Top Tips for Making Clearing Easy

Our experienced admissions team deal with the Clearing period every year, and they’ve come up with some top tips that we hope will point you in the right direction.

Do your research – and not just on entry requirements

A big part of your research at this time of year is of course about the course you wish to study:

• Does the university I’m looking at offer it?
• Do I need certain GCSEs to get onto it?
• How many A-levels do I need and in what subjects?

But there’s also a lot more you should be looking at before committing to a university at this point:

• Is it further away from home than I’m wishing to travel? 
• Is it a city university spread across a big area, or a campus university centred in one place?
• How much will it cost me to get there and get back on the train?
• Can I park my car on campus?
• Am I guaranteed a place in university accommodation in my first year? 

Make a list of all the things that are important to you in addition to the course you want to study. You can then pick the universities you want to concentrate your efforts on which tick most, if not all, of these boxes in your pre-Clearing checklist. 

Be prepared to contact universities yourself

This one may sound obvious, but when you’re trying to secure your place at a university, the universities you contact will want to speak to you directly and not to someone calling on your behalf. If you aren’t comfortable making an initial telephone call, then that’s not a problem for us; there are loads of ways to get in touch. You can contact us through email, webchat, Twitter or Facebook. Do bear in mind though that some courses will require an interview before any offer can be made, so be prepared to talk to us if you apply for one of those!

Get in touch before results day

If for any reason you feel that you might not make the grades for your firm or insurance choices, then you can check our Clearing Vacancies. If the course you’re interested in is on there, then get in contact with us so that we can discuss your options. This year, we’ll be making ‘pre-results’ offers to those who contact us during the Clearing period. These offers will be based on what you believe you may achieve, and will mean we’ll hold a place for you up until a week after results day if you achieve your predicted grades or something close to them. Call or email us at any point before results day and tell us you’d like to discuss a pre-results offer. One of our admissions team will discuss your options and hopefully make you an offer there and then.

On results day, have all your results to hand

Universities that you call are going to ask you about your qualifications. Once you have your results, write them down so that you can refer to them on the phone. Also, write down your GCSE results and any additional qualifications that you have obtained so far, so that everything is in one place to refer to. Different universities will have differing processes, but if we can’t access your complete UCAS form when you initially contact us (for example if you’re already referred through Clearing to somewhere else), we will often make you a verbal offer over the phone based on the information you’ve given us. It’s really important that you give us the correct information regarding your qualifications, as we may withdraw our offer to you if your actual results are different to what you initially told us.

Be open to other suggestions

Although we may not be able to offer you the course you originally applied for, we may suggest another course which we feel may suit you, based on your previous study and interests. There’s no rush to make a decision, but do some further research as it may just be what you were after but didn’t realise the option existed!

Don’t rush into a decision

This year, you will be able to add a university as your Clearing choice on UCAS Track. It’s really important that when you make this choice, you’re sure that it’s the right one for you; so weigh up all your options before you make this decision. Go back to your pre-Clearing checklist and make sure that the universities you’re considering tick most, if not all, of your boxes. At Wrexham Glyndŵr University, we’re not going to give you a 24 hour deadline on our offer to you – if we tell you on results days that you have a place with us, that offer is valid right up until the end of August, so you have time to make sure that you’re making the right decision.  

Written by Andy Phillips, Admissions and Enquiry Manager at Wrexham Glyndŵr University.