5 UCAS choices?

[mrsconradfisher]

Can someone confirm whether or not they have to apply for all 5 choices at once? DS has been told he has to apply for all now and can’t add more later. He is on a Gap year so has grades already (I’ve already done loads of posts about it). In theory he should get offers from the 2 he wants to apply for but obviously you never know. What he’d like to do is apply for 2 now then add more if he doesn’t hear anything or gets rejected. UCAS says you can add more but only if you have no responses, both he and school are interpreting that a different way!

I'm a university and Careers Counsellor in a big school, sending hundreds of UCAS apps a year. He only has to add 1 now if he wants, press send, and add the others whenever, though the Jan 'deadline' applies for competitive courses and unis.

Some schools/teachers don't like adding in dribs and drabs for good and bad reasons:
Bad; its harder for them to track, it used to be harder to do, they don't know how it works, when they submit with less than 5, they still have to tick the box saying that section is complete. That freaks kids out.

Good; students focusing on uni apps aren't focusing on school, so submitting all 5 means they can get their heads down again to A Levels.

Other reasons are stupid.

Most of those reasons don't really apply to someone applying with grades in hand.

“Good; students focusing on uni apps aren't focusing on school, so submitting all 5 means they can get their heads down again to A Levels.”

I do get this BUT… it’s always about how the school can come out best it seems. In some instances it’s much better for the student to hold one or two spaces back (OPs is a good example ) and see what they get before choosing the remaining options. I do get the feeling a lot of schools just plough on with what suits them best without much care for the student.

Thank you! He got offered the other course at Loughborough last year (he applied for both) but he rejected it because he really wants the pure SS so I think with even higher actual grades that he’d be offered that.

Other option is Newcastle but he’s worried about then not being able to add the other one at Loughborough later.

Thank you, so if he just applies for 2 then he can simply go on and add more later without having to go through the school?
School are normally brilliant, DS is actually volunteering in the school in the PE department so he has a good relationship with them so I’m surprised they are so adamant that it can’t be done if it can!

They’re wrong. Pure and simple. Yes he can just go into his ucas account and add more until he’s made all five choices

The tricky part isn't adding the extra courses later, which he can do very easily, there is a big button saying add course. But if he's applying through a school they are the ones who submit the form to UCAS, so he needs to persuade them it's ok to do that without all five on the form.

Agreed! I was just listing reasons I've heard other teachers give for thinking this. And once a few teachers/coordinators in a school think it, it can get passed down as a 'rule' to everyone else involved.

@mrsconradfisher yes, once the application is sent it's very easy, you log on and there's a big button to add a choice. As @stoneysongs convincing school to let him do it will be the hard part! It's unlikely to be stubbornness or an ulterior motive; I am in a Facebook group with thousands of UCAS advisors and this gets asked several times a week, and lots of people answer that they have to add all 5 at once. It's a pervasive myth!

Q4 on this FAQ makes it as clear as anything I have seen:

https://www.ucas.com/file/130391/download?token=oeEZRiu_#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20requirement%20to,to%20offers%20have%20been%20recorded.

How could there not be a reason?

OP,

I have just visited the UCAS section on Adding Choices under Making Changes. It is badly written. The information that you can add choices one at a time until 30 June as long as you have not accepted a choice etc (DS needs to read this carefully for himself), as this thread has discussed, is bracketed by a discussion of UCAS Extra.

UCAS Extra requires that you’ve used up your five choices so it is clearly about something completely different. But the bracketing makes it look like adding a course at a time is part of Extra. And Extra doesn’t open until Feb. Too late for competitive courses.

Perhaps someone at the school has been confused by the way UCAS has written the instructions?

If this could be cleared up, DS could apply now to L’boro SS and Newcastle and hold the other L’boro programme in reserve for a bit.

That’s what I saw earlier but school are interpreting that it only applies to UCAS extra and not the normal 5 choices.

Will get DS to try to speak to them again. I thought you could but with school telling him that you can’t, he’s listening to them and not his mother!!

If I were you I'd get DS to give UCAS a quick call and ask. That way you don't need to argue interpretations of the website with the school. DS can just say - I have checked this with UCAS, it's what I'd like to do, it's my application and my decision, thank you.

Don't let him do something that might damage his chances of getting the offer he wants after everything he's been through. If he puts both Lboro courses on now, they might offer him the one he doesn't want for all sorts of reasons - they might incorrectly deduce from his form that he prefers it, they might get fewer applications for it and be keen to divert DC in that direction etc.

Agreed - school need to back off and realise he can click “section complete” with less than 5.

We have literally done it this week!

It's not 'gets no offers'. The team at my school don't know about this either and I get students sent to me to explain...

You can add more up til Jan UNLESS you receive AND ACCEPT offers, at which point you've entered a contract.

Thank you, will try to convince him to call. I have a feeling that’s exactly what Loughborough will do tbh. Although his PS is amazing, there is only so much Sports Science stuff an 18 year old can do before Uni as he clearly can’t access biomechanics etc so his PS includes all his other sporting stuff such as coaching etc so he’s concerned they will shoehorn him into the other course as that’s not so oversubscribed. He has the right grades but for there it possibly isn’t enough.

Putting both Lboro options down does rather invite them to choose which one they want to offer him 🤔