r/UCAS

>!I am international student. I applied to Bristol through Clearing for a Finance course. I completed the NCUK Foundation with A in Business, B in Economics, and C (58%) in Maths. I also have a strong national secondary school leaving qualification (roughly GCSE-equivalent), with a 95% result in Maths.!<
>!Bristol told me they couldn’t accept me because they require at least 60%/B in Maths, so I missed the requirement by just 2%. I was also ill shortly before my exams, which affected my performance.!<
>!I’ve applied several times and keep getting rejected. My foundation adviser also contacted Bristol on my behalf, but they told him there was nothing they could do.!<
>!They previously told me I could keep applying online if places became available. Should I keep trying until international Clearing closes, or am I wasting my time at this pointd?!<

I’m seriously considering doing a pharmacy degree but i keep hearing that the profession is oversaturated, pay isn’t great compared with the time/cost of the degree, and job satisfaction is poor. For those already working as pharmacists or studying pharmacy, would you say the degree is still worth it in 2026? How are the salary, career progression, workload and job opportunities realistically? I’m also considering optometry, so if anyone has experience with both or has compared the two careers, I’d really appreciate some honest advice. I’m trying to make a decision based on the actual career prospects rather than just what universites advertise.

Hi,
I’ve currently finished my A levels and got an unconditional offer from the university of my first choice. However, I am thinking of taking a gap year in order to wait and get my Indefinite Leave to Remain sorted out. One thing that worries me is that if I state that as a reason for my gap year, the uni would retract my offer because they consider me an international student and would hate to lose out of the money I could bring (I really can’t.) Am I being too paranoid?

Also I would appreciate a format with which I could request for a gap year properly

I think I have made my decision on this but I guess I’m looking for some external opinions.

Unfortunately I did much worse than I was anticipating in A-Levels so I missed my firm choice of UoB for CS, I did however get accepted into York for the same course with a placement year. I’m happy to have been accepted into York, but I just feel as it is a big “step down”. I was offered a guaranteed contextual offer of AAB for Bristol if I were to resit however I am not sure if that would be a good idea.

Option 1:
Resit A-Levels, lock in, earn some money, and go to Bristol the following year assuming I get AAB.

Option 2:
Go to York this September and be grateful. I think I prefer the vibe anyway, even if it is considerably further.

I’d be interested in if people think that the ultimate difference in graduate prospects / quality of teaching / prestige is ultimately worth resitting.

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to decide between universities for an LLB and would really appreciate some honest advice.

I currently have offers for Law at Cardiff University, Lancaster University and City St George’s, University of London.

I’m a French student planning to study in the UK and I’m potentially interested in staying in the UK after graduation.

My career goals are currently between two main paths :

- Human rights, international law diplomacy, working for international organisations or in government/diplomatic roles

- Corporate/commercial law working in big law firms (eventually moving into finance)

Since I’m not 100% sure which direction I’ll take, I want to choose a university that gives me strong opportunities and keeps both paths open.

From a career perspective, I’m particularly interested in university reputation, employer perception, graduate opportunities, access to London and major law firms, international opportunities, networking, internships/vacation schemes and how each university is viewed for both commercial law and international/human rights law.

I’d also really like to hear about the actual student experience and not just rankings.

For example:

- How is studying Law at the university ?

- How good are the teaching, academics and career support ?

- What is the student social life like ?

- What is the city itself like to live in as a student ?

- Is it easy to make friends ?

- Is the city expensive ? (Cardiff and Lancaster)

- What is quality of life like ?

- Do you actually enjoy living there for 3+ years ?

If you were in my position, which one would you choose and why ?

It's been 3 years since I decided not to go to University. I was in the GCSE years that didn't sit proper exams due to COVID, nor was I that academic so I got mediocre GCSE grades. I'm thankful to have passed them all and then I decided to move onto college where I studied a Level 3 in National Extended Business Diploma. I got a Distinction, Distinction, Merit. I never really knew what I wanted to do after college. I specifically chose to do business because I was interested in it at GCSES and learning it at college was great, but I'm not really sure where to go now. It has been three years, and I never wanted to take the traditional route of going to University. My family were happy in me doing whatever I wanted to do, so I had an overwhelming amount of support around me to do what makes me happy. I don't know what makes me happy though.

I've been trying to look for an apprenticeship for three years now and whilst doing that, I went straight into general work after college such as retail and education work. Currently, I have been a teaching assistant for two years now. It is a job that I came across through a recommendation by family and they were easily hiring. Coming into the role, I was super passionate about wanting to work with children but now I feel burnt out from working with children.

It has been hard work finding a job in a different sector. I think being a teaching assistant has taught me that I love helping people but not in a school aspect anymore. I've tried endlessly looking for entry level jobs in admin and receptionist roles, however no one is answering me even though I am making constant efforts in making my CV better and trying to be more skilful. The more I look for an apprenticeship, the more I want to give up. The job economy is so unbelievably difficult and I'm not sure how I can 'stand out' to employers especially when I don't have the most experience. I know that I possess transferable skills, but even finding an entry level job is so difficult.

Although I already possess a Level 3 in Business, I feel like I chose that as a safe subject because it was something I was interested in but not really so anymore. I want to potentially do a Level 3 access course in healthcare, and then if it works out for me, I would go onto University and do a potential foundation year first to ease into it. September is approaching and it's weird because I never had this thought of going back into education, but I've had this urge to want to learn after this huge gap. I know if I went straight into university at 18, I probably would have dropped out but now I just want to do it so badly. I don't want to rush into it, so I am giving myself time as I know there isn't a deadline into starting a new career but I'm just not sure how to do it.

I feel like my life is so stationary at the moment. I'm at that point where I know I'm young, and I've worked so hard not to compare my timeline with others however I just feel like I need to be moving. I'm sick of feeling stuck, not knowing what to do. I KNOW it's normal but I really just want to make a change and learn.

If anyone could give any advice on where to start 'learning'. Do I keep looking for an apprenticeship? How do I stand out? Do I go to University?

For context did my a levels this year predicted AAB got AAC, missed my firm which was international business at the uni of Leeds but got a clearing course in the uni of Leeds international relations but I’m just not sold on it, the C I got in economics was such a surprise to me and it is currently going through a clerical recheck, I might resit is it worth it need some advice and tips :)

Is it more likely I get rejected from the verbal offer I was given on results day over the phone? It’s Monday now…

I need some advice on what to do next. I just got 3A* in Maths, Physics and chemistry A levels and got into my firm choice - Exeter uni for maths with finance. I love this uni and think I’d have fun there but I can’t help but think I should push myself for better unis. (GCSES: 9999888777)

I am thinking about taking a gap year and reapplying to higher ranked unis for maths based courses: Imperial, (potentially Oxbridge) Bristol, Bath, Durham, St Andrews. There’s a range of courses I like at these places such as: maths with stats, econ, natural sciences, design engineering. I don’t have further maths so that could be an issue so may have to learn that during my gap year which I don’t want to have to do.

I’m young for my year and think a gap year would benefit me. I think I shouldn’t waste some good grades since to go to Exeter I may have got AAA. I do really like Exeter and just can’t see myself enjoying any tough unis as much. Bear in mind I love plying sport going to gym and going out. Any advice on what I should do would be appreciated.

Hi everyone, I’m really worried and would really appreciate some advice.

I had an offer for Biomedical Sciences at the University of Southampton, but I declined it because I had missed my grades for Medicine and I was really unsure about what to do. At the time, I thought accepting a different university through Clearing was the best decision.

I have now realised that I don’t want the Clearing choice at all and I really want to go back to my original Southampton offer.

The problem is that I have already declined Southampton on UCAS, and I’m not sure if it can be reversed. I also can’t seem to find the Clearing course I was offered through email by city St George's on UCAS(tried to add it), which has made me even more worried.

I have emailed both universities explaining the situation, but I’m not sure what else I can do.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is there any chance Southampton could reinstate my original offer/place, especially if I explain that I made the decision while stressed and unsure after missing my Medicine grades?

I’m going to contact Southampton as soon as they open, but I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thank you. (Ps the course is not on clearing for home students but it is for overseas)

Does anyone know if I have a decent shot at Cambridge with achieved grades A⭐️A⭐️A despite having really bad GCSEs?

Would be applying for a humanities course and would also be taking a 2nd gap year…

Thoughts?

There are many reasons, I’ll go through them below. (This is partly me venting, and partly me trying to clear my head)

AS level results:
Yes, I doing wjec exam board so I do exams both year (yr 12 and 13). In there I got B in biology, C in chemistry and an E in maths😤. Despite me having struggled furiously to achieve a low A at gcse, stupid old me gained so much confidence in myself that I thought i could handle it a a level, but no. Even the the year I somehow managed to get an A in the mock (everyone did. It was ridiculously easy), so this gave me even more confidence. I waltzed out that AS maths exam think idiot me had at least gotten a B. Oh boy was I wrong.
Anyways, now I have to choose what the hell to do for year 13. Either I resit AS maths, somehow magically achieve an A, while simultaneously revising for actual A levels, along with AS chemistry (and possibly biology, im undecided), but on the plus side, my mums gonna get me a tutor, so maybe that will help. Or I drop maths for year 13 and concentrate on chem, and rely on Welsh baccalaureate (I got a B) to get me in. Which I think is extremely unlikely, considering the workload of medicine as a course, if I can’t handle a level, how will I handle medicine!?

The bloody UCAT:
My ucats booked for 10th of September, but it was previously at 27th of August, after panicking and rescheduling because I had procrastinated for a week of revision. So it’s not looking good. But to be fair since then I’ve been pretty consistent with my practice, about an hour a day sometimes more sometimes less. But today I took my first full mock and I got a 1260 on MedEntry. This is what is throwing me over the edge now, this is way below average even compared to other people’s first try’s. I’m honestly losing hope that this will happen.

Personal Starment:
I’ve started it, well I finished the first question, and I think it’s pretty good. But now I’ve got to the second and last questions and realised I’ve done no volunteering or extra research, but I have done some hospital work experience. I’m planning on reading a short book on genomics and making that my ‘special interest’, bc I am quite interested in it, but considering the amount of work I have to do with the UCAT, idk if I’ll get time to read a 150 page book, it doesn’t help that I’m not generally a person who read.

Conclusion:
Your probably thinking “yeah she’s extremely fucked”, well your probably right. But in the off chance you weren’t thinking that, please share your opinion!🙏🏻
And if you didn’t relate to this at all and you’re a med applicant, I hope this made you feel good about yourself, goodluck!

I had planned to study Economics at Nottingham and was given an offer needing AAA. Unfortunately, I massively missed my offer and ended up with BCC. This hurt as I was very much on track to meet the offer over the course of the two years.

I decided to phone Nottingham’s clearing line to see what options were available. After explicitly stating my grades, I was told that Business and Management was available. I applied as instructed and was given a provisional offer. Although the course requirements read ‘BBC’ on the website, I still went through with my application upon instruction from the clearing line. A few hours later, I had seen that I was rejected. I’ve tried to chase this up as it caused me to miss other potential clearing courses.

I did manage to apply for Economics at Southampton and Leicester via clearing, but I’d still like to chase up Nottingham on the basis that I was given the green light when I spoke over the phone. The deadline for Southampton and Leicester is Sunday 23:59 PM and Monday 16:30 PM, respectively. Unsure of what to do now as I wait for a response from Nottingham.

Hello, so basically I have just finished Blackburn college where I have come out with a D*D*D in Person BTEC Level 3 National extended diploma in Applied science with UCAS points of 160 and while that far exceeds what I need for many courses.

I want to be able to apply for Cumbria and Salford as those are good universities within a close range which is pretty important. But unfortunately I do not have the required GCSEs as I have a combined science of 5-4, which is just short of the 5 that they need.

I'm not sure whether I'll be accepted because my college grades definitely exceed what they want but universities are always picky about GCSEs for some reason which is why I was rejected form Salford last year I applied. I was going to reapply to Cumbria this year which was going good until I found out that they were going to increase their GCSE requirements to a 5 for the 2027 entry so obviously I'm bummed out about that.

I'm currently stressing out about this with my family right now and am not so sure what to do. I could retake my GCSEs or I could call up Cumbria clearing for their integrated foundation year and do that. Or anything else that can help me.

I am planning on calling the universities tomorrow to discuss whether I can still get on with the qualifications I have now or is my GCSE holding me back. And if there's no other option then my dad suggested to go to college and talk about retaking my combined science GCSE.

(I also have a GCSE 4 in English but Salford only mentioned the combined science last year when they rejected me so I'm not sure if that matters or not)

Pls help ASAP, as I am afraid that foundation year will be filled up if I don't make a choice soon.

Edit: Called up universities to ask about entry requirements: Salford said no but I sent an email just to make sure Cumbria said that my science GCSE was actually fine but my English which is a 4 needs to be retaken, which I think I should do in my gap year and reapply Sep 2027. And Liverpool said I need to retake both English and Science

Hi everyone, writing my PS right now and I am actually stuck I have nothing to write for question 1 any ideas/suggestions for Biomedical Sciences and Biological Sciences? I do not have a moment of spark.

So I got BCC ( politics, philosophy , law) in that order
But I’m getting politics and philosophy remarked because I’m close to next grade- my predicted grades were higher so my plan for law was to apply through clearing to a better uni now I’ve been accepted into soas law llb which I’m being told is really bad. If the remarks come back and I get abc do I change course possible at qm for politics and ir because they gave me an offer contextually before results day for bbc or try to call better unis for law, or do I say at soas for law. Idk I just need some advice

hi all! i’ve recently finished my gap year and resits and received the same grades (ABB). i firmed york for politics and international relations, but have recently seen warwick english and history in clearing. i know warwick is considerably more prestigious, however i want to go into diplomacy/international law/relations so i’m not sure how applicable that is. and hopefully do an oxford master’s if i aim for a first. i do prefer york as a city from what i know (never been) and have friends there. however, i LOVED studying english - got double 9s at gcse and a 9 in history gcse. that is, unfortunately, the subject i got a B in both years though (politics was the A). i didn’t do history a level too. id prefer to do the joint honours so i have the content of history backed by the analytic skills of english. i definitely looked forward to english lessons most but clearly performed better in politics. my interest has always been politics as i’ve been an activist and i’d really like to go into that field, but english has always been my main love. i’d love to study english but i’m scared it’ll be less employable especially considering my chosen field, warwick also seems more daunting as i already know people at york and the city seems nice. however, the prestige and “brand name” of warwick really outweighs york’s.

sorry for all the yap! tldr; warwick english and history or york politics and international relations?

Got a verbal offer through clearing from Newcastle over the phone, then an email confirming so. Just that it hasn’t been accepted on UCAS and accommodation opens on Tuesday at 10AM, with the requirement that I must have had my offer confirmed for at least 12-48 hours.

Is this normal and can I expect that I get it confirmed tomorrow so I can get accommodation as soon as possible?

Unfortunately, my A-level results were so bad. I got an A**, D and U, an A*in Art, D in Business and U in Maths. I’m definitely going to retake my A-levels, but I’m quite confused about predicted grades.
I did talk to my sixth form leader, and she told me she could put my predicted grades as what I got in my actual A-levels. But what’s the point of me retaking if I’m just going to end up going to a uni I don’t want to go to, since the uni I want requires much higher predicted grades? For example, if I want to go to Warwick for Accounting and Finance, they aren’t going to accept me based on my current predicted grades before I even get the chance to prove myself.
At this point, I feel like I might have to take 2 gap years, which I really couldn’t imagine doing because my parents would be super mad at me.
This is honestly my biggest academic downfall ever. I’ve always been pretty decent academically, I got all 8s in my GCSEs and my parents are also VERY strict about academics. During this exam season, my mindset was basically fixed on the idea that I was going to fail anyway, so I thought I’d just try after the exams were over. Looking back, that was obviously pretty stupid because I ended up not revising properly and even missing most lessons.
I’m still not completely sure whether I want to do Architecture or Accounting and Finance, so taking a gap year would actually give me some time to think about it until November or December. I’m only planning to focus on retaking my A-levels and hopefully getting into a really good university. It might be a bit optimistic of me, but I still want to try.
Anyway, I wanted to ask: what is everyone doing, or what has anyone previously done, to get better predicted grades for their retakes? Where did you sit your exams, and roughly how much did it cost? And for anyone who has taken a gap year to retake A-levels, how did the whole experience go?
I’d really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences because I’m honestly quite lost right now.