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I'm a bit like an AI, except instead of making pictures of people with 16 fingers, I can help you find the perfect course and uni.
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When that first email comes in to tell you there’s been an update to your uni application, it’s only natural to get excited and want to accept the offer you’ve received straight away. Did you know, though, that there’s usually no reason to rush into accepting an offer?
Why not reply to your offers straight away?
You’ll have a deadline to respond to the offers you’ve been made, but that doesn’t mean you need to rush into it. If you received all your uni offers by 16 May 2024, then you’ll have until 6 June 2024 to respond through UCAS. If you received all your offers by 17 July 2024, then you’ll have until 24 July 2024 to respond.
Although accepting uni offers can be exciting, and if you hear back from your first-choice uni you might want to hit accept right away, there are usually benefits to waiting a little bit. You might have chance to go to offer holder days, which might make you change your mind about your favourite uni, or you might get an offer with unexpected conditions which changes your view.
What to consider before you reply to the offers you’ve received
Waiting until all the unis you’ve applied to have responded means you’ll have a full picture of the offers you have on the table, and if you’ve checked out some offer holder days then hopefully all the information about the unis will be fresh in your mind so you’re best placed to make a decision. But what should you consider before you submit your decision to UCAS?
How you felt about the unis
Of course, the most important thing to think about is which of the unis you’ve received offers from is your ideal uni. You’ll have to take into consideration not just the university, but the modules on the course you’ve applied for, the area, the accommodation on offer and what clubs and societies are on offer as these are all really important parts of your university life. It can be tempting to just put your favourite uni first, and quite often that’s the right decision, but there are some other factors to consider.
How high the offer is
When accepting offers from a uni, you’ll also want to think about whether the offer they’ve made is realistic for you. While there’s nothing wrong with accepting an offer that’s a little bit aspirational, if you’re getting Cs in your mocks and you need an A*, then it might not be the right uni for you. Accepting an offer that doesn’t feel realistic for you can cause a lot of stress during the exam period, and it could even have a negative effect on your performance in exams, so it’s worth taking a moment to think about whether you can realistically meet the offer criteria.
What your insurance choice uni will be
When choosing your insurance choice, there’s a lot to consider. It has to be a uni and course you’d be happy to go to, so make sure you think through your decision. The other important thing when choosing an insurance choice is that the offer should be easier to achieve than your first-choice uni. This is especially important if your firm choice uni has made you an offer that you’re not super confident you’ll achieve.
When you’re thinking about which offers will be more achievable for you, make sure you take into account any subject-specific requirements. An offer for ABB where the A is in a specific subject would be considered harder to achieve than an ABB offer where the uni hasn’t specified which subject the A should be in.
More on choosing your firm and insurance choice unis.
Replying to your offers
So, you’ve received all your offers, been to some offer holder days and weighed up your options. You’ve picked which two unis you’re going to keep offers from, and you know which will be your firm choice. The only thing left to do is to log on to your UCAS Hub and submit your decision.
If you’ve received all your offers, then you’ll be prompted when you log on to UCAS Hub to reply to your offers. You’ll have to submit your firm and insurance choice at the same time, and any other offers you hold will be rejected and disappear, so make sure you’re confident in your decision before you go through this process.
You can choose to accept only one offer if you don’t want to use any of the offers you’ve received as your insurance choice.
