Clearing

Clearing

Date Published: 13/09/2016

Date of Event: 18/08/2016 - 19/08/2016

No amount of preparation was enough to set me up to hear that word. 

CLEARING!

My college teachers spent so much time helping us prepare for getting into our firm and insurance choice, that finding out about clearing was pretty much independent.

I enjoyed my college experience. I studied hard, but always found time to talk and mess around with my group of friends. I won't be forgetting them, that's for sure. 

When Results Day arrived, I was a bundle of nerves. Coffee couldn't calm me down and I find it's my coping mechanism. This is likely due to the tradition of Costa Wednesday, I had with one of my best friends. We would talk about anything and everything and these days, my nerves seemed to shrink. 

My heart sunk as I opened my results. I hadn't scored enough UCAS points to get into my firm or insurance university the way I planned. I'm not going to divulge into my results.
I did know what I had to do. 

With tears blurring my vision and a talk with one of my teachers, Mum and I headed home. I was straight on the phone to my firm choice's clearing line. They turned me away.
It was heartbreaking. I'd spent my entire year working towards attending that particular university and with the words,"We can't accept you," everything felt like it was yanked from underneath me.
It was the same with my insurance choice.
I'd worked hard to get there, then it was yanked from underneath me. 

There were two things I could have done.

1) Give up and try again next year. 

2) Look on UCAS at other universities and courses on clearing and call them up.

I went with the latter. 

I drew up a list of universities that had the course I wanted to do, be it Foundation or BA Hons. 

I narrowed it down to two, due to thinking I would apply for the Foundation Course.

I called them up. This time, I got somewhere. 

The woman on the phone was very friendly. She asked for my GCSE results, my AS Level Results and my A Level Results. I had enough points to get onto the BA Hons course!

I was sent a provisional offer, which I entered into UCAS. All I had to do was wait for them to confirm.

My family and I went out for dinner that night. It wasn't quite for the celebratory reason of getting into my firm or insurance, but it was still a celebration of completing my college education. I had to have something to cling onto, so I didn't remember that day,as [at the time as] the worst day of my life.

On the morning of the 19th August, I checked my phone three times. There was nothing, but I decided to book myself onto the Clearing Open Day, which was that day. There was a rush to get food, drink, money and bags together, so we could make the train on time. 

Just as we were about to leave, I felt the urge to check my phone one last time. 

I saw it, and I cheered. 

I had been accepted into university! Texts were sent on the train, where we could signal. 

Within twenty four hours, everything had changed. To put it in my thoughts as I was there, it was like I'd gone from the worst day of my life, to the best day of my life. 

Now I have started university (which I will cover Moving Day and my First Day in my next two blog posts), Clearing isn't as terrifying as you think. It may not be the most favourable of outcomes, but if you get on it straight away, you'll find the outcome comes a lot quicker than it does it you put it off.

Before, I sign off, I'm going to leave three things I've learnt from Clearing. 

1) It's not the end of the world. There is a course and a university out there even if it doesn't seem like it when you open you results.

2) YOU call the Clearing helplines. This is one that I, along with many student blog sites can't stress enough. They want to speak to YOU, not to your parents. This is YOUR education, not your parents. It also says a lot about you as a person, though I'll let you discover that for yourself. 

3) ALWAYS check UCAS. I know this seems obvious, but I checked Clearing all through August, so I knew what to search when the time came. 

That's all I have to say about Clearing in this post. I'll do another one in August 2017, to see how my views on Clearing have changed.

-Emma-