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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

Do you get better offers if you apply earlier?

28 replies

Copperbeech33 · 09/09/2017 12:49

DC panicking about getting to as many open days as possible this month to get their UCAS application in at the start of next month. This is causing some strain financially!

Any admissions tutors around?? or parents or students with any experience or insight?

I'd do what ever I can to give my children the best possible chance, but am looking at taking out a loan, and not sure if it is actually helpful to apply this early anyway.

OP posts:

ReinettePompadour · 09/09/2017 13:03

The closing date for UCAS is 15th January.
Just like with school admissions that's the date they gather everything together and start sending it out to the colleges and universities. Some move very quickly from that point with interviews being organised within a week for so for the most competitive courses and places being offered by March.

Ive started an Access course this week and we have been told 1st November should be the absolute latest we should be submitting our application to UCAS. That way we can be processed before the A Level students get their applications in and they have frequently had cases where interviews and places have been offered before Christmas so the rest of the year is just plodding along and not worrying about anything else.

Obviously open events are essential if your dd needs to decide between Universities. For me there really is only 2 to choose between and both will appear on my UCAS application because I'm a mature student with young children and I have to choose a University I can travel to from home. I have visited both over the years so I have a good idea of what it is theyre looking for.

Try and get your dd to narrow down her choices. How many Universities is she looking at? Has she researched her courses. Get onto Unistats to give you an idea how successful each University is with each course and student satisfaction levels. She needs to be making decisions based on good sound research and not on a whim because the picture looked pretty in the prospectus (at least 1 student has said this on my course )

titchy · 09/09/2017 13:31

You do NOT need to apply early (unless Oxbridge or dental/med/vet).

All applications are treated the same and will receive the same offer as long as they were submitted to UCAS by the January deadline. I can absolutely guarantee that.

Colleges of course need to write references so internal deadline will be earlier.

inchyrablue · 09/09/2017 13:36

Lots of them have videos (often subject specific) on YouTube, including tours of halls, etc. Some even post their admissions talks to open days on YouTube, or on their websites.

Most of them have masses and masses of detail on their department websites.

You'll likely also find useful info on StudentRoom.

If you find 2 or 3 that you are happy with and have visited, another couple that you can visit after offers would be fine I think. I have heard that some people wait till they've got offers before they visit any.

If money is tight, you may have to do more research online, but you could saves loads of time, and money.

Bluntness100 · 09/09/2017 13:43

There is no need to get in early, it doesn't change the outcome, but I'd be pushing her to narrow down her choices and do some research into what unis are the best for her course, what style of uni, how they teach etc and what the offers usually are. Then decide which to visit as these will be her shortlist and how she determines her choices.

My daughter visited three. Going to them all is a little pointless really.

BizzyFizzy · 09/09/2017 13:44

No.

Trills · 09/09/2017 13:49

I applied early because of the Oxbridge deadline.

I had offers from some other universities before the final deadline.

Not all places will be gone if you leave it til the last minute, but some may be, if you are applying to courses that will have other applicants who do have to apply early.

Trills · 09/09/2017 13:50

This was a while ago, so may not apply now.

Original poster

Copperbeech33 · 09/09/2017 14:01

Thank you for your input.

OP posts:

sassymuffin · 09/09/2017 14:06

DD applied 3 years ago early because of the Oxbridge deadline and like trills she also had a couple of offers before the final deadline of January.

She doesn't have to visit every open day particularly if it will cause a financial strain. It is recommended but not always possible. DD didn't visit 2 of her 5 Ucas choices although she made sure she had thoroughly researched course content, performance and satisfaction and also researched the location/city. As long as she does this and doesn't solely rely on the bias of their prospectus she will be fine.

user7214743615 · 09/09/2017 14:30

Not all places will be gone if you leave it til the last minute, but some may be, if you are applying to courses that will have other applicants who do have to apply early.

To reiterate what another academic wrote above: all applications received by the deadline must (by law) be treated equally.

Thus early offers are only made when the course knows for sure that they will have more places to offer equally qualified candidates later or when the course knows (by experience) that the candidate is extremely well qualified compared to typical applicants applying later.

A lot of competitive courses will simply not give out many offers before February or so, and all applications are in.

Other competitive courses will give out some offers to early applicants, knowing that these are likely to be amongst the best candidates to apply.

It is simply not the case that any given candidate will be disadvantaged by waiting until the January deadline.

userofthiswebsite · 09/09/2017 14:31

No. From someone who knows a fair bit about it.

blueskyinmarch · 09/09/2017 14:42

Don't worry about not going to all the open days. My DD is at a uni she hadn't visited before she applied and she loves it. She just made sure she had read a lot about the city and the uni experience before she went. It was the course she wanted to do so just applied. It is 350 miles away from where we live and would have been expensive and time consuming to get to for an open day.

valeinoyikbuno · 09/09/2017 14:59

My experience is quite out of date being several years old, but having applied before the oxbridge deadline got me an "EE" offer from a high quality not-quite-Russell-Group university which was keen to be my insurance offer in case I missed my grades for the AAB offers I would obviously be getting for more prestigious universities, and a couple of BBB offers from RG unis with a bit more self-regard but a similar strategy. I think applying early with predictions showing you are aiming for the highest academic achievements means you are likely to be perceived as a high-quality candidate and will be snapped up by the institutions that can't attract enough of the highest quality candidates to fill their courses and know they will end up with a few mediocre ones too.

I don't think it would make any difference for very popular courses where they can be choosy, or if predictions aren't glowing.

ErrolTheDragon · 09/09/2017 20:09

*The closing date for UCAS is 15th January.
Just like with school admissions that's the date they gather everything together and start sending it out to the colleges and universities. Some move very quickly from that point with interviews being organised within a week for so for the most competitive courses and places being offered by March. *

That's not quite accurate. My DD did apply early; everywhere she applied to do interviews for her subject (elec eng) and iirc all bar one were done before Christmas, with offers coming back shortly after interview. The main advantage was simply that it got the interviews out of the way sooner. Even if your DC's subject doesn't interview (most don't), everywhere seems to have applicant and/or offer holders days - so if you haven't been able to go to all the open days there's usually other opportunities to look at the place before the final selection of firm and insurance is made.

So really, either way round works, its up to you and your DC to decide what works best in your situation.

ErrolTheDragon · 09/09/2017 20:10

NB - this was just last year.

AtiaoftheJulii · 09/09/2017 20:20

You don't have to put all 5 choices on straightaway - if your dc is applying at the beginning of next month for Oxbridge/medicine/dentistry, they can add any others afterwards.

How many open days are they planning to do?

ErrolTheDragon · 09/09/2017 20:21

I forgot to actually answer the OPs question... no, I don't believe you get better offers by applying early. DDs offers were all as expected; by the time of the last interview, sometime after xmas, she had a good EPQ grade in the bag which brought it down one grade.

Tour · 09/09/2017 20:28

You don't get better offers. It does mean that you may know quicker whether you have an offer or not (some receive offers prior to the closing date). This can cause unnecessary panic to those who have not yet applied. Speaking from experience as a teacher in a sixth form.

AtiaoftheJulii · 09/09/2017 20:34

Oh yes - dd1 applied to Oxford and had all her other offers before going for her Oxford interview in early December. Dd2 put her application in around the end of October and had 4 offers before Christmas, one just after the 15th January deadline. All their offers were the standard advertised offers.

HollyBuckets · 10/09/2017 21:03

Short answer: No.

It may appear so because Oxbridge applications have to be in much earlier than normal. And Oxbridge applicants tend to be highly qualified (or predicted to be so) and so may receive early offers from elsewhere.

But only because their UCAS forms have to go in so early.

Gannet123 · 11/09/2017 12:35

UCAS' equal consideration rule means that all applications received before the 15th January deadline must be treated the same. Some institutions will deal with this by not making an offers until the deadline; others will make rolling offers according to a set of criteria and may hold borderline candidates back in a 'gathered field' to be considered later. The way it works depends on how many applications a course typically gets, what they expect their conversion to be (i.e. how many applicants make them their firm choice) and how many applicants are likely to achieve the required grades. In many cases, exact precision as the number of offers made is not necessary, so one can work on a criteria basis. It is not true, however, that applications are not sent to universities until January 15th - we're downloading applications from UCAS regularly once applications are open.
The problem with open days, however, is that most universities don't have open days beyond October, and for some that means early October. However, if an offer is made, the applicant will probably be invited for a further visit, so there is still a further chance to visit later on.

ErrolTheDragon · 11/09/2017 13:21

The problem with open days, however, is that most universities don't have open days beyond October, and for some that means early October

Thats not a problem, it makes sense with the timing of the process. They start immediately after the summer exam season. And there's nothing to prevent people doing some before/during yr 12.

bigbluebus · 11/09/2017 17:08

She can list Unis that she hasn't been to - just research them online. Most Unis have 'Offer' Open Days in the Summer term so if she gets an offer from somewhere and wants to go and have a look then she will have a further opportunity.

The 'offer' open days are less hectic and crowded that the general open days which are often a bun fight and difficult to get around everything. Offer days are more focussed on the course she has applied for - we went to 3 offer days with DS and actually got to meet and chat with some of the lecturers and heads of faculty.

So if your DC actually knows what course they want to do then doing some general open days now and then offer days at others later on may be better. The offer days are held before they have to make final choice of firm and insurance.

Oldie2017 · 11/09/2017 17:41

Mine applied by the October half term. It gets it over with . Why spin it out? They didn't go to open days and didn't have any interviews (not Oxbridge).

if you leave it too late you just have more uncertainty whilst you're trying to do A level work and more chance something will go wrong and you'll miss the deadline. I would just get on with it.

sadusername2 · 13/09/2017 07:37

If money is tight, I'd think twice about spending too much on open days. My DD was very clear which was her first choice and we did visit. She visited a couple with school that were close to home and ruled out immediately. The rest she chose based on course, and rankings. The plan was to always to attend offer holders days to choose between them.

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