Not in the country on A Level results day. Advice needed

[BrunchBarBandit]

I had an absolute brain glitch this week. In applying myself to the conundrum: we want to have a family holiday in summer holidays, and my DD18 wants to also go away with friends but needs to back at a set date, I was delighted to have arranged flights for the three of us for 2 weeks with DD to leave us after 10 days, and I started booking accommodation which meets all these parameters.

Except…I forgot about A level results day and uni admissions confirmations. I don’t know how I didn’t think of it. We’ve been discussing offers, offer-holder days, mock exams constantly so it’s not an after thought.

As it stands DD is due to be in Amsterdam on 13th August and the rest of us will be flying back from a different part of Europe that afternoon.

DD is our oldest. We’ve not done this before. They’re hard-working on on track to achieve pg: Astar, A, A. But of course anything can happen I get that. I have no idea if she’ll be able to sort out complicated admissions issues.

I’ve emailed her tutor to ask for advice on planning for clearing, and how much oversight I need to be prepared to provide (she’s pretty independent and motivated) but I do wonder whether we should all cancel our bookings now and prioritise the uni admissions.

What would you do?

Has anyone any experience of their DC handling this without direct parental support and from holiday?

Hey @op I don’t have experience of your specific situation. My DD went through clearing a few years ago, and two years later DS2 got his A level results. For DS, it was all straightforward – he was accepted by his firm choice, happy days. One thing he did need to do pretty soon IIRC was log on to the accommodation portal and sort out his halls place. Obvs how this is done varies from uni to uni (and for some unis it’s done in advance anyway); I’m thinking this would have been perfectly possible to do from another country as long as you had good WiFi and made sure you logged in on time.

For DD in clearing tho I would not have wanted for her to be in a different country or for me not to be with her. I know lots on MN say it’s up to the student to handle this and I do get that, but DD is ND and really needed support from a) the school and b) me on the day. It was a very long and stressful day with many many phone calls (tho tbf we were not well prepared; I would advise a good look beforehand to see what is in clearing in case it’s needed). At the end of the day she had a number of good offers, inc one for a very promising uni which had a clearing offer holder day the following day. She went to that, chatted to the HoD, saw the uni and decided to accept the offer. So that would also have been impossible if she was in another country.

All that is worst case scenario. If your DD is likely to make her offer or happy to research clearing in the days before results day it might be less of an issue. Tbh tho I would rebook the holiday if at all possible.

We did clearing over the phone/internet so as long as she is capable and has access to that she should be fine. It's obviously not ideal, but I sorted DS's with me sitting in a bar on the South Coast and him 300 miles away.

DS missed his offer this summer. It was helpful to discuss things with teachers and friends. Ultimately he decided to appeal an A level… teacher advised against it. Grade went up. He rejected his insurance and found a the course he wanted at Bristol… called them up from car park and was accepted. I’m glad we were at home but it would not have been end of world if we’d been abroad. That said we did discuss dates of hols and all agreed we should be at home for results.

This is really helpful thank you

That’s just the validation I was looking for 😆

I need to think about it further and talk to a few folks though

That does sound quite full on.

Thanks for replying. It was good to read your experience

I'm a former academic who used to deal with clearing -- I've taken phonecalls from beaches, airports. laybys and someone WWOOFing in the south of France, who was standing in the middle of a field.

on results day, with both of our older 2 (now aged 23 and 20) we found that the universities sent emails saying - congratulations on getting your place, before the school results came out.
For one of ours, he had missed the grades but got an acceptance email anyway which was pretty nice.

You do need ot be by a phone. And not travelling.
You need to arrange to collect results not in person. That may mean nominationg someone else to collect.
If you don't get the expected results, you need to contact the university concernced and see if they will take you anyway
Then you can immediately put in for clearing and see what is available. Those places get snapped up pretty quickly, but not all on day one.
So pefectly possible with a bit of planning, have phone numbers and websites ready etc.

The worst part is if she is really upset at missing the grades and then needs some emotional support.

Good post from @steppemumbut I would just say that tho everyone always says call the first choice uni to see if they’ll take you anyway - IME this is a waste of a call. The uni has had everyone’s results for a while and if it wanted you, sorry, it would take you - I know plenty of YP who got a “yes” email at 8am even tho they had missed the grades.

If you didn’t get that then calling won’t make any odds. You’ll just get through to a clearing call handler who will have zero discretion to accept you.

I was away on my results day - the school faced them to me (fax, it was a long time ago!)

DD is our oldest. We’ve not done this before. They’re hard-working on on track to achieve pg: Astar, A, A. But of course anything can happen I get that. I have no idea if she’ll be able to sort out complicated admissions issues.

Are her firm and insurance offers A-star AA, or is there some wriggle room?

Could you at least get to Amsterdam to be with her on 13th if required?

If you are willing to give an idea of subject and uni, posters may have a view on how likely an offer with a missed grade would be.

Thanks
She is waiting to hear from LSE for politics which she would want to firm if she gets one, but I suspect there wouldn’t be much wriggle room there if she missed a grade. She could firm KCL which is Astar AA (if she doesn’t get offer from LSE) and QML is insurance ABB or BBB. Other offer is Edinburgh AAB and also waiting for Imperial. All politics, some with IR and another with Social anthropology

Edit to add, if it’s a disaster I can fly straight to Amsterdam if needed.

It is often possible to get an idea ahead of results day what courses are in clearing (eg some unis will put up their expected courses the night before).

Is DD meeting friends in Amsterdam? Do any of them have uni applications in train?

Where has she applied and what grades is she likely to need, as they’ll make all the difference

My eldest didnt get the grades and was rejected from thier firm and insurance.

The college had support on site for anyone in that position and it was very much an in person thing.

Clearly if you get the grades or tgey flex its not much if an issue being away.

Check process for a review of marking. If they are a mark or two off grade boundary they may want to do that. It was paper form and cash at DD’s sixth form, others may differ. It’s quite a tight timescale for a review.
Obviously very rare but there are scenarios of lost papers by exam board etc but school should assist.

Given she’s predicted Astar AA and her insurance is ABB - there’s plenty of wriggle room. She’s very unlikely to be needing clearing. Will she definitely be happy to take the insurance offer though?

It is a HIGHLY emotional day and she could have a wobble esp if only just misses the firm. So double & triple check the likelihood of no longer fancying the insurance.
If ok, she’ll be fine. If she’s with friends in Amsterdam they’ll probs give her the emotional support required if she misses her firm.

The other issue to consider is if she’s a mark away from her required grade & school suggest an appeal. This requires a very quick turn around & for the firmed university to be contacted - so double check with school how this would work.
PS you’re not the only one who books holidays over results day - we did too for DD2; also totally unintentionally! luckily she was very happy to go to her insurance!

Just to add contrary to other poster's experience my DS did get into his first choice course after a phone call, when he didn't quite get the required grades. He went on to get a good degree.

Ah that's interesting and well done to him. Can I ask if this was recent? Only bc I don’t know if the process has changed. It does seem odd that a uni would effectively reject you (it has the grades and can make a decision) and then reconsider. But happy days for your DS.

A number of DD's and also DS2's pals got a yes by email at 8am, went to collect grades and discovered they had done less well than they thought (but still been accepted as the uni was happy to take them (assume lots of people at those unis had missed their grades).

Good post from @NotDonna - yes @BrunchBarBandit if your DD's insurance is such a long way down from her firm/PGs then it’s most likely fine as long as she is still happy with it.

I’d say talk to her, if she’s a confident and capable girl she’ll be able to sort it all out with a decent wifi connection. Other kids will be their parents on hand immediately to help.

it’s not ideal but this won’t be an unusual situation

In essence if she gets the grades / gets accepted by her first or insurance then it's really easy

if not then it can be a bit manic working through the options like going for a remark if she's one / two marks off, clearing etc and a lot of quick thinking - your diaghter will have to do all of this herself but with your support so would she be happy tackling this on her own on Amsterdam until you arrive? It's intense if it doesn't go to plan but doable but would you want this on your holiday? Where you are planning to go is there good reception/ WiFi - or more remote as this will enable you to move quickly if needed. All things to consider!

Could you move your flight to day before? If you’re in the air your dd might be struggling with clearing and feeling a bit abandoned.

Also if you go to huge lengths to rearrange things - pretty much a guarantee she’ll hit her PG haha

Given her insurance is much lower than her preferred then she will almost certainly get that offer. If she doesn’t get ABB then, going by last year, she’ll have lots of options in clearing. I would recommend her having a list of her preferred unis for clearing options.

The other thing to be aware of is that over the past few years many unis have accepted students with grade drops this includes Durham, Exeter, Bristol. This might not be the case for LSE and KCL though.

The only other thing to factor in is a remark. Personally I wouldn’t change your plans, if it all goes tits up she could take a gap year and re-apply if she wants.

Actually @1apenny2apenny makes a good point. My clearing etc intel is pre-covid and pre the changes to overseas students. The landscape has changed and a lot more unis have had more in clearing in recent years, and have taken more students with dropped grades. They need the students and certainly anecdotally I knew a high % of YP who got into their firm last year and the year before even tho they missed the grades. So my experience with DD is probably less typical. It’s still good to be prepared and know in advance what muight be needed tho.

We were abroad too. We ended up phoning clearing and speaking to the examination officer too. This was all done flying between two destinations in Spain. It was stressful but everything was sorted over the phone. I'm the end my daughter took her second choice university.