Clearing and applying to RG universities

[User26272829]

My DC is currently in his final year of A Levels and has already chosen his courses on UCAS. He’s had offers from 3 of his choices, still waiting for 2. All well and good, however when he was applying I’d suggested that he selected some of the RG universities(none of his choices are) that he liked. He was hesitant because he didn’t get the required grades in his mocks. However, since then we’ve had parents evening and he appears to be on course to achieve 3As and a B, so he could have applied. The question is how does clearing work these days? Does he have to reject all his offers now and apply to the university he wants through Clearing in August? Or should he wait for his results in August reject his offers then and apply to the university he wants? Can that second option be done?

Can't he apply to others now? I think applications after the end of June go into clearing, a friend's DC applied in May (a couple of years ago) to other universities as they can apply for 5 and she'd only applied for 2.

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

In addition, it might be worthwhile, as a parent, reading www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/ucas-undergraduate-advice-parents-and-guardians and signing up for www.ucas.com/parents-signup .

If he does better than he thought then there is Adjustment where he can look for other available courses, ring and if accepted release the original firm on UCAS.

@cherryolives He’s applied for 5, has offers for 3 and still waiting for 2. So would he be able to reject 2 offers and apply for to new courses knowing that he’d be going through clearing for those? He also needs to make a firm and insurance choice by June I believe

Thanks @LIZS !

@butterflymum I’m already there! Sometimes it useful to chat to people who’ve been in similar situations though.

The first option to come along will be UCAS Extra, which opens on the 25th, but as with Clearing, to apply through Extra, one needs to be holding no offers at all - so he would have to turn down all his offers and withdraw his application from the ones which haven'tyet responded. Unlike Adjustment, which will be available later on (usually from results day in August, but presumably this year it could be earlier, if results are notified earlier). As LIZS said, with Adjustment, the already confirmed 'firm' place isn't given up while the student 'shops around, only if they find a place they prefer. To enter Adjustment, the candidate's results must meet and exceed those of their firm offer (not exceed their predicted grades, although these two may be the same thing).

The other point to make, however, is that Russell Grpup membership is not automatically synonymous with all our courses are better than the same degree offered at a non-RG university (Engineering or Architecture at Bath not worth looking at because Bath isn't RG anyone??).

Thanks @MarchingFrogs. Definitely food for thought.