So you just received your A Level results and you found that your results were not up to your expectations and may not qualify for your desired course at a local university. You feel disappointed and confused on what to do next. Read on and find out what are the next steps you should consider.
These are some of the common scenarios:
“I am interested to do pharmacy at a local university but I got offered Engineering instead…”
We found that many students chose to take up a degree that they are not interested in but took up the offer due to reasons like pressure from parents, relatives and/or friend as they want the prestige of being admitted to a local university. Engineering may have lower entry requirements but it is a very rigorous and tough degree that requires high level mathematics and physics. Most importantly, one has to have a passion for innovation and efficiency to even consider engineering as a major and career.
If affordability is not an issue, you could pursue your passion overseas. For instance, if you wish to read pharmacy, you can consider the following options:
Foundation year in the UK
In the case of Pharmacy, you could spend 1 year doing a foundation studies program in the UK and progress to Singapore Pharmacy Council’s accredited universities like University of East Anglia, Queen’s University Belfast and University of Nottingham to do a 4 years of Master of Pharmacy degree.
For most programs in the UK, you can do a 1 year foundation and progress to a 3 year Bachelor with honors degree.
United States
In the case of Pharmacy again, you can consider University of Kansas’s Pre-Pharmacy program (2 years) and a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) (4 Years),
For other programs, you could apply to the United States for a direct 4 years bachelor degree or apply to 2 year associate degree at a community college and transfer to schools like UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Washington and thousands of other universities in the US to complete the bachelor degree in 2-3 years. Find out more about community colleges in the US.
“I did not qualify for both local and overseas universities but do not want to do a foundation program”
International Year One program in the UK
If you missed the entry requirements to direct UK universities narrowly, you could consider the International Year One (IYO) option offered by universities like University of Exeter, Newcastle University, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Leeds and many more. IYO is the equivalent of the first year bachelor degree program in the UK with a smaller class size with more attention to students. After successful completion of the IYO, students progress to the second year of the degree and hence, no time is wasted. You could do a wide range of IYO majors like business, engineering and life sciences.
United States
You could apply to the United States for a direct 4 years bachelor degree or apply to 2 year associate degree at a community college and transfer to schools like UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Washington and thousands of other universities in the US to complete the bachelor degree in 2-3 years. Find out more about community colleges in the US
“Should I consider polytechnic since my A level results were not good enough for a local university”
If time is not an issue for you, you can consider going to a polytechnic and spend 2-3 years obtaining a diploma. In the same time frame, you could have done a 1 year International Year One program in the UK and progress to Year 2 of your degree and still complete your bachelor degree with honours in 3 years.
We have also noticed a significant number of polytechnic students who spent 3 years doing their diploma and found out that they had no interest in their diploma but completed it anyway since there isn’t really an exit strategy. Quite often these students change their major in an overseas university having little or no credit exemptions for their bachelor degree. If you are looking at flexibility, you should consider studying in the Untied States as changing majors in your first and second year, in most cases, may not significantly affect your course duration.
