Quick Uni question

MNuTz

MNuTz

MNuTz

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Lo all,

A friend of mine, who i count as being very bright has decided he wants to go to University to do some sort of Forensic Science degree.

However, he is now 25 and although he took four A-Levels he had to leave about 3-4 months before his final exams due to severe family problems so he never actually got the qualifications.

Now i know that Uni courses require points to get into them and that A-levels etc are so many points each, but other than 9 GCSEs he has nothing.

Is there any route he can take to get into Uni?

Thanks in advance
 
MNuTz said:
Lo all,

A friend of mine, who i count as being very bright has decided he wants to go to University to do some sort of Forensic Science degree.

However, he is now 25 and although he took four A-Levels he had to leave about 3-4 months before his final exams due to severe family problems so he never actually got the qualifications.

Now i know that Uni courses require points to get into them and that A-levels etc are so many points each, but other than 9 GCSEs he has nothing.

Is there any route he can take to get into Uni?

Thanks in advance
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Without any qualifications it will be very hard for him to get onto a university course, maybe look at takin his a-levels again then going from there.

KaHn
 
Tell him to approach the university he wants to go to and ask for some recommendations. They will probably say do our foundation year if they have one.
 
I'd say most universities would still require full, certified qualifications, at least one or two in the relevant subject(s) he would be studying.

Best bet is to get in contact with the undergraduate admissions tutors/offices at different universities and see what they can do about it, if anything, without full qualifications.
 
Do some Universities not let students in without qualifications based on interview though?

They must be mature students though but I don't exactly know what a mature student is. :confused:
 
dboundy said:
Do some Universities not let students in without qualifications based on interview though?

They must be mature students though but I don't exactly know what a mature student is. :confused:
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It all depends on lots of things. The course and how specific their entry requirements are, as well as how the uni let people into the courses etc.

I'd imagine if a mature student wanted to get onto a specific course without proper qualifications, I'd imagine having experience in the required field would help them get in, though again, that would totally depend on the course. A bit of night school didn't hurt anybody :)
 
Well they will class him as a Mature Student, my brother was the same he left his job and only had a few GCSE's, what you do is a Hcfc or sum shizzle course for mature students is basically equivalent to A-levels, you do this at local college, its about two yea course, then you can apply to the uni's ! :) My bro is in his last year at Sunderland uni !!!!
 
My friend got onto a Comp Sci course at 30 with only some GCSEs and taking a year or so long course that was equivelent to a few A levels.
 
He is a mature student now, so if he discusses the situation that he was in at the time as part of his application, im sure they will see the light. When your a mature student, points dont really count as much as when one is a school/college leaver. Id say go for it.

I had real trouble with my grades when leaving 6th form, and after many conversations / letters / phone calls etc, i was let into uni even with grades that didnt satisfy my offer. It goes to show also that personallity and attitude make a big difference as well.

I wish your friend the best of luck :)
 
After the age of 21 a university aplicant is considered an adult learner and therefore university's don't look at qualifications per se.

They tend to look at what you've achieved in your life so far etc etc.

That's what I remember seeing when I was looking at applying to univeristy.

Hope that helps :)
 
He should definately do an A level night course :) He could probably get into a crap university without doing that though.
 
Chiribo said:
After the age of 21 a university aplicant is considered an adult learner and therefore university's don't look at qualifications per se.

They tend to look at what you've achieved in your life so far etc etc.

That's what I remember seeing when I was looking at applying to univeristy.

Hope that helps :)
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It can only go so far though, as you can't just walk into a degree for a medic or engineer unless you've actually done all the maths and biology stuff etc. Else, they'd be just stuck.
 
DaveyD said:
It can only go so far though, as you can't just walk into a degree for a medic or engineer unless you've actually done all the maths and biology stuff etc. Else, they'd be just stuck.
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though the amount they teach you on a-levels now is not that much more than gcse from my experience of a-level chemistry and physics. Maths was the only a-level I thought there was a real step up from GCSE.

best thing to do is to talk to a university and see what they do, some universities offer foundation years for people with qualifications not relevant to the degree, so that may be a possibility.

worse case scenario is he might have to take some alevels, but he could easily do those at night school.
 
Thanks for all the replies, hes know phoning around local Unis trying to get help for the next step.

Its sad really as he has lots of potential and actually took the same four A-levels as me (maths, physics, psycology and geography) and was forcast to get very high grades.
 
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