UK Decisions: Next Steps

With the first round of UK admissions behind us, most of you would have received offers from one or more UK universities. Each university and college will make their decisions at different times. You can hold onto any offer you receive until all your chosen universities have made their decisions and then you have to choose which one(s) you want to accept. Most often these offers are ‘conditional’ but some of you may have received offers that are ‘unconditional’.

An Unconditional Offer

Woohoo!! This literally means that you have met all the requirements of the university and earned yourself a confirmed admission.  Read the fine print- sometimes ‘unconditional’ comes with preconditions like immediate acceptance. ‘Unconditional’ offers are infrequent and uncommon so don’t get stressed if your university offers do not fall into this category.

A Conditional Offer

As the name suggests, this offer of acceptance comes with prerequisites or conditions set into the future. Admission is guaranteed once the ‘conditions’ are fulfilled. Conditions may vary from pre-determined scores in the school leaving board exams or a score range in the English testing exam (IELTS) to an additional reference letter. Conditional offers are the norm for UK universities and colleges and the most common ‘condition’ specially for International students has been observed to be a minimum requirement in the final board examination.

With your offers in hand, it’s important to review your acceptances from all 5 colleges and establish the deadlines for response via TRACK. Please understand this has to be done within pre-set deadlines and much in advance of your final school results.

You will need to make 2 choices. The first is the FIRM and the other INSURANCE.

Firm

This is your first choice – the place you most want to go to. If you accept a conditional offer and meet the conditions, you’ll have a confirmed place here. 

Insurance

This is your back up plan-the choice you would want to exercise if your FIRM choice fails to materialise due to inability to fulfil the stipulated conditions. If this is a conditional offer, you would need to meet the conditions for this one, for your place to be confirmed.

Needless to say, you will have to withdraw the remaining three applications.

UCAS Clearing

In the unfortunate circumstances that you fail to meet the conditions of your FIRM or INSURANCE choice when your final results are declared, you can reapply using CLEARING. The CLEARING is a compilation of the remaining available programs across Universities and Colleges. It typically opens on the 6th of July and is available till the 20th of October. Students who have rescinded their previous applications or have failed to meet the conditions of their chosen universities can re-apply. CLEARING is also open to first time applicants who may have missed the previous cycle of applications.  

UCAS Extra

In case you have not received any offer from your 5 college applications, do not lose heart, you can still re-apply. If you want to decline the offers you have received (valid if you haven't received 5 out of 5 acceptances), you can do that do too. ‘Extra’ is an opportunity open to applicants between 25th January and 5th July to make fresh applications.

UCAS Adjustment

If you have scored more than you expected and surpassed your current acceptances and conditions, you can use this option to try for more competitive schools or courses. Adjustment opens for 2 weeks in the month of August. You can see the available options on TRACK.

With the recent relaxations in post study work visa rules, UK has seen a spurt in university applications and is fast emerging as a preferred destination of choice for the Indian student. Hang tight-your confirmed UK acceptance is just a few weeks away.