Rejection for first choice, what should I do?

[slizzie]

Hey,

I recently got a rejection from my first choice UCL on the last day they were giving out offers for modern languages . I have no idea what to do now, as I was kind of set on going there!

Would they let me defer the entry and see if I got in with that?

I have also got offers for Sheffield and Southhampton for German and History and Leeds for Music and History, all of those three have managable conditions. Does anyone have any views of these universities?

I am also waiting on Kings College, although their entry requirement in 38 and I am predicted 38/39 so I don't know if I will get an offer, and if I do it is fairly unlikely I will get 38/39.

Another option I do have is open university. I have done 60 credits of music through the OU, and could complete a degree in 2 years fully funded. But I don't know if I would want to do that as it's quite secluded from everyone.

Or should I just reapply next year?

any thoughts on what you would do in my situation?

Sorry for the ramble by the way!!

[Sandwich]

I did some OU courses too and, besides the fact it's so isolated, I don't think it was anything like a rigorous education. I really wouldn't try and get an OU degree if you can get a proper degree somewhere else, I don't really think that OU degrees are viewed very well. In my opinion with quite good reason for not viewing them very well!

All three of those Universities are very good, I think Sheffield, Leeds and then Southampton in that order. I know some people doing German at Sheffield (although not with History) and they say it's great.

KCL and Sheffield are pretty good bets, for sure. I'd see if you get an offer from Kings and then if not maybe confirm Sheffield.

As for deferring a year, the major negative with that is that you'll be the happy recipient of the rubbish government's new tuition fee legislation, so it'll cost you approx. 300% more money to go to University in 2012 than it would if you went this year. Personally I'd try and go this year! To my knowledge, deferring means you have to pay higher fees still, but I'm not 100% on that, you might want to check. Also, what would you do in your gap year to try and improve your application?

In your position, I think I'd be waiting for Kings and thinking about firming Sheffield, perhaps, or Leeds.

Nobody can tell you what to do, but I'd definitely avoid the OU and take the fee hike into account

[slizzie]

thank you, that reply helped! Well, on my gap year I would hopefully get an apprenticeship with a local music organisation charity - I already volunteer with the council organising Youth Holiday activities for CAS, perhaps I might go to Germany for a bit and do something similar there, so to continue to my language skills. Deferring I believe you still pay the new fees, which of course is annoying. I think I do prefer Sheffield over Southhampton, purely because as you said it's much better for german. Plus Southhampton is pretty boring apparently... The only problem I have here is do I go down the german/history route or the music/history route?! Hmm... my personal statement was pretty hard to write!!

[Sandwich]

thank you, that reply helped! Well, on my gap year I would hopefully get an apprenticeship with a local music organisation charity - I already volunteer with the council organising Youth Holiday activities for CAS, perhaps I might go to Germany for a bit and do something similar there, so to continue to my language skills. Deferring I believe you still pay the new fees, which of course is annoying. I think I do prefer Sheffield over Southhampton, purely because as you said it's much better for german. Plus Southhampton is pretty boring apparently... The only problem I have here is do I go down the german/history route or the music/history route?! Hmm... my personal statement was pretty hard to write!!

Well, as a wise person once told me (ahaha) you can always do music as a hobby. I know loads of my friends who were really into music (Grade 8 in several instrument type people) and some of them even started music courses but I think the thing is that you can be good at music and recognisably good without a degree. Those who started music courses have, with one exception, dropped out and started more rewarding ones in terms of the degree you come out with at the end. I think a History/German degree means a lot more, if that makes any sense. You can develop your music outside of the degree

Then again I'm not big on music so take all that with a pinch of salt.