DS changed his mind - defer or clearing?

[Justbetweenus]

I am no expert on UK university admissions so I’m hoping there’s someone out there that knows more than me 😬

DS has four conditional offers for compsci but for various reasons wants to either defer or stay in London (none of his original choices are local).

So, to defer is it right that he’d go ahead and pick firm and insurance courses, wait till results come out to know which one he’s accepted on, and then ask them if he can defer till Sep 2022?

If he wanted to try and get on another course (London uni) would he reject his offer, and risk going into clearing and hope he gets a place at the London university? His grades will be high enough but I guess there’s no telling if there will be places in clearing. Is this how it would work?

Thank you mumsnetters!

Has he spoken to his now preferred London Uni? What are they saying?

It’s kind of just the seed of an idea now. He’s assuming he’ll defer. I can suggest he does that. Would it be to ask what they’d suggest, or to ask if they generally expect places to be available via clearing? (Sorry - I know I’m a bit clueless).

Have you looked at UCAS Extra? I think he can 'cancel' his offers and ask around now to see if different (ie London) unis have spaces. But only one at a time, I think, and he'd lose his original offers. I'm not expert, but check it out, or others will know more than me.

As above, check out ucas extra and if there are spaces on a course he’s interested in then contact the university admissions team to get a feel for if they might offer based on his PS and anticipated grades. Then move forward from there.

Where exactly would he be aiming for in London, if he could get in for this September? It looks like QMUL is still accepting applications for the MSci course, but to apply through Extra now, he would have to turn down all his existing offers.
.digital.ucas.com/coursedisplay/courses/e44e4209-9f03-043c-10dc-755d06b0a013?academicYearId=2021

Others may well have places for the coming year, but if he's in the Iperial / UCL league, those two definitely don't.

If he is happy with the universities he has offers from, but just doesn't want to go to any of them until next year, it would make sense to check now which ones will allow him to defer, rather than firm and insure two and discover on August 10th (unlikely, but possible) that they were the ones which wouldn't.

Yes definitely ring round the ones he has offers from to see if they will defer. if he wnats to go this year someone has already explained he would need to see if any of his preferred altnertive unis are in extra (and then he can decline or withdraw from any he has). They won't confirm they will make an extra offer but may give an indication.

This is all wonderful information. I’ll get him to look at UCAS Extra and investigate whether deferrals are even a possibility for existing options. Thank you!
@MarchingFrogs - he wasn’t keen on UCL/Imperial when he first applied. KCL would be the London possibility - he’ll exceed the grade requirement, so we’ll see. Thanks again everyone - I really appreciate it.

Searching on 'Computer Science', King's only seems to have courses available in Biomedical Engineering, Electronic Engineering or Digital Culture.

If he is set on King's, then it would probably be better to withdraw altogether for this year and apply afresh for 2022 entry once UCAS Apply opens.

Not all unis will allow deferrals, especially late in the day. He also needs to have solid plans for the interim. If he wants to apply fit different unis/courses he may be better withdrawing and reapplying in September post results.

@LIZS When you say ‘late in the day’, may I ask what that means? So far he has conditional offers so doesn’t actually have anything to defer until results day (when, I assume, firm or insurance offer becomes unconditional). So are deferral requests not unavoidably late in the day?

But yes, scrapping everything and starting again next year might be best. (He has a PT job - unrelated to computer science - that he can increase to FT so I think that’s what he’d do). Urgh, he’s on track for three A* but I’m not sure he’s ever really been sold on university. 😔

Ideally, if he wanted to do something else this coming year, but still apply for university while still at school, he should have applied from the start for 2022 entry, not 2021. Universities will be looking at numbers for the admission year that the applicant says they want to start in, also, for some subjects, Maths being the example that springs to mind, gap years are not recommended, due to the slippage in skills that almost inevitably occur.

He applied with the intention of starting in September 2021 - this is a recent change. As I say, I’m not sure his heart has ever fully been in it and after two years of disrupted learning at school, the idea of another year (or more) of blended or remote learning hasn’t made him any more keen. I’d love him to go - but it’s not my life. I’m just trying to make sure he works through the options.

He can negotiate now with the conditional offers he has which of them might defer and have the offers updated on UCAS to 2022. However that alone won'r allow him to add a London one. There is a website which you can check which courses previously appeared in Clearing but that process will only be for 2021 entry. Our experience of trying to defer after Results day, admittedly with a recognised awkward one, was a long and drawn out no the day before term was due to start. In the end dd reapplied and took up a place at the one which declined her deferral the following year.

As an example DS decided to defer last year in June. He called the uni he had firmed. They asked him to complete an online request to defer and said he would hear on results day if they were prepared to defer. In fact they confirmed his deferred place 4 hours later (provided he met offer). In his case he was a straight A* student so Ì suspect that helped a swift decision and more borderline students may have had to wait until results day.