Complicated UCAS nightmare :-(

What your school said was ridiculously wrong. I'm afraid you can't actually do that, and they actively say that you can't do that on their website, booklets etc. Look here.
The best thing to do now is wait until UCAS open again, talk to them, and be prepared to take fast action before the deadline. Though now there is a risk that he won't make it for this year.
Whatever happens, you could try complaining to someone at the school, they should have known better.

really sorry.

oh god, phone the school maybe?

Whoever told him to cancel his first application seriously screwed up.

Probably not much point contacting the school, even if it is still open, except to complain. Once you've cancelled the application I don't think there's anything the school can do to reverse it. You'll have to wait for UCAS to open again and phone them and explain what happened.

However... If they agree to reinstate an application, it will almost certainly be the first one, for the course your brother doesn't want to do any more. There is a two week deadline to substitute your choices, and since your brother sent it off in October it's long past that. If he wants to apply for a different course for 2011 entry, he'll need to decline any offers (assuming his application is reinstated) and use UCAS Extra or Clearing.

urgh, schools never seem to know what they're talking about.
My school 'forgot' to send off someones application before the vet deadline so she has to take a gap year.

Okay thank you - that was v helpful. He wants to do computer science at the local uni and I don't think it's a v popular course so hopefully there will be a few places in clearing :-)

Yip it's so rubbish! The teacher told him people had done the same thing last year....obviously that was a lie :-(

So my brother applied for 5 courses via UCAS in October. Then 2 weeks ago he changed his mind about what he wanted to apply for. His school told him to cancel his first application and re-apply, which is what he has done. This morning he got a letter from UCAS saying you can't apply twice so they have cancelled his second appication, meaning he now has no applications at all.

I wondered if a similar thing had happened to anyone else because he's not sure what to do :-~ Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for your help :-)

This page shows all courses that were in clearing this year. Obviously it might be different next year but it's worth checking.

There isn't much point in phoning the school (apart from when he wants to complain, because that is seriously wrong advice and the school should have known better.)

His best hope is to contact UCAS, tell them he cancelled his first application after his school advised him to (get them to support this. Tip: Don't complain until after they have ) and hope he's speaking to someone kind who will restore his application. UCAS phones are closed until January 4th, but be prepared to act quickly after this.

The application they're likely to restore is his first one because he was after the two week grace period, so he's looking at using Extra by rejecting any offers and cancelling any individual choices that haven't replied (if he clicks on the red code next to the course on Track, at the bottom of the 'Choice Detail' page will be the option to cancel choice.) I'd advise he doesn't do this until Extra is open, to check the course he wants is in Extra.



That only shows courses that were still in Clearing at the end of it.

I don't want to sound mean or anything, but how on Earth do these things even happen?! Fine, the advisor at school has no idea what he's talking about, but didn't your brother do any research before jumping into a new application? Just blindly followed the advice? I mean, the warning that you can complete only one application and any subsequent ones will be cancelled without refund is on the Register/Log in to Apply page a mere 5mm below the login link.

There's a lot of good advice on this thread already and I do hope that despite his mistake he gets a second chance at applying and going to university in 2011.