Is applying ambitiously and relying on clearing reasonable in DC’s situation?

[Bufftailed]

Thanks anyone who can advise.

DC is heading for a bit of an unpredictable set of A level results. 2 seem fairly secure, one is not although teacher thinks he will go up a lot. He wants to do Economics.

So having scrutinized clearing grades & UCAS pages am thinking: he goes for a pretty ambitious set of 5 and sees what offers he gets. The elite are out, but some stretches which took lower grades in clearing/ show they take high % of applicants/ have slightly lower ‘most common grades’.

The unis he would go to if his grades drop are all in clearing, eg Reading, UEA, Sussex with much lower grades, so clearing is the back up. Quite a few guarantee accommodation. If he had to take a year off he is also open to that.

Is this strategy ok? Wondering what the downsides are.

English universities in the CUG top 20 for economics were a struggle in clearing outside of Lancaster and Loughborough from memory.

Loughborough was only available for a few hours.

Outside of the top 20 pretty much everywhere was in clearing with many at BCC or below.

That sounds tough. Lots of options but only if the person was open to where etc I guess

Yeah which would be fine for DC. Places like Liverpool, S’ton good options.

A few are open now. Eg Surrey & Lanc

I think this is a very course dependant strategy, and I'm not sure Economics is the course for it. My DS knows a lad through sport who had 3xA star predictions, high level super curriculars and all the trimmings. Applied to the top 5 places for economics. Only got one offer as it's so very competitive.

Humanities however is entirely different, with the best universities fighting over the 3 x A star candidates, and I think those applicants should be far bolder.

Why wouldn’t you put down an insurance uni as 5th choice? Can’t you apply for clearing regardless?

I think one issue to influence your strategy is availability of accommodation.

It can sometimes be very difficult to get accommodation as a clearing student where you end up being placed in very expensive private halls (off campus if a campus uni).

My DS is going to Loughborough - it was his insurance and I think Loughborough appears to have a good volume of campus accommodation but as insurance and I presume less so for clearing student you obviously don't get the pick of the best halls as these have already been allocated to firm offer holders.

Some universities are much worse eg Exeter or Bristol.

Just another factor which I think favours working out where you would actually really want to go and that's realistic and having that as your firm/insurance.

I think it’s a different strategy for OP. Sounds like the friend applied at Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, ICL, UCL, etc. These aren’t the unis her DC is applying to.

Thank you. It’s amazing how many ppl on this thread cannot commute that my DC is not going for the elite unis/ predicted 3 As or A*s

Obviously if I was suggesting applying for Ecoonomics at LSE, Bath or UCL with lower p grades my head would need a wobble

@LordofFraud your example is not relevant, but thanks

I think it's a sound strategy and I'm wondering the same for my DS2 who'll be applying for Law at mid-tiee universities. I think he will probably include one lower rank uni just in case he wants a safer insurance choice when it's time yo to firm and insure though..

I assume by the date if your post your son is in year 11 going into year 12 and since you are already looking at clearing maybe that has confused some posters.

You son's best bet is to be clear on what uni he wants to go to and try to get the best grades he can in his mocks to get good predicted grades from his teachers. If he doesn't get the predicted grades he needs - go speak to the teachers and see if he can negotiate. I know my son was predicted an A for a subject but he went into negotiate an A prediction (based on the school predicting a gcse 5 for the same subject but he ended up with a gcse 9 for that subject) and the school did agree to predict him with an A which opened up many more opportunities for him (by the way he did end up getting that A*).

Rather than looking at clearing, he is better off getting an offer for a predicted grade, and then if on the day he does not get the grade, the uni might still make take him.

We also left my son's uni offer acceptance to the very last afternoon of acceptance which was during the A level exam period as it gave him a chance to assess did he think he was doing well in exams and likely to reach his higher offers or was he feeling like he should choose a lower level offer for his first choice.

I also think a good strategy is to choose 4 offers rather than 5 - leaving a free offer space where he can add in a uni last minute past the deadline. I think if before clearing he could ring unis and see who might be going into clearing he could use this space to apply to that uni in advance of places going into clearing. But that is my assessment of how things could potentially work - you would need to check with UCAS or someone in school if that would work in real life.

One thing that surprised me during the process (not born in UK) was the kids apply for 5 unis but once they choose their firm and insurance they effectively lose the other 3 unis as options.

Just to point out that you can’t add a fifth choice AFTER the January deadline. Just before - yes, but not after unless you have four rejections.

@WeDid2 he is going into year 13, hence why I referred to how A level grades are currently going.

This thread has helped. Going to suggest 3 stretch (but high % of offers made/ have dropped grades in clearing), 1 safe, 1 low. Fall back on clearing if needed.

Anyone can add a choice after the January deadline (if they didn't use all of their 5 choices) but universities aren't obliged to consider it as you've missed the equal consideration deadline.

www.ucas.com/events/2027-entry-deadline-for-all-undergraduate-courses-except-those-with-a-15-october-deadline-475546

Fair enough. I thought Extra was just for those with no offer.

My understanding (and I did ask my son's school at the time who confirmed I was correct) is that you can add other choices up until 5 choices until 30 June without needing to use the 'extra' you are referring to. What the January deadline is is the uni's confirming they will respond to offer or not offer places. Apply after January deadline and uni's not obliged to reply. This link seems to support what I am saying too.
UCAS Extra | No Offers? Add More Choices With Our 'Extra' Service

The offer rate % is for all applicants and not grade dependent. The see how you compare % is for offer holders with the grades entered. They need to be an offer holder in the first place. Predicted grades are often optimistic; some schools give expected grades too.

If relying on Clearing it is important that the school/college release grades at 8am. Nothing worse than knowing you haven't got your place but not being able to apply in Clearing because the grades aren't known.

Extra is for those who've already used their 5 choices and didn't get any offers or turned down the ones they did get. This is different.