Student stories

I’d applied to some vet schools and I’d missed the grades by just one grade on my A-Levels so they rejected me. It totally knocked me back. All of my friends were applying to universities and I just sort of thought that’s obviously not for me. I didn’t even think I was intelligent enough for it. But I’ve now graduated with a First and I won the Outstanding Performance degree as well so yeah, it was quite good – things are looking up.

I actually got through to Staffs via Clearing. I came for one of the later Open Days, and I spoke to Kevin Reilling, one of the lecturers and he sort of pushed me and helped me find that excitement about the degree. It’s been amazing actually. I originally only came on for the three years as well and then I’ve enjoyed it that much that I swapped to the four year integrated MSci.

When I realised I hadn’t got the grades to get onto the course I was absolutely gutted. I got in touch with the university straight away and asked if there was anything I could do or if there was anything they could do to help me and I was advised that I could apply through clearing.

The course lecturers were amazing, they called me back straight away and took all my details. I then had a kind of telephone interview and was told that they would accept me on the course through clearing. The university sorted all of the paperwork very efficiently and I started the course a week later. I was over the moon and so excited that they had given me the chance to better my life. I have faced a number of personal problems in my first year and the university has been amazing in supporting me through this. I am ecstatic and very proud to have just finished my first year with good grades.

For Clearing – my biggest piece of advice is don’t panic. I didn’t do well in my A-levels and thought that was the end of the world and went into work because I didn’t think I could get into university.

Ten years later I decided I wanted to go to university, searched local universities and found Staffs. I made my application through clearing, it was really easy. I got a phone call back and they talked me through the process. They just take what qualifications you’ve got, give you the chance to talk to tutors and lecturers, it was just really simple and quick. So, don’t panic.

I decided that I wanted to do something more to help my career. So, I thought university would definitely be the way forward, I’d applied for a lot of positions previously that to get to the next rung of the ladder they were looking for graduates.

It was literally a phone call asking about the step-up course, they asked me about my A-levels and when I did them and what grades I got. I got a phone call back within 24 hours saying, ‘your grades are good enough, we can put you on the course if you’d like us to do so’. It was a bit of a whirlwind July and August but clearing wise, it was really straight forward. I was expecting a lot of admin work and form filling, which wasn’t the case. It was a case of a log in to student finance and it was done and dusted.