UCAS clearing how does it work?

[StokesJP]

Hello, if anyone could guide me through how the UCAS clearing system works I would be most grateful. My 18 year old (predicted A level Grades AAA probably going to be AA*A, applied to UKs top performing unis for Psychology but has only one offer from Royal Holloway, rejected by others although they say she meets academic criteria they are just oversubscribed for Psychology this year due to deferring from Pandemic and suddenly everyone wants to study psychology, plus I suspect as she went to a Private sixth form this has worked against her application. Looks like she will have to go through clearing to get a more prestigious university but what realistically are the chances of getting a good uni through clearing? She is not keen on RHU due to location and understand that the uni is not so well rated for the course vis a vis employers - Please if anyone can shine some light on how this system works I would be most grateful as she wants to go to Uni this year and has worked so hard. She did really well in her GCSEs which she achieved whilst in the state system so feel really upset for her that she hasn't got a good offer. Many thanks.

Grades Should read AAA or A*AA.

Psychology is a popular and oversubscribed course, as you have found. It is therefore unlikely to come up in clearing, unless large numbers of students miss their grades and universities feel they can attract higher grade applicants (rather than accepting others with reduced grades).

I guess never say never, but I would be realistic that it may be slim pickings.

If she is adamant she doesn’t want RHU, perhaps a loose plan for clearing, and a former plan for reapplying next year? With grades in hand she would, hopefully, be seen as a more sure fire bet.

Where did she apply? I'm surprised RH was the only offer. Unless she only targeted very selective? Oxbridge, UCL, Durham?

As pp said unlikely to be clearing vacancies for that level of institution. Would she reapply next year? Or possibly look for somewhere slightly less selective in clearing?

Yes I agree, unlikely to be anything much in clearing from the most popular unis for psych. May not be much in clearing at all. Last year was extraordinary but some unis (eg Lboro) had nothing in clearing at all.

The last normal year was 2019 OP, when my dd went through clearing, for English not psych, and there were places at unis like York and Lancaster for English; but this year there may be less.

Where did she apply? If she couldn’t find five places she liked for her UCAS form, what would be acceptable in clearing?

Why did she apply there if she’s not a fan of the location and it’s not respected by employers?

Has she visited Royal Holloway? My DD is there (not studying Pschology) and loves it - it has all the benefits of being a "London" uni but out in a beautiful location.

PS - her not getting offers is deffo NOT to do with being educated privately so don't beat yourself up about that.

She applied to UCL, Kings, Bristol, Exeter and St Andrews. I think someone advised her to apply to Royal Holloway as an insurance. This all sounds quite negative regarding finding a better uni in clearing. She did visit RH but would rather be in a more vibrant city location. Egham is a bit far out.

Firstly I advise she speaks to her school careers adviser or UCAS lead before making any decisions.

This has been a really tough year for competition, she shouldn’t be too disheartened, although it can feel mightily unfair.

If she is yet to confirm her firm and insurance choices she can decline her offer and go into UCAS Extra. She would need to search on UCAS for courses with spaces and contact the unis to verify they will accept Extra applications. She can apply to one course at a time; await their decision; accept/decline and then try another if necessary. I did a really quick search on UCAS and plenty of psychology courses still available it seems, but as you can imagine they are few and far between in the RG universities.

The alternative would be to wait until results day and choose to decline her place and find a course through Clearing. She could select ‘Clearing plus’ on Track and that should match her to available courses matching her grades (this has replaced the old ‘adjustment’ process, just in case you come across that anywhere - adjustment would have been perfect for her!) However as others have said we are not expecting many places to be available in Clearing this year, especially popular courses at popular unis. Suspect that is why adjustment has gone!

Finally, a gap year and reapply with achieved grades should lead to some lovely unconditional support at preferred institutions. A gap year with purpose can be a real benefit!

Only my experience and we're talking 15 years ago now but I knew I wouldn't have the grades for a uni course I applied to. I emailed the relevant department a few weeks before to express my interest in the course, should there be any clearing spaces available. Sure enough, there were. That morning I called and they remembered me from my email. I do believe this helped.

How did she apply to six unis? Those five you list above are all pretty competitive and popular so I would doubt if clearing will be available tbh. It's hard to call tho.

My previous post was not clear, sorry. Last year's clearing was almost non-existent for the most popular unis (I know about Lboro as a friend's DS was interested in a clearing place). This year will not be as bad bc students are actually taking exams and more will not do their very best. This will mean more (than last year) will miss their top choice and go for insurance (unis like Leicester, Leeds Beckett, Sheffiled Hallam, NTU). This will then open up places in more popular unis. That's how it works. I would advise your DD to research places she might be interested in apart from her original list and yy consider UCAS Extra as @Roses1221 says.

Otherwise I agree, a gap year may be best. She is surely more likely to get an offer at Exeter or Bristol etc with her great grades in hand next year.

It looks like you can still apply to Birmingham and Durham through Ucas as a late applicant? I haven’t looked past D but presumably there will be others. I would get her to look which courses have availability and ring around.

Scrap that- they aren’t open to application from home students!
A few places may come up in clearing but it is obviously not guaranteed with such a popular course. Would she consider a Gap year? Are none of her friends planning around the world trips?

For psychology, which is really popular, it’s unlikely to be in clearing at competitive unis. She needs to accept that and not pin all her hopes on clearing.

ask her to consider whether she’d prefer RHU or a gap year and go from there.

I think realistically if she wants to go to a top Uni she needs to take a gap year, as unlikely any of those uni’s will have spaces in clearing. Or perhaps worth researching some other Russel Group uni’s that she may be happy to go to prior to results day so she’s ready and it won’t be as stressful. As you may know taking a gap year this year could result in more student loan being repaid as there are changes taking place next year. It is very disheartening when your child works so hard and gets very good grades and can’t get a place where they want. Best of luck to her

Is she doing Maths A level?

Thanks for all your responses, very helpful. I didn't know that they had withdrawn UCAS adjustment because I think her grades will be better than predicted. Sorry she did not apply to Bristol but Exeter. She doesn't want to take a gap year. I still don't know how RH are rated for psychology. She is strong in French , predicted A* so maybe see if there is an opening for a great uni with French degree and transfer to psychology? Where can you see that there is still availability on courses please? Can you sign in to UCAS without an account? I don't want to rock the boat by using my daughter's sign in if she will let me!

Definitely do not apply to somewhere with the intention of changing (radically changing at that) the course.

Sorry, meant to say, the chances of doing that are slimmer and slimmer now. Especially as you want to change to a more popular course.

I think the mistake she made was in applying to 4 of the top 10 universities for psychology instead of a wider spread, which meant she was always going to be up against very strong competition.

Royal Holloway is well thought of for psychology (top 15 in league tables) and is a good second choice, I very much doubt she would get somewhere better than RH in clearing. But I appreciate that isn't much consolation if she isn't attracted to the location. Not sure Exeter or St Andrews offer 'a more vibrant city location' than RH to be honest but if she really doesn't fancy RH she'd be better off starting again next year with grades in hand.

Does your DD actually want a career in psychology, or is she just doing the degree because it interests her? If the latter, she could consider degrees that are Psychology with something or maybe a joint honours. I don't know if such courses are more likely to be coming up in clearing, but might be worth a look for Extra.

I dont think she would be able to switch to psychology part way through. With psychology you need to complete every module so that your degree is accredited by the BPS. At least that was the case years ago!

@StokesJP please don’t advise her to look for an easier course to get on with the hopes of changing to Psychology. It’s highly unlikely to happen.
I work at one of the universities she applied to and we had more than 3000 applications for psychology, for a few hundreds places.
To be competitive for this type of course she’d need to be predicted 3 A*, meet the subject requirements and have at least 8 GCSEs at 8 and above. This year due to the way GCSEs we’re awarded, many applicants have in excess of 8 grade 9s at GCSE. Attending a private Sixth Form will have had no bearing at all on not receiving an offer.
Psychology at a highly ranked university has virtually no chance of being in Clearing.

Royal Holloway is ranked 17 out of 118 for Psychology in the Complete University Guide:
www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/psychology

She is thinking of starting another course and switching as she has heard from uni students that they have done this due to people dropping out in the first few weeks or just knocking on department's doors. She actually sat 2 GCSEs early in year 10 and got mostly 9s and a few 8s in year 11 so can honestly say that this system seems completely wrong compared to other countries. Thanks to everyone for their comments, I now realise that she was not well advised by her head of sixth form when drawing up her list of 5 unis which is really frustrating. She wants to be a clinical psychologist so we will take another look at RH.