Admissions tutors question- does declining an offer blacklist a student for the next year?

[Happydaughterhappymum]

DD is trying to choose an insurance.
She is very sure of her firm choice which is an A star AA offer but at this point really isn't too sure about an insurance as she might just reevaluate everything in August and earn some money for a year if she doesn't get her firm uni

She really wants to know- if she declines a uni now, or insures a uni then withdraws in August even if it confirms her place (arguably worse) will that rule out the possibility of an offer next year if she were to reapply?

Do admissions tutors 'blacklist' students who have done this or do they just have too many applicants to know or care.

The possible insurance unis are St Andrews, UCL and Bristol in case that makes a difference. She is thinking of a law conversion after her degree in case that also makes a difference, though she hasn't looked into that seriously yet.

[FatherBuzzCagney]

It's been a few years since I was undergrad admissions tutor for my dept (RG university), but I would not have made an offer to an applicant who had previously declined an offer, unless they had done so because they had to abandon the whole applications process that year - e.g. because they were seriously ill. If you are applying to a university and a department with multiple good applicants per place (like the three you have mentioned) why would they take someone who has done this in preference to someone with an equally good application who hasn't? I'd rather give the place to someone who actually seems to want to be there.

But more recent admissions tutors than me and people in other RG universities may take a completely different view.

[Happydaughterhappymum]

Thanks for your insight fatherBuzz- that seems an entirely reasonable approach. DD will just have to think very carefully of the implications before she decides what to do.

[MarchingFrogs]

FatherBuzzCagney, isn't each applications cycle meant to start as a 'clean slate', as far as UCAS is concerned? Do you mean the your university / department actually retained the' information of applicants who didn't follow up on offers, to refer back to in case they applied again? Or was personal knowledge / memory of the applicant, extra to the information given as part of the current application part of the selection process?

Actually making a university one's firm choice, meeting the requirements, but then pulling out at the last minute for what doesn't appear to be a pressingly serious reason is possibly one thing, but re just turning down an offer, siurely even RG universities (wherever they perceive themselves to be in the global oecking order) can cope with the concept of not necessarily being any individual applicant's first choice out of the up to five places UCAS allows them to apply to, or of the up to five offers that may result?

(Genuine curiosity here).

[titchy]

Do you mean the your university / department actually retained the' information of applicants who didn't follow up on offers, to refer back to in case they applied again?

All universities will keep the basic application data for all applicants. More for market research than anything else, but yes it's kept (three years for us - we can't justify keeping it longer under GDPR; others may differ). The extent to which an applicants previous application is referred to will vary from one department to another.