Decide what to do next

Date: 15/08/2003

I narrowed down my options and stated to concentrate on clearing

It was now the day after results day, and I had to decide what to do next. I worked out I had four options:

Go into clearing
Phone UCL and see if I can get a place there
Take a year out and reapply next year
Take a year out and retake maths to get an A

Phoning UCL didn't really count as an option, but if they did offer me a place, then I would need to choose whether I accepted it or not. Also whether to take maths or not if I took a year out was a secondary decision, as I would need to choose if I took a year out or not. So I really had two main options: clearing or year out, straight away I could see the main benefits and disadvantages of both. If I went into clearing I would miss my chance of going to one of the better universities I had picked, and I wouldn't have much time to decide where I went. But if I took a year out there would still be the problem of deciding what to do that year, and I might not get into any of my choice with the B in maths anyway.

I decided to make a list of options and go through them one by one. First I would phone UCL to see if I could be offered a place, secondly I would look at the places offered in clearing and thirdly I could think about taking a year out. I phoned UCL but the admissions tutor wouldn't be available until the afternoon so I decided to look at clearing places.

I had copies of the independent clearing lists from results day and today, but I found the easiest way was to look on the Guardian's clearing website or the universities websites themselves. After a while I had made a short list of universities offering economics and maths courses and their phone numbers and web addresses ready to enquire about clearing.

View the initial clearing list
Download the initial clearing list

My school was also running a results day clinic, so I went into school to see if they could give me any advice. Here I talked over my options with them, and asked about the clearing process and what would be available if I took a year out. I didn't really learn much except there were lots of options available and the school would help out with any references or advice which I needed.

Next I phoned UCL to see if I could get a place on another course, but was told the admissions tutor was on holiday and would not be back for a few days. I now decided to forget about UCL and look at my clearing options. I took my initial clearing list and started applying for courses offered by the universities on it by web and phone.