Advantages or otherwise in only applying for 4 universities

[glitterbiscuits]

I have read that some people are keeping a place on the UCAS form in reserve.
It hadn't occurred to me and I suggested it to DS and he scoffed.
What are everyone's views?

Unless there really is no other course/uni it is worth adding a fifth although that does not have to be entered at the same time as submission. Some unis won't offer until March.

I can see the point - if there's no particular course you like as a fifth, or if you want to play safe and be able to add a less aspirational course if you get 4 'noes'. However on the flipside it is yet one more hassle and distraction, so I think there is also something to be said for sending off five and having done with it!

There's no point applying for a course that you don't want to do! Don't put a 5th just for the sake of it if you're not interested or the offer is likely to be unattainable.

LIZS I think that's what the OP meant as reserve-blank for now and adding it later.

I think it does depend on what you want to and how competitive the places are. Dd1 has done that, and will add another later. She has 2-3 she's happy to put on and depending on what offers she gets she will consider which one to put on.

Yes, that's a better way of expressing it: bank a space for later.
The usual advice is to apply for one aspirational choice, one lower entry choice and 3 average grade entry requirement choices. I think that is the general consensus?
Maybe DS should leave off his lower choice and see if he gets any offers in, if he does then he may not need it or he could apply to another aspirational choice?

Some of my kids did this. Mostly because they couldn't find a 5th choice at first but also because their other choices covered a variety of grades. None of them ended up adding a fifth choice.

I think it can be useful if there is a chance that they might change their minds or if they end up struggling or doing surprisingly well in Year 13.

It takes two mins to add a fifth choice at a later date.

Depends a lot on the course obviously.

Mine did this, they didn't end up adding one because they were happy with the offers they got- but wanted the option of adding somewhere more/less aspirational depending on the way the offers fell.

Ds's school wants applications in this week. We still have one open day to do. Ds will therefore only fill in 4 choices initially. Though tbh I'd almost rather he just did 3 now as I can't really see him settling in at one of his current choices.

DS only applied to 4, didn’t see the point in applying to universities he wouldn’t want to attend. DDs both applied to 5.

You might need to leave the lower tariff on the choices because DC might need it on results day. These are often used for the insurance choice. If you cannot find a 5th, it doesn’t matter. However one or two aspirational, two at what should be achievable and one lower is fine. Sometimes DC don’t want the Insurance when they don’t make their top choice so be careful what you choose. I think it’s more complicated to try and guess when universities make offers and just going with five immediately is still a decent plan. Or 4. What will you discover in the next two months about a university you didn’t know already? You still don’t know if a late addition will be any keener on you. You still only have two choices at the end of it all.

Maybe DS should leave off his lower choice and see if he gets any offers in, if he does then he may not need it or he could apply to another aspirational choice?

I don't think an "aspirational choice" would give any consideration to an application made after the deadline, even if they knew it had been made (which they probably wouldn't).

I wasn't thinking of after the deadline, just seeing what early offers he may get.

I don't think an "aspirational choice" would give any consideration to an application made after the deadline, even if they knew it had been made (which they probably wouldn't).

Aspirational or not, if the application is made before 6pm on 30th June, UCAS will make the university aware of it.

From the UCAS section on deadlines:

30 June 2019
If an application is sent to us by 18:00 (UK time) on this day, we’ll send it to the chosen universities or colleges. Applications received after this date will automatically be entered intoClearing.