First offer...Rejection!

The first Uni to reply was Sheffield. This was amongst my daughter's top 2 choices. Unfortunately I logged into track that morning to find some 'changes' made.

It was a plain 'unsuccessful application'. And there it was, staring back at me, without any change, however long I looked at it. I even tried to log in again hoping there was some kind of error! Well there wasn't. The reply was too quick after months of hard work. Her predicted grades were higher than the asking for that course. And so we tried to get a feedback on the reason for the unsuccessful application. They asked for my daughter's 10th class grades, we sent, but we were still not given a reason.

If the first offer to come is unsuccessful, the idea takes longer to seep in and it may lead to thoughts like 'what if' imaginary rejections! And you start working on the back up plan/s in earnest. 'Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best', an excellent thought to keep in mind.

My daughter was however very 'cool' about the whole thing. There were 4 other offers to wait for and she needed to concentrate on her upcoming final exams, which she (thankfully) duly did. And very rarely logged into track. But I almost hyperactively did!!

WHICH university-2-the final five

The final 5 universities my daughter chose, in order of preference, for her under-graduation in Journalism were:

1. University of Sheffield : Subject - Journalism Studies (BA) Accredited by PTC, NCTJ, BJTC.
2. University of Leeds : Subject - Broadcast Journalism (BA Hons). Accredited by BJTC
3. Bournemouth University : Subject - Multimedia Journalism (BA Hons). Accredited by - BJTC, PTC, NCTJ.
4. Nottingham Trent University  : Subject - Broadcast Journalism (BA Hons). Accredited by BJTC.
5. University of Westminster  : Subject - Journalism (BA Hons). Accredited by BJTC

Generally speaking each had an entry requirement of around 85% going down to 65% overall in 12th standard, CBSE. Plus an IELTS score of 7 to 7.5 or above and/or 85% and above in 12th standard English specifically for Broadcast Journalism.

BJTC- Broadcast Journalists Training Council. Find out more about what it is and which courses are accredited.
NJTC - National Council for the Training of Journalists. To find out more, look up their website.  

In this list, the top 2 are highly ranked in the league tables and amongst the topmost in UK for Journalism.  Bournemouth is not so highly ranked overall but is excellent for the subject. The last two had lower entry requirements (than my daughter's predicted) and even though are not ranked so high in the league tables, they are quite well known for this subject and a host of others. So this final 5 list was kind of balanced. Whether she scored well or lower than expected. That actually removed a lot of pressure off her for her 12th board exams. All this was done by August-September of 12th standard.

Now that the 5 Universities were identified we started with the actual application procedure. 

NEXT - UCAS and the application process