Ds putting random unis down for his 4 other choices?

[shaunledu]

Ds has a uni he is set on. He likes the distance, the course and doesn't want anywhere else

He says he is literally going to go on ucas find unis that do the subject he wants and are within the distance he likes and just write those down?

Is this acceptable

No

well.. it's his life. It might be right strategy for him.
Would be better if he could come up with at least one reason in favour of each one, though.

I had my heart set on one university. I only put that one down and accepted I'd go through clearing if needed. He doesn't have to put more than one choice, schools just like it so they can say they've had x number of offers.

I did get in though!

Suggest to him he only puts 3 down. Then if he doesn't get into his favourites he can consider carefully before adding more.

But actually when I went that was roughly how we did it. We looked at paper prospectuses and chose on some criteria, and distance for some people was the deciding point.

I didn't know anyone who went to open days, some of the people had never been to the place before they arrived for the first term.

Now everyone seems to do heaps of visiting and looking before putting them down. But also I believe a lot of places have offer open days, for people who have offers to go and look, so he'll be able to look then at the other places.

At the very least he needs a suitable insurance choice that he would be happy to go to if he doesn't get the grades for his first choice

I think its cheaper to only apply to 1

DS is very adamant in where he wants to study. It's our local uni and he should get the entrance requirements without too many problems.

He is just putting 4 other local universities down as his other options.

To be honest, I had my main choice, and my backup (where the offer was actually higher than my first choice, but I was confident they'd be more likely to accept me if I messed up my exams).

The rest were there because they vaguely fitted the criteria. I went to visit a couple because friends were doing visits, and it was a fun day off college, but I don't think I even went to the department events, just for a look around the city.

But I was set on two from the start of sixth form, and I never really wavered. Its pretty hard, IMO, to care about your sixth choice.

I believe he can name one and add others later.

I wAs set on Oxford (I know, I know). Put Bristol and Edinburgh as back ups - Edinburgh ended up as my insurance - then randomly chose three others to fill the spaces. Dunno what I'd have done if I hadn't got in to Oxford, to be honest - either taken a gap year and tried again or been resentful at Edinburgh, I suppose.

If he's that set on one particular place then there's no point forcing it, as long as his reasons are sound.

Why does distance matter so much? Make sure he understands the difference between distance and travel time. I live closer to Cambridge but the journey to London is quicker.

I met someone on an open day who had chosen her 6 universities by the smell of their prospectuses... so I'd say distance is a good enough reason!

Seems a pretty good way to choose - course he wants and distance.

shower - your post has reminded me that prospectus smell was actually a thing. I seem to remember that Bristol was the best.

I'm pretty sure that I only put down 3. Only 6 unis did my course at the time and I didn't like the other three.

My DD did this.

And, of course, she didn't get in.

The worst part was she needed A*AA but she got an A star (had to write it due to bold fail) AB so whilst everyone was congratulating her on her A Level results and expecting her to be happy, she was a wreck for 2 weeks.

Definitely pin your DS to a "what if" scenario and get him to make. Decent 2nd choice - the rest don't matter.

Yes. He can go to offer holder days

High risk strategy.