Hear Sam's experience of going through the Clearing process after getting better-than-expected grades.
Updated: 18 Mar 2025
Hello, I’m Sam and I study international management and German at the University of Bath.
So I decided to change university choice because I simply wanted to go to a better university. When I saw that I actually got better grades than expected I considered the fact that while there is the possibility to go to a better university I might as well make the most of it. And luckily, one of the options was Bath and therefore I had visited this university before so I was well aware of how good the course was and what the university was like and then when this opportunity came up to essentially apply to Bath I thought I have nothing to lose. With these better grades I could go to a better university and if worst comes to worst then I could simply go to the university I previously applied to.
The highlight for me was definitely how uncomplicated the process actually is. So at the start of the whole process from the face of it I was thinking, well ok this actually could be quite complicated, but once you start talking to teachers and family then you sort of see that it’s really not that complicated. And also if you do more research around the process then at the end of the day it’s really quite simple. Even though on the face of it it can seem quite daunting, but I think that’s also linked to the fact that you have to basically make a life changing decision in such a short space of time, so that would definitely be the highlight of the process for me.
What would I say to others that would consider going through this process? The first thing I’d say is why not? You’ve clearly exceeded expectations because you’ve got a lot better grades than you were actually expected to get, so you might as well just see what other opportunities are out there. And going through this process doesn’t actually mean you have to 100% commit to a university straight away. You can take some time, see what alternative universities are out there and worst comes to worst if you’re not really too sure about committing to another university then you can simply go with your previous choice of university and stick with what you’ve got. So definitely just have a browse and see what’s out that because you’ve earned these betters grades so you might as well consider going to a better university.
NEXT: