However, I never guessed that the growing number of 18-year-olds with equally as impressive estimated grades would mean that absolutely nothing could be taken for granted. I had certainly never anticipated that out of six applications, the only two offers I would receive were the ones I had never considered taking up. Ever since my GCSE years I had aimed to study for a degree in Government at the London School of Economics. I carefully selected my A-level subjects so that I would be well-prepared for a political degree; and when I received my predictions, I never seriously thought that they might not accept me. Even so, I took my tutor's advice and used the remaining five spaces on my UCAS form to apply for various courses with lower grade requirements than the LSE.As my chosen course at the LSE required the A-level grades of an A and two Bs, I was stunned when I was rejected almost immediately. The reaction of my Sixth Form College was also one of bewilderment and they wrote to the Admissions Tutor demanding an explanation. We were only told that the tremendous popularity of the course had resulted in well-qualified candidates being rejected. However, they confessed that as they had over- admitted in 1995, it had been necessary to reduce the number of places for the next year.This highlights the deficiencies of the current system.

Universities always make more offers than they have places on the assumption that some will not make the grades. However, it is incredibly difficult to accurately predict how many students will fulfil their conditional offers. This can lead to a lower-than-expected intake of students, or, as in the case of the LSE, an over-admittance for which the following year's students are penalised.I firmly believe that if students applied after their A-level results, the universities would not be faced with such uncertainty over numbers. There would also be fewer candidates for each course as students would not need to apply to six different universities to cover themselves for disappointing grades.

This would mean less competition for courses.The battle for university places cannot become more fierce than it already is. At Leeds University, I was one of 700 candidates for 40 places on the Communications course. With the required grades of three Bs, Leeds had been a back-up choice I had never intended to accept. Four months after my application had been processed, I was asked by the university to change to Broadcast Journalism. I wrote a letter to the Admissions Tutor explaining why I had chosen Communications.

The following morning he phoned me to tell me that my application had been successful. However, he admitted that my letter had played a crucial role; it had set me apart from hundreds of other top-grade candidates. Although I chose not to take up the place, it frightened me to think of how close I had been to missing out at Leeds too.But Birmingham University really was mission impossible. In 1994, 1,328 people had competed for 12 places on my chosen course. I could not see how such a tiny percentage of the applicants could be fairly selected on the basis of predicted grades.