How long does it take/has it taken for you to receive UCAS offers?

Some advisers will tell you that applying early gives you an advantage. It doesn’t, and is even less likely to do so this year. There are hints that after the problems in the 2008-09 round, when some unis found that they had made too many offers, that they will be slower to respond to applications and more likely to hold over everything until the 15 January deadline. This was already true of competitive courses such as History, English, Law, Economics, where unis like LSE, Warwick, Bristol, Durham, and Edinburgh have kept applicants waiting until March or even April for a decision. This can happen even with less competitive courses and unis - some unis have a policy not to look at anything until all applications are in. Others will do a preliminary screening which will weed out the obvious no-hopers and hold over the rest until January.