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.

If she wants to be a clinical psychologist then starting another course with the hope of changing would be a very risky approach. What if she can’t swap? There is a big difference in swapping from say Theoretical Physics to Astrophysics, or switching major and minor components, than swapping onto a subject with accreditation/specific requirements that is oversubscribed.

What’s the particular aversion to a gap year? I know the change in repayments is a frustration, but not worthy of doing a course you don’t want to avoid it.

Fingers crossed it works out for your DD OP! In hindsight yes it looks like she concentrated too much on the 'top' unis and didn't have enough of a range. As others have said, a popular course like Psychology is unlikely to come up in clearing at a uni more 'prestigious' than Royal Holloway, so it looks like her realistic choices are between accepting the Royal Holloway place or taking a gap year and reapplying.

I can honestly say, the switch would 100% not be possible into Psychology at the University I work at.
There is also an extremely limited timeframe for any internal transfers and if it doesn’t happen, she could end up losing the extra year a year of student funding, if she then drops out.
If she achieved mostly 9s at GCSEs then her Sixth Form has definitely affected her chances of being offered, by predicting her As at A Level instead of A* s.

I’d say since she’s only got one offer that she’s not keen on it would be better to decline it and go through UCAS Extra. She can search for courses/unis that still have availability on the UCAS website. As a pp mentioned, it might be worth looking at some of the slightly less prestigious but still well thought of Russell Group unis (e.g Cardiff, Liverpool, QMUL, York, Birmingham). No point going to a uni that’s she’s not happy with and as much as RHUL is beautiful and seems like a friendly uni, there’s not much going on in the area.

My DD's sixth form have warned the students that nobody knows what clearing is going to be like this year because of last year being so crazy. So many students deferred for a start and lots of last year's cohort ended up with excellent results.

My uncle was a senior psychologist and lectured / wrote some of the exam papers at one point.

He said that he preferred students who had ‘done something’ before coming into the degree as it gave them another element to their character (or specialisation/area of knowledge).

So maybe a year out doing ‘other things’ will be great for her!

We are in a similar situation. Exams have started and he is panicking. Poor kid.

St A is hardly a vibrant city location! She would need to look at what is available for her grades on Results day and negotiate a place before asking RH to release her.