The Guardian: Clearing comments from an MPharm student
August 2007
Excerpt from the article published in the Guardian Newsprint Supplement on August 16, 2007 Thursday.
Education: University 2007: Voices of experience: The lows and Then the high: Six students who got university places through Clearing last year tell their stories to Janet Murray
Tauriq Mehkary
- Results needed AAB
- Actual results BBC
- First choice university course BchD (bachelor of dental surgery), Leeds University
- Actual university course MPharm (pharmacy), Medway School of Pharmacy
It was a real shock when I didn't get the grades for Leeds. For years, everything I'd been working towards was related to a career in dentistry. With the grades I got, I knew there was no chance of me getting a dentistry place anywhere. I could have taken a year out for resits, but there were no guarantees I'd get the grades even then, so I decided to go with my contingency plan. My school had done a lot of work with us on what would happen if we didn't get our grades, so I knew what to do. I'd decided I'd try to get a place on a pharmacy course. I picked up my results at 9am, got straight on to the Clearing hotline, and by 3pm I had a place to study pharmacy at Medway. It's taken a while to get my head around it all; after years of imagining myself as a dentist, I have to get used to the idea of being a pharmacist, but I'm making the best of the situation. I'm enjoying the course; Greenwich is a great place to study.
