Will getting UCAS form in as early as possible mean offers come thru early or...

[Lurgano]

will the uni just wait for everyone to apply and give out offers after. DS applying for 2016 - was hoping that he could submit form when applications open and then hopefully have all offers etc in bag by Christmas so taht he can just get on with getting the grades...or will the process just drag on out into Jan/Feb etc anyway?

Some will look at forms and offer / decline straight away. Some will wait till the January deadline has passed.

The Student Room will be a reasonably accurate source of information if he searches threads for the course and university he is interested in.

My DD had her form in by mid/ late September and had all her offers in by Christmas. But she was applying for a course that's not dramatically oversubscribed (Languages) but to high ranked RG Unis so don't know how much of a standard experience that is .

Dd had hers in early last year and had 3 before Christmas but had to wait until after January for 2 (end of January for Durham who are notorious for being late with offers).

Completely depends on the uni and the course.

For example, I have just been given an offer for midwifery and the uni I applied to interviewed everyone first before deciding on offers.
Other unis gave out offers as they interviewed people.

Oh and the unis deadline they have to give offers/unsuccessfuls by is early May.

Oh and the unis deadline they have to give offers/unsuccessfuls by is early May.

A few years back, ds1 put in his form for the school's deadline of october half term and had 5 offers by the time he went back to school a week later, we were all gobsmacked

ds 3 will go for the same deadline this year and hopefully hear back by Christmas - don't think he's looked at the student room to see how quick/slow the places he's considering are

A friend advised us to try and get DD to do hers early so that hopefully she would have at least 1 offer by Christmas allowing for interviews. She applied about a week or so after the Oxbridge deadline in October. The course was one that requires an interview. Shewas fortunate enough to receive her last offer 2 days before Xmas.
Friends of hers were still applying in January when they had mock exams and needed to be concentrating on their work.
All of her friends that applied early had received at least a couple of offers by Xmas part from those applying for medicine.

Obviously, if he's ready to submit the form when UCAS opens, then the earlier the better. There's sometimes a myth peddled about it being dangerous to submit the form before the Oxbridge deadline if you're not an Oxbridge applicant, but that's just rubbish. There's certainly nothing to be gained by waiting. Apart from anything else, once the button is pressed to submit, the student can get on with all the other stuff in his or her life.

I agree with Molio, there. If you know what you want to study, and where, get it in early.

DD's school concentrated on those students needing to meet the early deadline - their references were done first etc. The rest were not as urgent.

There are some benefits to waiting a little while before submitting the application. My DC4s grades (class tests and homework marks) all went up during the year 13 Autumn term which meant his predicted grades and his report could be tweaked. If he had applied early in the cycle his references wouldn't have been quite as strong. Those extra couple of months also helped him firm up his decisions.

Leaving it until January the 15th isn't a great idea but applying mid to late November is perfectly ok as a general rule. Most of the students I know got their offers back fairly quickly except the poor buggers like DD1 who had applied to do medicine.

Once your DC know roughly where and what they want to do they can do some more specific research.

One of my DC applied for three courses she was certain of when she initially submitted her UCAS application and then added another choice later on. (She only made four choices).

My son's school sorted out Oxbridge and medicine personal statements/ references etc first and then the others although he was a bit late getting going as well. His first choice uni (where he ended up) didn't give out any offers until the closing date in January. Others came sooner.
I don't see why having your offers in early and concentration on getting the grades are connected. You usually have an idea of what sort of grades you need when you apply.

My dd's school encouraged all pupils to apply in the autumn term. A lot of her friends had several if not all offers before Christmas (she's applying for medicine do although she applied even earlier, the process takes longer)

Thanks for this - really helpful. He wants to study architecture - first choices are Manchester and Newcastle. Neither interview but instead request selected candidates to submit a portfolio within a 6/4 week window and offers are then made on assessment of the portfolio. Not sure what the timescale is between being asked to submit a portfolio after applying and then when an offer is made following portfolio submission -- but as it sound like a long winded process it sounds sensible to start sooner rather than later.

His school also make predictions for everyone at the same time in Sept after AS results, taking into account their knowledge of the motivation and capability of the student - they are very clear that there is no room for negotiation on this - so a stellar performance in the Autumn term would cut no ice with the school.

It seems odd to have to submit a portfolio before you start the degree! My son is doing engineering and didn't have to submit a study on aerodynamics or whatever. Arty degrees are maybe different.

Portfolio quite normal for arty degrees!

I can see now why you were so pleased with the pm :) Good luck to your ds with the AS exams. Can he work on a portfolio over the summer? Perhaps if he presented it to school in September they may look on it favourably in terms of motivation and capability when submitting predictions.

Many thanks EYV -- yes he will need to get his portfolio together over the summer as well as ensure he can demonstrate the extensive experience/interest/attributes he has that are related to the course for the PS which with the portfolio is the clincher. The unis also throw in an additional task for inclusion in the portfolio when invited to submit - so more time to be allocated for this as well.

Architecture an arty degree? No it is not but you need to demonstrate artistic ability and therefore the need for a portfolio. I think if an application is ready to go off and the school can do the references then go early. DD is doing a proper arty degree and portfolios were asked for in the Spring Term. It is hard work getting it ready so getting application out of the way is a good idea.