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UCAS Extra - Yes or No? (help please)

Hi there guys,

the whole University application thing is starting to get a bit confusing and could really use your help and opinions. I am applying to do a Film production course at Uni and have applied for a variety already. I have recently got all of my decisions back from my first 5 choices. I ended up with one offer out of the five (which I was dissapointed about), which was for "Film Production & Cinematography at Bournemouth (studied at Salisbury College). The course looks great and offers everything I am looking for in the tuition part of my Uni experience (offers a Bournemouth Media School degree) but I just dont think I will benefit from living and studying on a small college campus with A-Level students and a small number of HE students. I dont want to choose this choice and then end up dropping out in the first year and wasting a large amount of money.

I am currently looking at UCAS Extra and have found a number of courses that are supposedely still available. In my original five I had York University as my first choice but got rejected from there (they did not offer me a reason) without an interview. I then found in UCAS Extra that a Film and TV Production course was available at York St John, but after contacting them via email they said that "it was unlikely that my application would be considered due to tight spots but contact us in august to see if we expect anything to come up through clearing." I dont know whether to bite the bullet and apply anyways at risk of losing my bournemouth course and being out of an option. I am not to keen on waiting until clearing as there is no garantee the course will come up and I dont fancy the panic of having to then apply for accomodation and getting everything sorted in just a month. This is the course that I really want as it offers pretty much everything I am asking for and I can easily make the grades required (asking 220-260 and I am predicted to get 320-360, I have a showreel of short films and projects that I have completed). Would it helped if I phoned them despite getting the email and trying again?

I also inquired about several other courses with some saying they still had spots and some saying they didnt. But York St John is the one that I really want.

Should I reject Bournemouth and risk being out of a course for next year?

opinions and help on YSJ and Extra if you could please... :smile:

Reply 1

Alur

Just chiming in with some hate for Salisbury College, avoid it like the plague.

I'd go for the Extra courses, even if you don't get it you can find some work this year and apply for new Uni's next if that's what you still want to do.

Reply 2

OU.

It sounds like you're sure you won't enjoy Bournemouth outside of your studies. As important as your studies are, they're unlikely to compensate for missing out on a University experience you'll really enjoy. It's also worth noting that the quality of your work is not completely divorced from your life outside the course.
However it's not a decision to take lightly - UCAS Extra is no guarantee of a place and neither is clearing, so it'd be better to feel like you can reject Bournemouth for a gap year as well as rejecting it in the hope of getting a better suited offer.
Parts of the media have given the impression that UCAS Extra has become easier to use succesfully, but this is a little misguided. It is true that a higher percentage of applicants are accepted through UCAS Extra - the number of applicants since 2005 has gone up by just over a third but the number of those accepted via the Extra scheme has more than doubled. However, the percentage of succesful applicants that have come through the Extra scheme has gone from approximately 0.84% to 1.44%, a much less impressive looking change. Unfortunately UCAS do not publish the amount of people who apply through UCAS Extra, so it is not possible to accurately verify whether UCAS Extra is giving a higher success rate.
If you are sure you do not want to accept Salisbury College then of course you should reject it's offer and start applying through UCAS Extra. Before applying to any course through Extra you are supposed to contact them to make sure they can consider you. It sounds like they've told you it's not likely you'll be accepted. Bearing this in mind, applying to them through Extra could be very risky - they have up to 21 days to consider your choice before you can apply to anywhere else, valuable time in which other universities (that are more likely to accept you) could be considering other applicants in your place. UCAS Extra is only open until early July so that could mean a considerable amount of your time being used. However if you won't feel comfortable accepting an offer for any of the other available courses until you've heard York St John's verdict, you will of course have to run the risk. Before doing so it would definitely be better to call them to have a longer discussion of your chances and the situation at the University.

Reply 3

Ham_Sandwich

I'm in the same position but with fine art instead of film. I'd say contact as many universities as you can before trying UCAS Extra - just to see what's available. Apparently next year will be even harder to get in, and there's the issue of fees. Could you maybe go there for a year and then transfer universities? That's what I'm considering.