Early UCAS applications

[Devondoggydaycare]

Do universities assume you have also applied to Oxbridge if you submit your UCAS form before 15 October? Does this have any impact (positive or negative) on your applications? Is there any benefit in getting it in early?

My DC have all put theirs in early, sometimes very early and it's had no negative impact whatsoever. The positive benefit has been early offers which have been a good boost to confidence.

Would you advise doing that if the applicant wasn't applying for med/vet/Oxbridge? So after 15 October but before end of October so early but obviously not a potential 2nd choice?

Exactly that. Is it worth bothering submitting it early if you don't have to?

Makes no difference whatsoever. No advantage being early. No disadvantage either!

It doesn't make any difference, other than receiving offers from most universities early. My dd applied early this year and had all of her offers by Christmas - with the exception of Durham, which kept everyone waiting.

Another point to bear in mind is that applying after 15 october doesn't necessarily 'prove' to other universities that you haven't applied to Oxbridge, as (I am told but was never entirely confident that it would really work!) you can apply to o/b before 15 October and then add your other choices later on if you haven't decided.

Things change yearly though, so please don't rely on this! I don't know how many students do this (I imagine very few) but if it is widespread then other universities may be familiar with the practice. In any case, if your dc is at a school with lots of pre 15 oct applications (vet/med etc as well as o/b) they may prioritise those applications, so that the non 15 oct ones are kept back until after that deadline anyway. (Prioritise chronologically I mean, to make sure they get in on time, not prioritise in terms of importance attached to them!)

Agree with all of the above. Some universities (Durham grrr!!!) will keep you waiting anyway. Some will snap you up asap regardless. Do what's right for you. And as someone else said you can stick down Oxbridge options and still add the other 4 later in the game. Not like the old days where you had to rank them either!

My dcs’ school encourages early applications. Last year ds submitted his just before Oct half term. He had all his offers back within a month. Then could effectively forget about it & concentrate on his studies.

I had no idea you could add them in phases. Interesting.

At DD's school, they only wanted Oxbridge, Medics and Vets forms early as there were lots to do. Unless your form was ready in the first week of September, they prioritised the Oxbridge/Medic/Vet people's applications as theirs were more time-critical.

Adding choices in UCAS:

www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/making-changes-your-ucas-undergraduate-application

If you didn't use all five choices, you can add more in Track:

as long as it's before 30 June and you've not accepted or declined your offers if you only originally applied to one choice (so paid at the reduced fee).All you have to do is pay the extra £6 in Track to allow you to add more

It's sensible to consider doing this if you are undecided about some of the universities you might want to apply to, rather than go through the 'changing a preference' process. However, although June June 30th is the cut-off, the January 15th cut-off for applications to be given equal consideration still applies, so if that date has passed, it would be wise to check that the university is still accepting applications.

If you apply early many universities start to make offers. It's not particularly advantageous as far as I'm aware but gets it done. Schools appreciate early submission because once the student does their bit the school does references, in big colleges there's over 1000 to do!

Dd has hers in first week of October, not oxbridge

Yes I'd still advise mine to get theirs in early - as Malbec says, if the school allows. It just gets rid of the thing apart from anything else, early offers are welcome and as titchy says, I don't believe Durham etc care two hoots about people potentially applying to Oxbridge. A huge number of the best applicants will (not all, but lots).

It's also good to get in early as it takes the anxiety away from school completing reference before the deadlines. My Ds's school were cutting it very fine for some of his friends and it turned out very stressful. Meanwhile DS whose was in October had 4 offers already

Ds is a couple of years away from applying yet but I guess he will apply fairly early because the CUCAS deadline is 1st October so he might as well but UCAS whilst he's at it.

I had to work out that one Comefromaway but the clue is in your name!

Any applications received before the 15rj January deadline have to be given equal consideration so no benefit doing it before then in terms of the offer the student will get but a lot to be said for getting it done and dusted to concentrate on studies. I'm not sure how support at schools work though - might be more time to go through personal statements etc as teachers won't have many to do if more people leave it til Jan but on the other hand they might not be ready for supporting yet. Depends on the school I guess and if any support is needed but they would at least need to do the reference so worth giving them a heads up that dc wants to get it done by whatever date

there is no advantage or disadvantage to submitting early - in terms of receiving an offer anyway.

However I would say it gives students a big advantage in respect of time management as once it’s done they don’t need to think about/attend personal statement support sessions, 1-2-1s with support staff etc. So it frees all their time up to think about their exams which are the important bit!

If their chosen institutions don’t interview they might well have all offers before Christmas, sort their firm and insurance and then not really have to give it too much headspace after that; also getting an application in earlier can mean an earlier invite to applicant days and more choice in dates. For example, the uni I work at has some applicant days in early jan which are well attended - but if you haven’t submitted before jan 15th, they won’t be able to invite you to them and you’ll only get a choice of March dates!

Equally if you know some/all of your choices will interview, applying early might give you a chance of an earlier interview slot so you can get it out of the way and not have to miss crucial days at school in the run up to exams - even more important if uni choices are a bit further out!

Might have helped if I’d spelt CUKAS correctly Devon.