for them the take a break from education, learn a bit about life. Earn some money, DS is currently earning £500-700 a week labouring for a friend’s dad’s building firm. He has learned how to dry wall and lay floors, use various power tools and is on the books so can work during future breaks from uni.
My other niece worked for one of the big breweries in her gap year, did a management course and is now on their books for relief management. She has since graduated and worked in her chosen field but still does the odd shift for extra money. Where ever she ends up settling she can pick up shifts.
Building up a network during a gap year can be a valuable asset. Any part time work usually requires some experience so working in a gap year gives you an advantage.
Over 30% of DS’s year (2023) have taken a gap year. Mostly because they were the cohort that had so much disruption to their exams. When DS finished his exams last year I asked him how he felt about them. His answer was, “ I’m just relieved that they didn’t cancel them” I hadn’t even considered this but having been the year whose GCSEs were cancelled, an unprecedented move, it was probably their main concern. Also they were all annoyed about the dramatic return to pre 2020 grade boundaries. I do think that a more graduated approach would have been kinder for 2023 and 2024 because the elevated grade offers haven’t come down, the reason why so many unis went into clearing.
DS also had extenuating circumstances, the older wiser him now no longer attributes his grades to his situation at 6th form but accepts that he was complacent and lazy. He could have caught up, and did manage to elevate DDE mocks to BBB but was capable of much more. I disagree, I was diagnosed with cancer two weeks before he started yr12 and his DF had a stroke 6 months later. I defy any 17 yr old to manage the anxiety he must have gone through during yr12. His mental health was very low in yr11, he was devastated when the GCSEs were cancelled, as he said “all that work for nothing”. He was actually contemplating suicide and got as far as writing a note. Breaking the news that I had cancer was fraught because he was still very fragile at that point. However, it seems to have the opposite effect and he is now in a much better place. He is adulting well and no longer teenage navel gazing. He had to grow up quickly and is no longer a “why me?”.
There is no rush. Support your daughter in whatever decision she makes. DS was a bit wobbly last yr thinking he’d missed the boat but is better prepared to leave home now and far happier with his choice.