Clearing and Difficulty with Accommodation (deposit?)

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My DS is going to apply to university for 2025 entry. He's going to do the usual of putting down 1-2 aspirational, a couple of more likely options and a banker.

However, some of the courses he has been looking at as 'bankers', seem to have lots of choices for clearing. So, I'm thinking, would it not then be better to leave putting these on the application form as that would free up space for some more of the likely (but not guaranteed) options?

He can then - if he doesn't get near what he's on track for - apply via clearing.

But then someone said the issue with clearing is that it's difficult to get accommodation.

If so, is there anyway one can put down a deposit for accommodation even before being offered a place, or is that only possible for placeholders?

My dd got a place at uni through clearing and the only accommodation available was the 5.5k more than the accommodation she had booked at her first choice uni

It's meant a very different first year experience and not in a good way!

I wouldn't be gambling on clearing if you don't have to, it was an incredibly stressful experience

@helloisitmeyourelookingfor That sounds incredibly stressful but hope she has settled in now.

I wondered, though, would it be possible to put down a deposit on the cheaper accommodation even if you have not applied via the UCAS form initially?

Have you looked at private halls?

If you name the places he is looking at you might get better answers. Or more specific ones.

Availability of accommodation varies hugely from one university to another. Some universities book up their accommodation within minutes. Others will have lots of options even in September.

@GreatScruff For the 'bankers' he is looking at Reading and Southampton.

Putting down a deposit at somewhere he might not go sounds like a potential huge waste of money.

Are any of the "banker" courses he's in the same city as one of hus aspirational choices? There are some private student accommodation halls in cities with more than one university which take students from multiple universities. If he books accommodation in Aspire City hoping to get a place on the course at University of Aspire, but then misses the grades and gets a place at West Aspireshire University (est 1992) via clearing he can then use the same accommodation either way?

You can only book accommodation at Reading if it’s your firm choice, so there would be no way to pay a deposit unless it was your firm. I don’t think they guarantee it for insurance now, so although you would likely end up with somewhere it would be a case of whatever is left rather than being able to choose.

DD has only been able to reserve accommodation at her 1st and 2nd choices.
We haven't paid a deposit yet

1.You can't guarantee a place through Clearing. Unless your child is genuinely happy with anything that's left, they should put the university they want on the application form. For most subjects/universities, if they are predicted over the normal offer grades they are going to get an offer anyway, so there's no point on putting down a lot of aspirational offers where predicted grade is lower than the normal offer grade.
2.Universities all run their accommodation in different ways. But I would think it was highly unlikely they would let someone who hadn't even applied to reserve accommodation. Unless you are thinking that they'd just apply to general private accommodation in the area (in which case you might lose a lot of money).

Thanks, agree. Their aspirational will be those still where the predicted is over the offer entry level (although looking at the UCAS data, many of these show that even where the offer grades, e.g., are AAB, the range of ACTUAL grades of holders were AAA with A*AA being more common.

So in this case, DS's predicted will be higher than the offer level of AAB but clearly lower than what offer holders actually achieved.

You definitely cannot book university accommodation if you haven’t applied!
One way round this could be focusing on ‘bankers’ you feel confident at getting a place, which are in high density student cities and have plenty of private accom?

Yeh agree do not gamble on clearing. My DD got her uni place through clearing, and tho it was in many ways a very positive experience (I have posted about it before), it would have been much better I suspect if she had listed it on her form (it was not on our radar for some reason) as she would have had a better choice of accommodation as well as certainty.

Clearing was a very very stressful day and not something I would wish on anyone. Don't plan to do it is my advice (tho as I say it can certs have a good outcome).

Just put the ones he wants. Are there really more than five unis which fit his criteria? I am sure he can eliminate some. In any case you can only hold two offers so he will have to eliminate sooner or later.

Caveat: depending on course choice and university - I would avoid putting down more than one massively aspirational choice tbh.

I know someone whose DS put down LSE, UCL, Imperial, Leeds and one other for economics and only got an offer from the fifth one - the choices were optimistic to say the least. But it may be different for a less popular course.

I think you're getting ahead of yourself. Wait and see if he gets 5 offers before worrying about which 2 to accept and therefore which accommodation he needs to reserve.

Also clearing varies massively from year to year.

Just an example I happen to be aware of: in DD's year her chosen course was in clearing at Loughborough at BBB; two years later (admittedly a weird Covid year) Lboro had NOTHING in clearing at all.

Just for context, he's predicted A/A/A - may be able to increase one or two of the As to A* next term. Also has an A EPQ (not 100% confirmed).

He's looking at Bath, Bristol, Exeter and either Durham or Warwick as favourites for the subjects of either Economics but, as very competitive, probably more likely Accounting/Finance/Management or similar.

Apart from maybe one aspirational, looking for AAB type entry courses.

His 'bankers' (though I know you can never know for sure) would be Southampton and then Reading.

Warwick has lots of accommodation (guaranteed for all freshers) so that's one you don't have to worry about

I have never heard of anywhere allocating accommodation other than to those with accepted places or provisionally to those who have firmed.

Ah economics! It's as if I knew!!

Well those unis are not the same so he can surely whittle it down - big city? Campus near a small city? Collegiate uni in a tiny city? Campus in a smaller city? He must have an idea which of those he would prefer. I think someone who loved Bristol Uni would find Bath Uni very different.

He's actually very chilled about the 'place' and whether collegiate/campus/city! He's very calm normally and takes things in his stride.

Deposits on a lot of private accommodation is not just a deposit, it is often also part of a fixed term contract. You might well find yourself tied to a year long accommodation contract at a cost of possible £10k.

DC first year accommodation wasn’t allocated until after clearing though was done in order applied and you only apply with a firm offer. They didn’t guarantee all first years either and most local students were excluded, though DC said there were spaces in halls once term started. That was a couple of years ago. But it seems all Unis differ.

It is worth noting that U of Southampton is one of the few RG unis to offer an accommodation guarantee to those insuring as well as firming (see link below). This means insuring rather than 'hoping to utilise clearing' would certainly be sensible for this uni.
www.southampton.ac.uk/student-life/accommodation/guarantee

I think Newcastle do that too. Guarantee accommodation for insurance offers. There isn't a big pressure for accommodation there anyway.

My ds went through clearing last year (Surrey) and had a good experience.
His halls place was guaranteed if he chose his accommodation by the monday after results day. He got his first choice of halls.

I did notice from looking through other uni websites on results day that several of them guaranteed halls place via clearing even if they didn't for insurance. So you could check the websites on results day this year to give you an idea. Obviously clearing subjects will change from year to year as will accommodation guarantees but its worth a look.

This is correct - sorry I should have clarified. In the scenario I gave above you’d take out private accom AFTER getting a clearing place if needed.