Do you get penalised for turning down an unconditional place at uni if you then reapply the following year ?

[Shortfeet]

ds ( 18 ) has 3 unconditional offers for various engineering degrees at Strathclyde and Glasgow universities.
He is currently working full time at a dull job fo save money. ( instead of staying on for 6th year )

He is considering not accepting the offers for September 2020 , but instead working for another year and then reapplying .

Does anyone know whether the universities look unfavourably on this ?
Ie ‘ you turned us down last year so we are not giving you another offer ‘ ?

Can he not defer?

Savoretti do you mean can he ask to take up the place in 2021? I don’t think that’s an option for the courses. I could be wrong.

You can usually defer for most courses

Deferring is a better idea, he needs to call and ask them

I would definitely take a place then defer rather than start from scratch

Someone in the know told him deferring was not an option for these particular courses.
I wonder if he has been given wrong info?
Is the Scottish system different perhaps?

If he can defer, that's a good idea. If he can't I really don't think there'd be any negative impact of turning them down this year and reapplying next year. I have lots of experience helping young people apply for university and have never come across anyone being disadvantaged by changing their plans like that.

@onlyconnect
Thank you.
Ds has just told me that deferring does not mean applying now for 2020 entry , getting accepted and saying “ can you defer my place till 2021?”

He claims deferred entry means applying now and actually specifying starting in 2021.

Is he correct?

I don't think you can usually defer unconditional offers, although I don't know how the system works in Scotland.

I assume "He is currently working full time at a dull job fo save money. (instead of staying on for 6th year)" means he isn't taking his advanced highers. You'd need to find out whether they would make him an unconditional offer again next year based just on his higher (S5) grades or if someone applying a year later is expected to have completed advanced highers (i.e. meet S6 requirements). For example see Glasgow's entry requirements for mechanical engineering.

@Shortfeet - What your son is describing is applying for deferred entry. This is the "official" way of deferring, so your son is correct about that. At some universities it is also possible to ask to defer an offer once it's been made but I don't know whether the universities you listed would allow this. Again, I don't really know how it works in Scotland: the system is very different because Scottish universities make offers to Scottish students on the basis of the qualifications they have already completed.

You can't apply for 2021 yet, or while a 2020 offer is live. Scottish unis are less likely to defer due the complexities of balancing funding streams but you can but ask.

Otoh dd had unconditional offer last year, did not take it as firm or insurance, took a gap year and reapplied, same uni has offered again.

No harm in asking. Having a plan about keeping his maths (and physics/engineering science) up to date might help. Equally if he is working as he can't afford to go, they might have discretional bursaries on offer.

DS2 and one of his friends went from S5 (friend engineering and son science). It is doable. Both in junior honours now. They cover AH/A levels quite quickly in First year as not everyone with AH/A levels goes for 2nd year entry.

@SirTobyBelch
Thank you,
That’s very helpful.
Correct - he didn’t want to do 6th year because he got good grades in 5th year - more than the minimum entry requirements. So no advanced highers.
He has 3 unconditional offers for mechanical, civil, and aeronautical engineering.
He is just undecided about which to go for hence his recent thoughts about taking one more year out ( while working) to make up his mind.

But he is worried that if he can’t get deferred entry he might not get accepted the following year.

I’m not sure how to advise him. It has to be his decision anyway

My DD turned down an offer from Bristol, went to Cardiff, hated it, has just reapplied again through UCAS and got an unconditional offer from Bristol (which she'll likely turn down again as she is leaning towards somewhere else). I think if you meet the criteria they'll offer you a place.

Thank you @LillianGish