College Help - I am totally clueless

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I am completely clueless when it comes to this.

My daughter was not accepted into her first choice and now has two enrolment days booked. She does not really want to go to the college of the first enrolment day if she can help it but what I want to know is can she enrol in two colleges and turn one down?

I don’t understand. Has she been accepted to 2 colleges? One she wants to go to, one she doesn’t?

If you google it, which I have, it doesn’t look as though the second college would immediately know about the other enrolment. However, it will be flagged as an anomalie once both colleges have reported to the government. And obviously funding can only be obtained for one.

So data is collected and reported in batches (Independent Learner Record). I can’t find anything for 26/27. But for 25/26 this was the info and I’m presuming the reporting system remains the same. So it was 6pm on 4th September 2025 for the first reporting batch. Then a month later in October.
https://guidance.submit-learner-data.service.gov.uk/25-26/data-collection-timetable

Therefore if your dd withdraws fast from one and presuming she doesn’t enrol right at the start of September for both courses, I would think it would be ok.

Are you saying that there's a chance she might not get into the college that she has to enrol for afterwards? If so, that"s fine and we had to do this last year.

We enrolled in one she didn't want to go to as there was a deadline, then when we knew she had been accepted and enrolled into the 2nd one, we just emailed to cancel the 1st enrolment.

If you know she wants to go to the 2nd one and she will definitely get in, then doesn't seem much point in enrolling at the first one though? I don't think numbers are sent across til later, so all fine as long as you cancel the ones you don't need once you are sure.

I’m presuming one has an enrolment day before the other and she needs to go to the second enrolment day to check that she can actually enrol on the course she wants with the grades she has.

yes, in those circumstances go to both. Enroll on the course she wants at college 1 and then go to enrolment day 2 and if necessary email and cancel enrollment 1.

numbers don’t normally settle down unt the first week is over and loads change course in the first couple of days

Yes she can enrol in 2 and then withdraw from one of them.

As PP has said she can enrol in both but would have to withdraw from one within a month or so. As soon as possible.

Colleges - and the DFE who receive the ILR data - are used to young people taking awhile to settle their choice of college and course. The aim is obviously to get it right first time (through discussions with the young person) but that's not always possible.

ps. Come and join the fun over on the Further Education board. There is a thread for vocational courses as well as the usual A level ones so you can slot in wherever.