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The university application process for parents can be stressful as your child may be feeling a lot of emotions about whether they will get the required results to go to university and also about them living away from home for the first time.
How to Support Your Child Through the Process
There is a lot for you as parents to do during this time, but your primary role is to support and guide them through it all. Here are some of our top tips for parents of university students:
- The application process and build-up to results day can be quite overwhelming but setting time aside to make sure this isn’t last minute will help to make it a lot less stressful.
- It’s a steep learning curve for your child and they need to learn a lot of skills in a short space of time. You can help them with writing their application, budgeting, planning their packing list and researching courses, universities and cities among many other things.
- Having a clear timeline and diary date reminders will help you both stay on top of all the deadlines – there are quite a few and they’re important to stick to so they don’t miss out.
- Helping them choose where to live will give you peace of mind – you want them to be safe when they are away from home so where possible do try and visit the accommodation. If that’s not possible you can arrange a virtual tour with the Collegiate UK property teams to help give you a sense of the building.
Connecting UCAS to Accommodation Booking: Why Timing is Key
Once your child has decided on the university they want to go to, the next big decision is where to live. There are a number of options and they are all slightly different – you can read more about the different accommodation options here.
Accommodation booking for university students should be high up on the priority list as accommodation goes quickly and if your child has any specific requirements you’ll need to book early to guarantee the room type they’d like. If your child has an unconditional offer from a university you can book early and maybe take advantage of an early booking discount. For those going through Clearing, quick decision-making will help to not only secure their university place but will also help them secure student housing early and give them a wider choice of accommodation options.
Choosing a property with an all-inclusive cost takes away the headache of having to check against the budget each time you look at an option for accommodation.
A-Level Results Day and Clearing: What Parents Need to Know
A-level results day is the culmination of a student’s academic journey so far and determines how they proceed with their journey into further education. While there is often much excitement at finding out results, it can be a stressful time for some if the exact grades aren’t achieved and as parents, it’s good to be prepared for either outcome so you can help guide your child through the necessary steps – particularly during uncertain times if they don’t achieve their desired grades.
The ideal outcome is that they meet the conditions of their offer for a place at their chosen university and then the only thing they need to do on results day is to confirm their place. The other potential outcomes are:
- They don’t meet their offer. If this occurs, their next step is to go through Clearing to find a place on available university courses.
- They exceed their predicted grades. In this scenario, there is the option for Adjustment where they “trade up” to more competitive courses or universities.
While there may be uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of results, as a parent it is really important to help your child stay calm and support them through the next steps. The best A-level results and Clearing advice is that Clearing is a highly competitive process that requires you to act quickly as places can fill up so decisive action is essential. As a parent, you can assure them that they have options, and that this isn’t the end of their journey which will help them to stay focussed.
How to prepare for clearing
No one wants to assume they won’t achieve the grades they need, however it’s worth being prepared in case the worst happens. In the weeks leading up to results day researching potential alternatives and compiling a list of courses and universities your child may be interested in will help give you a head start.
Clearing opens typically opens at the beginning of July, prior to results day, so it’s a good opportunity to research which courses are listed on the Clearing pages. Once they’ve got their results and checked their offers, if Clearing is the course of action, help them by having all the info they need to hand to be able to apply directly to the universities (this will include their UCAS ID and personal statement).
Once a place is secured through Clearing, the next practical step is to secure accommodation. You should try and secure student housing early as this will give you the greatest choice with the widest range of budget options. The Collegiate UK website will list out availability by university – add this to your list of things to check when looking at clearing option.
Top Tip: Create checklists for results day depending on each of the possible outcome so you can check off everything that needs doing as you go.
And lastly – don’t forget – regardless of the outcome, getting to this stage will have taken hard work and commitment and taking a moment to acknowledge the milestone is important for you both.
Of course, a crucial component of the UCAS process is the application itself. And as there is a lot for you, and your child to get their head around, we have produced a handy 10-step guide that will help you along the way.