WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS WITH UCAS ON A LEVEL RESULTS DAY?

Confirmation:

If you have been successful with your university application it changes from being an offer which is ‘conditional’ on your A level grades, to an ‘unconditional’ offer – this means you have met the offer requirements or perhaps the university liked your application and has decided to admit you even if you slipped an A level grade.

The following UCAS codes are used:

CF = conditional firm/ first choice
CI = conditional insurance choice
UF = unconditional firm/ first choice
UI = unconditional insurance choice

Clearing:

If you have been unsuccessful with both your university choices, this will show on Track, which will also state that you are in Clearing and give your Clearing number. However bad you feel if you find yourself in Clearing, it’s really important to try to rally yourself and sweep into action – there really is everything to play for if you get moving quickly!

If you’re in Clearing you can use Course Search on the UCAS website to look for places. Also, if you are interested in particular universities and would like to see what is on offer you should go to that university’s website and see what they are offering in Clearing. In general some of the most prestigious universities don’t go into Clearing at all, but there have been some surprises in recent years so you might like to check.

I and Will Bynoe will be on hand to help with Clearing and any UCAS issues after 9 am. Please note that it is vital that I have time to devise a strategy for each student who is in Clearing before I talk to individual students, otherwise there is a risk that I spend 30 minutes on the phone to one person while other people are losing out on opportunities.

Clearing is very fast moving but please be reassured that we are very good at what we do and in turn each year our students do extremely well! In fact over the past few years hardly any of our students have been in Clearing, and the only thing we have been dealing with is students declining confirmed places and putting themselves into Clearing in order to ‘trade up’ to an even better university.

Although Clearing stays open for a long time, normally for our students all the Clearing action is between 9 am and 12 pm on A level results day. The aim during this critical period is to call around to try to secure the best offers you can and it is really worth being persistent. You can obtain as many provisional offers as you like, but in the end you can only accept one in Track. You will have a bit of ‘cooling off’ time before you decide which offer to accept as this is not normally possible until in the day. As you can only accept one Clearing offer it is very important to consider your options carefully and again discuss with me before you make your choice.

Clearing Plus:

Clearing Plus is a newer UCAS service which makes being in Clearing even simpler. If you are in Clearing you will be able to view a list of courses which you are matched to. If you want to be considered for that course you can click the ‘I’m interested’ button and your information will be sent to that uni. You can express interest in up to 5 universities at the same time and if they in turn think you are a suitable applicant they will be in touch with you.

This is a really useful facility which I think will make the Clearing search much less overwhelming than it usually is, but I would still encourage students to do their own research and make their own calls, which they will be able to do in addition to using Clearing Plus. Clearly if you have got DDD and the uni normally asks for AAA, you are not likely to get an offer, but you would be surprised what universities are sometimes prepared to accept – it is always worth having a go and you don’t know unless you try!

Decline My Place:

Decline My Place is a UCAS option that puts you in the driving seat, as you are able to release yourself into Clearing; whereas in the past you needed to get your universities to do this. Several of our students have opted to do this in the past and they were all successful in securing a place on a course or at a university that they liked even more than their original choice. Don’t use Decline My Place if you are hoping to move to a different course at the same university. Instead it is better to call the university directly and ask if this is possible.

Obviously, the key thing is to do your research in Clearing first and make absolutely sure that another university is prepared to make you an offer before you decline your existing place. If you think you might like to use the UCAS Decline My Place option you can do some initial research before A level results day as some clearing listings are available; however, the full list of Clearing vacancies on UCAS will not be available until A level results day, which is on Thursday 15 August 2024.

If you are thinking of making a change, make sure you are ready to leap into action first thing in the morning on A level results day – it is definitely true that the early bird gets the worm, especially if something unusually good happens to pop up in Clearing.

Useful Links:

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

Student Finance England: https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login

Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA): https://www.gov.uk/disabled-students-allowance-dsa

The Student Room: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/university/apply/

All of our students and families are of course welcome to contact me if they have any further queries. Please try not to worry as you are in safe hands and we hope you will do just as well as our students always do!

Virginia Maguire
Director of Studies

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