Russell group universities

Hi, yesterday somebody told me that if you do not make a Russell Group University your "FIRM" choice, then they will not accept you... Is this true?

Reply 1

Xysabridde

Original post by lindzjonez

Hi, yesterday somebody told me that if you do not make a Russell Group University your "FIRM" choice, then they will not accept you... Is this true?

With most universities, especially the prestigious ones, you're less likely to get an offer if you don't put them as your first choice, according to my careers advisors at sixth form. Whether you /have/ to or not, I'm not sure, sorry.

University of Bristol

Bristol

Reply 2

iamyourmum

you make a university your "firm" choice only after they have accepted you?

Original post by lindzjonez

Hi, yesterday somebody told me that if you do not make a Russell Group University your "FIRM" choice, then they will not accept you... Is this true?

Reply 3

__Adam__

Certainly not true as you can't choose a firm/insurance choice until after they give you an offer. Universities can't even see where else you applied until after you've replied to your offers.

EDIT: Poster below points out a good exception, If they think it would be a waste of time giving you an offer, they might not give you one (EG if you are predicted A*A*A and you apply to a CCD university, but that example isn't very relevant for RG universities).

If you are applying to Oxbridge though, you have a mid-October deadline and applications by very good applicants before 14th/15th October usually = Oxbridge or Medicine, so if admissions staff at non-Oxbridge RG universities notice that they might suspect that you're applying to Oxbridge and therefore intend to use them as insurance.

However even if the admissions staff suspect that you're applying to Oxbridge, there's no way for them to know for certain and they certainly wont reject you on suspicion that you've applied there. Anyway since most applicants don't get into Oxbridge, people who got rejected would just firm their second choice uni anyway.

Minerva mentions the above in an FAQ http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2459689

Original post by Minerva

On the other hand, applying early is not a recipe for rejection on the basis that you *might* be applying to Oxbridge. Unis do not see where else you have applied until all your decisions have been made**. All those myths about how Durham will reject you automatically because they *think* you have applied to Oxbridge are just that: myths. It is possible for someone to be accepted by a top ten uni and rejected by others - the reason for this is that unis look for different things in their applicants. No uni is going to turn away a good applicant just because they might have applied to a competitor university!

TL;DR

Only way an admissions tutor might have a reason to suspect they are your insurance choice is if they think you're an Oxbridge applicant, even then it wont matter. If you application in good enough you'll get an offer regardless of what other universities you applied to.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

Jamerson

Others have already answered - your uni choices cannot see your other choices until you've chosen your firm and insurances, and you can't do that until you've received your offers or rejections.

Because of this, Some universities, Durham in particular, have a reputation of giving out offers very late to those they suspect of applying to Oxbridge and/or applicants they think they're the second choice uni for.

Reason being, if I apply to 5 universities and Durham is my back-up, and Cambridge is the one I really want. If I get an offer from Cambridge, I might decline all the other universities (and withdraw my application from Durham who hasn't made a decision yet), so I can firmly accept my offer from Cambridge. If Durham had given me an offer - they've wasted an offer on me, because they're my insurance. If, on the other hand, Durham hasn't hasn't made a decision on my application at the point I withdraw my application, then they can give their offers to people who are more likely to put them as their firm choice.

Reply 5

returnmigrant

1) What happens if you miss Cambridge - you'll need your Insurance, and actually Durham know this.

2) You don't have to 'withdrawn your Durham application' to Firm Cambridge. Cambridge are not going to cancel, withdraw or in any other way mess with your offer. You just wait until Durham have replied. Then decide. Simple really.

There are a thousand 'conspiracy theories' about applying to Uni, and applicants love them because the more whacky and barking-mad the story, the more they think they are so-clever for getting an Offer - or whatever. Stop trying to convince yourselves that its either a) 'all very complicated and only I understand it', or b) 'I have special knowledge'.