University after vocational training

[ArucariaBallerina]

Hi all,

 

Just to disclaim, I am still hoping to pursue a professional dance career (I have a couple of auditions lined up in the next few weeks!) but I’ve been considering a more solid Plan B recently and would love to study History at university, if I were to not get a job/get injured/when I retire etc. 

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of moving from professional training into a good University (I know it’s quite an unrelated subject haha). I have 2 A*s at A Level (one in History luckily) and my Level 4 diploma in Dance teaching, but I know many universities want 3 A Levels (but I don’t ideally want to wait to have to study for a third!)

 

Thank you

[Lifeafterballet]

My Dd did 8 years of vocational ballet training. She had a contract with a ballet company in the US but couldn’t get there due to Covid and so changed direction. It was the best decision she ever made !!!

She has just completed her first year at University and what a fantastic experience it has been for all of us 😊

The BSc required 3 A levels, she has 2 A levels and a Level 6 Trinity Diploma in Professional Dance. She emailed the course lead a year before she applied with her CV and he encouraged her to apply. He personally assessed her in her end of year exam and gave her 86%. He made a good call. It’s not necessarily the grades it’s the attitude, commitment and work ethic that shines through.

Go for it !!! You can sometimes defer to a later date if other opportunities arise.

The best of luck xx 

[DVDfan]

Grades are not everything, and nor are the number of A levels: check what knowledge you will be assumed to have when you start the course. I once came to grief on a maths course because it was assumed I would have a knowledge of set theory, which I did not. There was no time to catch up, whatever your work ethic is like, because it takes time to absorb and master knowledge. 

And don't forget that you also need a plan for your career after university, and that needs a plan B too.

Oh, and good luck!

[taxi4ballet]

If I'm not mistaken and things have changed, I believe a level 4 diploma is one step up from A-levels which are level 3. So with two level 3's and one level 4, you could very well be fine.

[Out-the-other-side]

18 hours ago, ArucariaBallerina said:

Hi all,

 

Just to disclaim, I am still hoping to pursue a professional dance career (I have a couple of auditions lined up in the next few weeks!) but I’ve been considering a more solid Plan B recently and would love to study History at university, if I were to not get a job/get injured/when I retire etc. 

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of moving from professional training into a good University (I know it’s quite an unrelated subject haha). I have 2 A*s at A Level (one in History luckily) and my Level 4 diploma in Dance teaching, but I know many universities want 3 A Levels (but I don’t ideally want to wait to have to study for a third!)

 

Thank you

EPQ qualifications and vocational exams all carry UCAS points too! But with 2 good A levels and a diploma, I would imagine you would be eligible for a good range of courses. (DD received all unconditional offers to study law with 1 good A level, EPQ, diploma and qualifying dance exams.)

Just to be aware that some universities, for some courses, ask that A levels be achieved in one sitting. 
 

Good luck! 

Edited June 2, 2022 by danceparent

[Pups_mum]

I've no personal experience of your particular situation, but just been through the University admissions process with one of my non dancing children and my next one is starting to look around now. I would think that your best course of action would be to try to talk to tutors on courses that you are interested in - maybe try to get to some Open Days asap if you haven't already done so.

Lots of people take non standard routes into higher education. You are clearly very academically able and your dance training will undoubtedly have engendered a great work ethic and other transferable skills. I would think that lots of tutors would be delighted to have you as a student, but you might have to do a bit more than complete a UCAS form to show them that. As you are looking at unrelated courses, the people you are dealing with might not be familiar with vocational dance training so be confused as to why you only have 2 A levels, not understand what your Diploma represents etc so don't be shy about selling yourself and your achievements to date. Just because your qualifications don't tick the standard boxes neatly doesn't  mean that you wouldn't be an excellent student, so get out there, ask lots of  questions and show them what you can do! 

[Allwrong]

I would think timings are relevant here. Araucaria, you say you don’t want to takes a third A Level, and I do see why you might not want to ‘lose’ a year while you do so. UCAS applications are now closed for September 2022, but you will certainly have good options through clearing with two A stars. I entirely concur that you need to find out if you already have sufficient qualifications, and that the best way to do that is by contacting admissions offices. Don’t be shy about that: it’s what they are there for and they are looking for the best candidates, which you show every sign of being. But you certainly don’t want to be having those conversations once the clearing scramble happens: have them now and get written (email) confirmation to speed things up during clearing.

 

However, with your grades, you really want to go for top universities, particularly for a very traditional course like History. Many of these (Durham, various London ones, St Andrews etc) don’t go into clearing. Others do. But think about how important your choice of university is for you, as if this means you have to wait for a year anyway, doing an extra A Level looks a lot more attractive.

 

Finally, the great thing about the UK system is that you will have masses of opportunities to dance whilst at university. My DD, doing a very academic degree, trains for 2 hours a day in her room (thank you lockdown for the discipline) and then does huge amounts with the university dance team and choreographing and arranging performances herself with musical friends. It’s been an incredibly creative year, which means she is keeping the professional dance door every so slightly ajar. 
 

Feel free to DM if you’d like more details.

[Kate_N]

Quote

into a good University

 

It really depends what you mean by "good."  And what area/s of historical studies you want to pursue.

 

So a couple of points:

 

1) With a generalist degree such as History (similarly with generalist degrees in Biology, or English, or Business) the standard of university you attend can be important. So you might look at universities which ask for grades around the A/A* level. If you are capable of those sorts of results, I see no reason to study at a university below that level, for a generalist BA or BSC (specialist & vocational degrees are a whole other ball game). 

 

Most universities will recognise what you've achieved - vocational ballet studies to a high level PLUS 2 excellent A Levels. However, I suspect that the kinds of universities taking students at A* level will also want that third A Level. Or the equivalent BTEC (or whatever this daft government is going to replace BTECs with). 

 

2) What sort of History do you want to study? You don't need to answer that here! So you'll also need to look at various universities' curricula. Go beyond the glossy admissions websites, and get to the Departmental information for current students, so you can see the kinds of requirements. Do they have Medieval history, if that's what you want to study? Do they offer language studies? Do they just focus on 205th century history ... and so on.

 

And then look at HOW you'll learn & be assessed - what types of teaching and assessment do these departments you're interested in use?

 

You've done so well - it would be a pity not to try to add that third A Level, to "future proof " yourself. 

 

In this advice I am referring about the high level research-led universities - not the post-1992 (former polytechnics). Post-92 universities tend (not always) to have much lower entry levels for these kinds of generalist subjects, and their academic staff tend not to be the ones writing the original books and articles which feed the discipline of History with new & original ideas. 

 

There is a misapprehension that academic staff research is bad for teaching; in the arts & humanities, research drives really cutting-edge teaching. I often teach courses which are based on the material I'm researching for the next book, or material drawn from extended research from the last book. Students generally seem to find this quite exciting, and I can pass on & train my undergrads in research techniques etc

 

But my main response to your post is 😲 that you are in the Upper 6th!! I remember when you were just starting out on your wonderful ballet journey as about 11 or 12! How time flies!!!

 

 

[alison]

On 03/06/2022 at 21:09, Kate_N said:

Do they offer language studies?

 

 

A good question - and one to which the answer is, increasingly, "no"   Incredibly short-sighted, as we were discussing the other day, given the number of jobs in which a foreign language would be a distinct asset, especially to British students, but it seems to be partly a result of universities being run with more of a business mindset rather than an academic one.

 

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now

[Kate_N]

2 hours ago, alison said:

a result of universities being run with more of a business mindset rather than an academic one.

Off topic but just to say that universities have been forced by successive governments to operate more like "business." It's not something any university would actually choose.