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Would this be too risky?

It's been 12 days since I got my welcome email from UCAS, and I'm considering changing one of my choices. I still have tomorrow before I can no longer swap my choices. I applied for Law.

Current Choices:

Cambridge - A*AA
UCL - A*AA
Durham - A*AA
Manchester - AAA (Offer received)
Bristol - AAB

I'm thinking of changing Manchester to KCL (A*AA). The only reason I applied to Manchester was so that it would be my fallback insurance if I didn't get an offer from Bristol. If I got an offer from Bristol, I would reject Manchester. But I would rather go to Durham, UCL, Cambridge, or KCL than Bristol.

Should I bank on getting an offer from Bristol and swap Manchester for KCL, or play it safe and keep Manchester in case Bristol rejects me?

For AS I got Distinction* + AAB, and for A2 I'm predicted Distinction* + A*A*A. For GCSE I got A*AAAABBBBCCC.

The only thing is that if I changed Manchester to KCL, all my choices except Cambridge would be LNAT unis. I think the LNAT went pretty well tbh, but it might turn out that it didn't go as well as I thought. And yet, Bristol gave out offers to 70% of applicants last year, which is quite high. I know that @jneill was confident that I would get an offer from Bristol, but I wonder what I'd do if I ended up with an A*AA firm and no insurance...
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Abstract_Prism
It's been 12 days since I got my welcome email from UCAS, and I'm considering changing one of my choices. I applied for Law.

Current Choices:

Cambridge - A*AA
UCL - A*AA
Durham - A*AA
Manchester - AAA (Offer received)
Bristol - AAB

I'm thinking of changing Manchester to KCL (A*AA). The only reason I applied to Manchester was so that it would be my fallback insurance if I didn't get an offer from Bristol. If I got an offer from Bristol, I would reject Manchester. But I would rather go to Durham, UCL, Cambridge, or KCL than Bristol.

Should I bank on getting an offer from Bristol and swap Manchester for KCL, or play it safe and keep Manchester in case Bristol rejects me?

For AS I got Distinction* + AAB, and for A2 I'm predicted Distinction* + A*A*A. For GCSE I got A*AAAABBBBCCC.

The only thing is that if I changed Manchester to KCL, all my choices except Cambridge would be LNAT unis. I think the LNAT went pretty well tbh, but it might turn out that it didn't go as well as I thought. And yet, Bristol gave out offers to 70% of applicants last year, which is quite high. I know that @jneill was confident that I would get an offer from Bristol, but I wonder what I'd do if I ended up with an A*AA firm and no insurance...


It's a bit late to be swapping now,you could try calling ucas but since tommorow is the 13th day you re really pushing it. Not to mention having four universities with the same entry requirements if they all reject you then you end up with just Bristol which isn't guaranteed.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by claireestelle
It's a bit late to be swapping now,you could try calling ucas but since tommorow is the 13th day you re really pushing it.

I could still do it up to the 14th day though, right?

I know that I could still swap, but I just don't know whether it would be a bad idea or not.
Original post by Abstract_Prism
I could still do it up to the 14th day though, right?

I know that I could still swap, but I just don't know whether it would be a bad idea or not.


Bad idea in my mind, you could be up against people with 4-5As at as for four of your offers, there's no guarantee anyone would give you an offer. Two safe choices is much more sensible.
I've got something in the back of my mind saying you can't change a uni if have had a decision from them, but that might be only if it's a rejection. @PQ?
Original post by Abstract_Prism
It's been 12 days since I got my welcome email from UCAS, and I'm considering changing one of my choices. I still have tomorrow before I can no longer swap my choices. I applied for Law.

Current Choices:

Cambridge - A*AA
UCL - A*AA
Durham - A*AA
Manchester - AAA (Offer received)
Bristol - AAB

I'm thinking of changing Manchester to KCL (A*AA). The only reason I applied to Manchester was so that it would be my fallback insurance if I didn't get an offer from Bristol. If I got an offer from Bristol, I would reject Manchester. But I would rather go to Durham, UCL, Cambridge, or KCL than Bristol.

Should I bank on getting an offer from Bristol and swap Manchester for KCL, or play it safe and keep Manchester in case Bristol rejects me?

For AS I got Distinction* + AAB, and for A2 I'm predicted Distinction* + A*A*A. For GCSE I got A*AAAABBBBCCC.

The only thing is that if I changed Manchester to KCL, all my choices except Cambridge would be LNAT unis. I think the LNAT went pretty well tbh, but it might turn out that it didn't go as well as I thought. And yet, Bristol gave out offers to 70% of applicants last year, which is quite high. I know that @jneill was confident that I would get an offer from Bristol, but I wonder what I'd do if I ended up with an A*AA firm and no insurance...


Original post by ageshallnot
I've got something in the back of my mind saying you can't change a uni if have had a decision from them, but that might be only if it's a rejection. @PQ?


Substitutions of choices where an offer/rejection has been received can only be done by phoning UCAS (ie even within the first 7 days it couldn't be done on Track)....but in this case that's what the OP needs to do anyway.

Personally....I'd say go for it. You can always have an A*AA firm and an A*AA insurance (where you suspect one of your A*AA offers might be more lenient than others) which would double your chances of one of your choices being lenient if you miss your high offers. And there's generally a choice of very good AAA/AAB/ABB universities for Law in clearing every year if things go wrong - including Manchester last year http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/university-manchester-2016-clearing-courses-11760501 (plus Manchester have excellent accommodation guarantees for clearing applicants).

It's risky - but it isn't like you'd be completely without options if you got AAA-ABB (and your firm and insurance both decide they can't be lenient).
Original post by PQ
Substitutions of choices where an offer/rejection has been received can only be done by phoning UCAS (ie even within the first 7 days it couldn't be done on Track)....but in this case that's what the OP needs to do anyway.

Personally....I'd say go for it. You can always have an A*AA firm and an A*AA insurance (where you suspect one of your A*AA offers might be more lenient than others) which would double your chances of one of your choices being lenient if you miss your high offers. And there's generally a choice of very good AAA/AAB/ABB universities for Law in clearing every year if things go wrong - including Manchester last year http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/university-manchester-2016-clearing-courses-11760501 (plus Manchester have excellent accommodation guarantees for clearing applicants).

It's risky - but it isn't like you'd be completely without options if you got AAA-ABB (and your firm and insurance both decide they can't be lenient).


So if you received a speedy rejection you could phone Ucas and make what is in effect a sixth choice?

Just to add, Manchester has been in clearing for Law the past three years,
Original post by ageshallnot
So if you received a speedy rejection you could phone Ucas and make what is in effect a sixth choice?

Just to add, Manchester has been in clearing for Law the past three years,


Yep - in theory.

I don't know many universities that rush through rejections the way they do offers though. There's usually an extra step in the process to make sure nothing has been overlooked/missed.
Original post by PQ
Substitutions of choices where an offer/rejection has been received can only be done by phoning UCAS (ie even within the first 7 days it couldn't be done on Track)....but in this case that's what the OP needs to do anyway.

Personally....I'd say go for it. You can always have an A*AA firm and an A*AA insurance (where you suspect one of your A*AA offers might be more lenient than others) which would double your chances of one of your choices being lenient if you miss your high offers. And there's generally a choice of very good AAA/AAB/ABB universities for Law in clearing every year if things go wrong - including Manchester last year http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/university-manchester-2016-clearing-courses-11760501 (plus Manchester have excellent accommodation guarantees for clearing applicants).

It's risky - but it isn't like you'd be completely without options if you got AAA-ABB (and your firm and insurance both decide they can't be lenient).

Alright, I'll phone them up tomorrow to see if I can swap Manchester for KCL.

But it will be the 14th day since I got my welcome email. Will they still let me change on the 14th day? And I got my welcome email at 09:36; does that mean I have to do the swap before that time tomorrow?
Actually... Now I'm thinking I probably won't swap Manchester for KCL. I think if I'm good enough to get an offer from KCL, there's a good chance I would also get offers from Durham/UCL, which I prefer more than KCL. It's unlikely that I'd get a situation where KCL gives me an offer but Durham and UCL reject me (based on Which? which says that KCL is significantly more competitive than Durham and pretty much just as competitive as UCL). So really applying to KCL is pointless because I'd rather just go to those other unis. And besides, even if it did turn out that KCL gave me an offer but Durham and UCL reject me, I'd still find it hard to firm KCL over Bristol; I don't know if forking out for London is worth it for KCL, and tbh I just prefer Bristol more. And there's no guarantee that Bristol will give me an offer after all, so it's a good idea to have another 'safe' choice (Manchester) in case I don't get an offer from them.

tl;dr: no point applying to KCL because if they accepted me I'd be likely to also get offers from Durham/UCL, which I prefer. Also I don't think I'd firm KCL over Bristol anyway.

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