Although results day is usually associated with happiness, achievement and bright futures, this isn’t always the case. In fact, sometimes you can walk in full of hope, only to find that everything has gone wrong.
But bad results aren’t the end of your life. You just need to be ready to deal with them properly. And at the end of the day, no one is ever truly prepared for what’s inside that envelope. If everything has gone wrong, then there’s actually a lot you can do!
Clearing
If your heart is set on going to university, I strongly suggest approaching Clearing. This service allows you to look for courses that still have spaces for students who got lower grades, and can easily have you applied and accepted within a day. Although you may not have visited the campus before, this makes the process of finding somewhere that works for your actual grades much easier, and you could end up accidentally finding your dream university.
Contact the university
However, if your heart was set on somewhere that you just didn’t get the grades for, there are two options. The first is to contact the university directly. This is a risky strategy, but can actually help you get to where you want to go – keep in mind that this only really works if you just missed the desired grades, and you know that you can be persuasive. Either way, it’s a risky strategy that can lose you vital time and actually land you at a worse university.
Get back to the blackboard
If you missed the grades that were needed by a wide margin, but you’re still determined to go to your dream university, I would suggest seeing if you can go back to a local sixth form. Whilst it may seem like a waste of time at first, it can actually be a wildly different experience the second time round. That being said, you’ll only come away with better grades if you actually change your attitude. Go back in without changing your personality, and you’ll only waste everyone’s time.
Whatever you decide to do, it’s important to remember that not getting into university isn’t the end of the world. There are tons of career choices that don’t involve a degree, and although it may seem like a prerequisite for doing well in life, it really isn’t.
How did you do on A Level results day? Congratulations and tell us below!
Photo: Jeff Djevdet / Flickr
Warwick Editor for Career Camels and Deputy Comment Editor for The Boar.
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