UCAS - school forcing applicants to select all five choices at submission

[Bobochic]

I have come across a school (in the UK) that won't allow UCAS applicants to hold back some choices when submitting their UCAS form. This is the first time I have come across this. Can anyone tell me whether this is common practice?

I didn't want to go to uni and want to take a gap year and was made to apply regardless as it was 'the school procedure'. If they only wants three choices, they cannot force another two choices on him!

Three of my kids didn't use all five spots in their initial application. I think it can be useful for the reasons given by BoboChick s applicant and just if a student is uncertain about their choices.

I'm suprised that a school would object. I can't see any disadvantage with holding back one or two choices if you have three sound choices and can make you late choices by the January deadline.

There are only a few universities and subjects that keep students waiting ages for offers but most get offers out reasonably quickly especially if the application is made early in the application cycle.

Someone should tell the Dad to wind his neck in and leave his DS to make choices about his life in conjunction with people who can advise him more accurately than the Dad. Then the DS wouldn't be dancing around choices to appease the Dad. Can't you do that Bobo, or get the Mum to suggest it to the Dad?

Bath was my DSs last offer, well after the January deadline. All other offers were before Christmas (his school also encouraged early application to get it out of way).

He already knew his choices but couldnt select them until Bath had made their offer. From what I gathered, he wasn't the only one of his friends waiting a long time for Bath to respond.

ds told school she was applying to four, they accepted this, when she knew how the interviews were going she applied to a fifth, she got 4/5 offers including the last choice.

He already knew his choices but couldnt select them until Bath had made their offer. From what I gathered, he wasn't the only one of his friends waiting a long time for Bath to respond

I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly but i
I think you are saying that your DS couldn't select his firm and insurance until he had decisions from all his choices. If so then that's not right. If you have already received offers from the Unis you wish to firm and insure then you don't have to wait to receive decisions from the others. You can withdraw those choices. DS took pleasure from withdrawing his application choice to Bristol who were taking forever. He already had offers from his top two choices so there was no point wasting time waiting for Bristol.

Is it because the school want to know what they are giving the reference for? I can kind of understand that, I'm not a teacher but I wouldn't want to give a work reference if I didn't know what the job was. I could be recommending someone for something they are totally unsuitable for.

Green lolly, it can't be that because lots of schools do let them. And if you don't apply for similar courses your PS won't make sense. I really don't think it is up to te school to ban something that UCAS allows especially if a child has a difficult family situation. They should be trying to help them.

Your tactic of starting with three and seeing how he goes is a great one.

Shame the school won't allow it. My DS's school is the same, and their reason for that is they like to make sure the PS is written to address all five choices in detail, and they can't police this if students add choices after the application has gone out.

It's annoying because there are some unis that are a bit cautious about Oxbridge applicants (that's going from personal observations and talking to others in the same business as me).

Also, if you are choosing Durham along with Oxbridge, and you are running short of time towards the Oxbridge cutoff but know you would like to take up Durham's extra PS offer, then it makes sense to delay sending off to Durham for the second reason that you buy yourself more time to write this extra PS.

I think my DS will tell his school firmly that he only has four choices.

Then he will sneak in Durham after the 15th October.

Nothing his school can do to stop him, really.

A French student saying "I actually really only want these three and my fallback is APB" is very believable.

Thank you for the thumbs up, shockthemonkey. I shall do my best to impress upon the family that they need to be firm with the school but I fear this particular school is exceptionally bloody-minded!

Sure... but could he state categorically that he only wants three choices in the UK?

Then sneak in the others later? They could not stop him (and they probably would not even notice straight away).

He can try. The quality of advice at this school is appalling - I have received this boy's PS, which he drafted using the UCAS tool and we then played around with, marked up by his school (a teacher he has never even met!) and the comments are shockingly off track.

Now that doesn't surprise me -- re teacher's comments. Sutton trust reckons teachers are very often out of whack with their judgement on PSs as compared to Admissions Tutors.

Have a detailed study from them if you're interested (pm me). I find it useful to re-read occasionally.

DS1 went firmly against his teacher's comments, which were not at all helpful and way off the mark. Teacher said "well then don't be surprised if you get no offers" and lo, he got 4/5 (and the only refusal was from a uni asking for grades higher than his predictions).

Could anyone advise on the pros and cons of putting all 5 choices at once please?

It saves the teachers being shouted at if the applicant only applies to two universities and they both reject them.

It is not the school's responsibility or business how many unis a student applies for - they can only offer advice and provide the reference.
A lot of good universities (outside the top few) for most courses (e.g. Not the most in demand) will still be accepting applications a long time after the deadline. My DD put in a very late application (after Easter) for a STEM subject and only named 3 universities (all were RG but that was more coincidence than design) and she got all 3 offers. Yes the student should obviously put in the choices they want before the January deadline, but it is not a disaster if something goes pear-shaped and there is always UCAS extra around the end of January if someone does receive 5 rejections by then.

Yes, if you've got no offers by late Feb, you are eligible for Extra.

That "no offers" means either rejections, or still not heard back.

Very good for peace of mind.

Shockthemonkey, what is 'extra'? Have you got a link please?

Google 'UCAS Extra'....

Basically if you've been rejected by all your choices you can apply again via a process called Extra. You can only apply for one place at a time.

Thanks titchy

Either rejected, or not heard back yet.

You may have had one rejection and four answers still pending, you can already use Extra in late Feb.

This is a seriously old thread but does this still stand? A student can apply to three choices, school send it off and they can add two other later? I’ve looked at the Ucas website and it seems to suggest you can do this until June (rather than Jan 15th), which seems more like the ‘extras’ option for when you get no offers. School have said she should apply to 5 straight away but she’d rather do 3 then add two. Any ideas please?

Still the case! As long as the extra ones are submitted by the Jan deadline it's perfectly fine.

Also I believe you can change your application for 14 days after submission