Results day Thursday, getting my ducks in a row

[Acacia123]

Despite being expected to do very well in his A-Levels and working very hard, DS came out of the majority of his exams disappointed and upset - he is convinced he has done badly (and checking the marking schemes at home afterwards confirmed his fears). Its been a long summer waiting for results day.

He is my eldest and I’ve absolutely no idea or experience of university applications - but I’m scared witless by tales of mad rushes for university places and I don’t want him to miss out because we don’t react quickly enough or we did the wrong thing.

So I want to get a plan so that we’re not scrabbling around looking for passwords, user names, reference numbers, telephone numbers etc. and we know exactly what our plan of action is if he doesn’t get the grades for his offers.

I wondered if anyone out there who’s had experience might have any hints or tips or could let me know if I’m on completely the wrong tack.

My plan is:

1. Phone first choice university and explain hasn’t made the grades they want, but will they accept him anyway? I presume we phone university direct?
2. Phone second, third and fourth choices (in that order) and do as above.
3. Phone UCAS and I guess ‘go through clearing’ whatever that entails.

Also - please let me know if I’m getting myself into a state about nothing and it’s just a simple case of getting on the phone and sorting it out calmly.

Thanks so much!

First of all, you should not be doing any of those things. The candidate has to be the one to do the planning and then make the phone calls, if needed. If your ds is not able to do it himself, he is not ready for university study.

The UCAS website explains how clearing works www.ucas.com/clearing2017

There are a few threads over in Higher Education about this stuff, including how clearing works. I would suggest you head over there.