My Clearing story

It’s that time of year, where undergrads are waiting for their results to see if they progress to the next year – but more importantly, where Sixth Formers are waiting for those all-important results that tell them if they’ve got into university or not. For the most part, it seems to work out, but there are occasions where it doesn’t. This is one of those times.

I am an English and French student who never actually applied for English and French. What did I want to do? Egyptology. Quite a drastic change, right?

I had always wanted to study Egyptology from the age of 8. I even learnt hieroglyphics and went to all sorts of conferences to try and prep myself. I worked and I worked, and I finally had an offer from Cambridge, and my insurance was Southampton (although incidentally, that was Ancient History and French).

I was extremely unwell during my A Levels – my doctors decided to play with my medication and as you might imagine, that didn’t go very well. Consequently, I had to pull out of Southampton as we were concerned it was too far from home, and everything rode on Cambridge.

And I didn’t get in. Panic, shock, and upset set in. A Level results day remains one of the worst days of my life, and even the two weeks when I was waiting for a remark were horribly intense too. I managed to get a place at Warwick through Clearing that day (whoever spoke to a weeping, 18-year-old me, thank you!), but the story doesn’t end there.

I got a place for History and French (well, my mother helped) and I woke up the next day and said to myself: “Why on earth would you do History when that was the A Level that you struggled with the most?” I then thought why not do Ancient History and Archaeology? I could then go and do a Master’s in Egyptology at Cambridge, right?

A week prior to starting uni, I had second thoughts again. This course wasn’t making me happy, as there wasn’t much Egyptology in it, so I said to myself ‘play to your strengths’, and here we are.

This has been a long story, but there is a point to this. If you find yourself with something you didn’t expect, there is always hope. It sounds cheesy, but it’s actually true. Remember I mentioned an Egyptology Master’s? I’m actually planning to stay here and do a Master’s in French. It’s mad how these things work out, but they do, and the Clearing department at Warwick was so wonderful. A Level results day was a horrible day for me, but rest assured, you will have a ton of support, and it really does work out.

Best of luck to you all (including those graduating this year!)