By Sadie, studying BSc Marketing and Management
I gained a place at the University of Exeter through clearing for several reasons –
First, I’d done my A Levels during the COVID lockdown years, which had had a massive impact on my mental health at the time. Due to this, I decided to take a gap year rather than progress immediately to university so I could work in some customer-facing roles and rebuild my confidence and social skills before university. I also didn’t initially apply to university for the following year as I was unsure what I wanted to study, whether I might want another gap year first, or if I was happier to just take a job and not go to university at all.
Over the first term of my gap year, I managed to gain a lot of myself back, learning to be more outgoing and confident again, and I felt more ready for university. I still wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to do for my career, but I applied to Exeter to study Ancient History because it was a subject I enjoyed and was interested in. I was accepted, which I was very happy about because Exeter was my top choice university. For a few months, that was pretty much that.
However, the job I was working at the time was in social media management and marketing, and I was absolutely loving it. I decided that I wanted being a social media manager to be my long-term career goal, and really wanted to study Marketing to support that goal. However, I was also fully ready to attend university by that point, and didn’t want to take a second gap year to reapply to university. I spoke to Exeter about this, and they suggested I apply to the BSc Marketing and Management course through Clearing.
I’d never really considered this, as I thought Clearing was for if you’d got higher or lower grades than you expected, and I didn’t know it could apply to my situation, but the admissions team at Exeter informed me that it can also be a brilliant tool for course changes, and supported me through the process.
My Clearing application was successful, and I arrived in Exeter in September 2022. As I write this, I have finished my first year and am looking forward to the next two years of my degree.