URGENT - Can we still apply via UCAS TODAY please?

[medianewbie]

Ds has been doing an HNC. The course has been so badly run & the Head of Dept has asked us to make a formal complaint. Worst issue is that Ds has only just finished his work yesterday at 6pm. (Tutor was in doing 1:1 with a number of students from a number of his courses) DS went to bed & slept, got up for a cup of tea during which he told me he now does feel he can apply to Uni this year & has been asleep since (he has Autism & is absolutely exhausted by this mess)

I just checked the UCAS site & it seems that the cut off was yesterday ??
(I'd called a few weeks ago in case of this & was told 4th July?)
Obviously the thing to do is call them & check but lines shut till Mon am.
Does anyone know if he has missed application dates by a day please?
I understand he can still do clearing but that is only for 1 place so he'd have no choice?

Thank you, if anyone sees this & knows...

You will have to go through clearing now I think.

From UCAS website

You can use Clearing if:

• you’re applying after 30 June
• you didn’t receive any offers (or none you wanted to accept)
• you didn’t meet the conditions of your offers
• you've paid the multiple choice application fee of £27
• you’ve declined your firm place using the ‘decline my place’ button in your application

The Clearing Plus service (which , I assume, becomes available once your DS has set up his account) might be useful?

https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/clearing-and-results-day/what-clearing

Individual universities also have information about the process on their websites. Googling at random 'university of Leicester clearing' also prompted, in Google's helpful way, info on UEA, NTU, Portsmouth and Newcastle, amongst others.

@Justhereforthechristmasthreads

thank you for replying - argh, this doesnt sound good !!!
Ds Tutor has been a nightmare & it's really affected his confidence to apply.
Final pieces of work only set this week (course ended on 16th!) & Ds only finished last bit, which was hurriedly marked, late yesterday afternoon. College said: 'dont worry, can finish during July, or catch up next year' - they have offered him a place on a 2nd HNC next year which he accepted weeks ago as he thought his Uni dreams were gone now due to the mess of his HNC.
But yesterday evening he told me he really wants to apply.
I am so upset for him. I understand he can apply through clearing but that's 1 choice of what's left so he may be better to wait for next year now?

@MarchingFrogs thank you x

He's only interested in 2 places - Abertay (1 course) & Edin. Napier (2 courses)

Can he only apply for 1 course in 1 place via Clearing now ?
(I'm beyond angry at the College but that's for another time)

@medianewbie
In 'normal' clearing (ie after A level results) you can contact as many unis as you want, you just phone them and they may well make an offer over the phone, you usually have a day or two to decide whether you want to take the place or not, and might well be choosing from several offers.

Obvs if they are full it will be a quick no. Do the courses your DS wants have places at the moment? You can see this by searching UCAS and filtering for courses with vacancies, so Abertay currently have 41 courses that are not full.

I think your best bet as it's only two universities is just to call admissions and ask what his chances are of getting a place this year and how to do it. You might have it all sorted by this afternoon.

Both of mine went through clearing, one was adjustment the other completely changed his mind on course. If the courses are in clearing then you can chat and discuss with more than one. DS had two offers in clearing, it was then registered on his ucas and he selected one.

(I should also have said that clearing opens on Wednesday so he can officially approach the unis then as a clearing applicant.)

no deadline was months ago

Advice to call them is good. Hoever first I would get him doing what he needs to do to register on the UCAS website, get logins and all those other very time consuming deatils usually done in September in most English schools. Then he will be ready to apply as an official applicant for things people mention above like clearing and clearing plus which start very soon.

My son who didn't get his grades for Exeter got his place for Reading by calling them the day A level results came out and had a place right away that was in England when English results come out in August a few years ago.
Good luck.

Going via clearing might be better for him as he'll get a clear yes/no very quickly that way. Course places will have been allocated since Jan/Feb so doing a standard UCAS application at this time in the year isn't going to get a better result than clearing anyway.

You do also need to sort out student finance with him which can take ages with providing your proof of income, dragging up your old student finance account (providing name change evidence for yourself if you got married after having student finance) etc. If you never had student finance yourself I believe the process is much more straightforward.

Have a look at the actual UCAS website...

The deadline for applications to be considered as on time and for the university to give all applications made by that date equal consideration was back in January, yes. But universities will still accept late applications if they can see that the number of applications received to which they were able to respond with an offer is unlikely to fill the places available on a course. The universities indicate on their own websites whether applications are still open for the coming September.

The deadline for making a 'normal' application through UCAS- that is, naming up to five choices on one's application and having them sent to the universities automatically, was yesterday. Anyone applying de novo from now on will have to go through the Clearing process, which involves contacting universities personally, obtaining an indication of a likely offer and then naming one's favourite on the form as a formal application.

So @medianewbie , yes, from a scroll through the process, it is just one actual application at a time, but he can contact several universities first to get a provisional yes and then just add one of the others if the first one doesn't accept him after all (potential offers may be time limited, though?).

@MarchingFrogs sorry was thinking of the january deadline that all my students had. I'm a school UCAS advisor.

If he needs help with applications through the clearing process, there should be a careers adviser based at the college who should be able to provide as much assistance as he needs. (I used to do this).

Clearly not a very good one then. I hope you haven't told any of your students they're too late if they've asked.

any need to be so rude? in school generally all students have applied well before the january deadline. Applications now apart from extra in feb go to clearing. It is too late to apply normally. You can do you quick google search and scan of the website as much as you like but my students apply at the optimal time to ensure they get their top choices.

@pinguins Thank you this is helpful. He had student finance for his HNC so straightforward on that front at least.

@MarchingFrogs thank you for your 11.54 post - really helpful x

@Blueberrycreampie you'd think, but his (mickey mouse) College has not had an official (or unofficial) careers adviser since the old one retired in 2022. Ds gets Disabled Students Allowance (we had to organise from scratch, & College contract it out so that was painful). I was told he could use this to 'hire his own careers adviser if needed' when I asked, last autumn. His course has been SUCH a Mess he'd given up all hopes of Uni. Till last night. He looked so sad. I wondered if there was still hope for this year. Hence this.

@jojo2202 I stated in my first post he wasn't in School. Not all students have a straight path (esp Disabled ones). If he'd had proper (any) careers adviser I wouldn't be here ! Clearly, he could have applied until yesterday at 18.00 hours. Now, I've learned, it would need to be clearing.

so sorry to hear that you have had no support with this. It's not an easy process to go through without guidance. Wishing him the best of luck

You do realise UCAS Extra runs from Feb all the way through to June 30th don't you ?

You know, just in case one of your students is ever undecided about applying and misses the January deadline

Yes, agree, this is one reason why I left - funding drastically decreased. It used be be a great job until the Government rescinded the statutory careers guidance in schools and colleges of further education! I always promote clearing as a positive experience, and for many, it was but I feel there needs to be some impartial guidance to support the process.

So, had anothet chat with DS today.
He's not sure re the speed of applying via Clearing. He's only just processing finishing his HNC (1 unit to go ...) & he is exhausted (genuine ASD burnout).
He could apply on Tues (thank you for advice above re Clearing) OR
go back to local College to do 1st Yr of HND. Course not esp exciting but neither is it esp challenging. This would give him a year to feel more confident in his work, practice 'soft skills' like getting up / to lectures independently (I do a lot of scaffolding) If he gets the HNC A grade he's predicted in Aug, he could take time to decide his preferred location & course & get an offer based on that. It would be slower, but more secure for him ?

My suggestion would to call the two universities he is interested in. He might be able to get year 2 entry if it’s a subject continuation.

First step call them and ask. Then if it’s positive register and apply. It won’t take long if have all the information at hand. The difficult part might be the reference if his college is really bad.

It’s great he’s looking at his potential options. His worse case (which is still good) is a year out and applying for the following year.