Adding choices later or adding choices for places you haven't visited?

ABSOLUTLY fill up your UCAS form. There is literally no-downside to putting 5. Its unusual that the school make you do it by that date since the actual deadline is January.

I would, in your position, spend the next day or two doing a lot of research (find actual student reviews for various universities, they will give you a better and more accurate feel for the uni than the university page will). Once you've settled on 4 more, put them down. You can always attend open days afterwards for the rest and then make a decision once your offers come in. It's better to have a choice and then eliminate them after visiting, than to realise you actually like a certain uni but didn't put it down on your ucas form.

Something that honestly really helped me was making a chart. I put each uni I was considering at the top and then a score for things such as their ranking for your subject, how much you like the campus/city, travel distance etc and other things you think are important to you when choosing your uni.

Im going to guess then you are predicted around BBB (120 Ucas Tarif points). This is a really decent prediction and you have a wide range of uni's available. I would apply then to another uni 2 uni's of the same level (e.g. BBB), one above (ABB) and one below (BCC).

Finally, I applied to Bournemouth as well, I didn't end up choosing it but I did get an offer and I understand what you mean about liking it. I would strongly recommend you look at Nottingham Trent University. Its very similar, but *much* more highly ranked and has the same entry requirements: that is, if you even need them. Last year, out of all the offers they gave out, more than 65% were unconditional, and ive never heard of someone not receiving an offer from them who applied!

I hope this helps, and good luck!

So my first and only choice for now is Business IT at Bournemouth, it is also the only place I visited that I particularly liked. Many aspects appeal to me, so I am to some extent counting on the fact I should get a place.(foolish I know)

Entirely because of my own incompetence I have not been to enough open days to have clear backup choices in my head, I have looked online and have a few places in mind, but none of those have a common first-year like Bournemouth which is a major aspect of why I want to go there.

My application must be approved be multiple teachers and it will be sent on the 18th Nov. The first teacher is checking it tomorrow, and I have only one choice down, so tonight either add the extra options or just leave it as one choice.

Should I either put down choices for places I haven't been to as backups, or wait until I have been there and if it appeals add them via track? However, I have become fixated on getting into Bournemouth for multiple reasons, my points will meet or exceed the entry requirements, and I can also apply to have the entry requirements lowered by 16 points. The references and predicted grades will also be good. The thing remaining is the PS, which I will work very hard on and will get teachers to check it as well as my sister who is at Cambridge. On top of this, I have spoken to multiple people who attend there and they say it was not difficult to get in.

Sorry if this wasn't concise, my writing skills are trash like that, I am puttiing lots of effort into my PS to compensate for that.

Thank you, this is really useful advice. My sixth form has an internal deadline of the 11th so that the head of year can read through hundreds of PS's by January 15, but I asked to be one of the first to get an appointment so my application is sent off ASAP and it will be great to get it over with and potentially get an early offer.

As you said, I will do lots of research into other Universities. Good guess, but I am actually doing all BTEC's and overall am predicted DMM, but DDM is very achievable and will be able to get it if I work hard which I will. I have been reading the prospectus for Nottingham Trent University, and it looks great! It is quite far away however(200 miles), there is an open day on the 30th I could go to, but I feel it would be very expensive and I would have to go alone. They also have a course called Information Systems which is not too dissimilar from Business IT so I can make my PS relate to it.

Which course were you applying for and are you at uni now, which one?

Thank you, this is really useful advice. My sixth form has an internal deadline of the 11th so that the head of year can read through hundreds of PS's by January 15, but I asked to be one of the first to get an appointment so my application is sent off ASAP and it will be great to get it over with and potentially get an early offer.

As you said, I will do lots of research into other Universities. Good guess, but I am actually doing all BTEC's and overall am predicted DMM, but DDM is very achievable and will be able to get it if I work hard which I will. I have been reading the prospectus for Nottingham Trent University, and it looks great! It is quite far away however(200 miles), there is an open day on the 30th I could go to, but I feel it would be very expensive and I would have to go alone. They also have a course called Information Systems which is not too dissimilar from Business IT so I can make my PS relate to it.

Which course were you applying for and are you at uni now, which one?

You could submit it with only one or two choices and then add extra choices later. But if you add those choices after 15th January you will be less likely to get offers than if you apply before 15th January. Having said that, most unis still have vacancies after the 15th unless they are the most competitive ones.

It would be useful if you could add a second course now and then the other 3 before the January deadline. Don't worry that you havent visited them yet. When you get offers you will get invited to visit or applicant days so you can attend these. I assume you are looking fairly southern so look into Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Winchester, Bath Spa and UWE to see if they have any suitable courses.

I am indeed looking for Southern courses, I added Nottingham Trent even though it is very far north because it is similar to Bournemouth but has better statistics. The Jan deadline is technically the 18th Nov because I am sending it off early but I might be able to just add the remaining 3 via track, still unsure though.

You can add choices. That has been mentioned on here many times over the year. I think if you only have 1 choice you have to make a further payment so that is why I suggested 2. It is difficult to know where to recommend as the actual area is not defined and I dont actually know course content. Swansea University offers business course but whether it is too far or suitable I dont know. It is on a brand new campus in a quite lively city with good nightlife. You can look and see if you think it suitable.

https://digital.ucas.com/courses/details?coursePrimaryId=0fb3ef29-e1ec-d366-ba0d-46336840e451&academicYearId=2020

I thought that you could definitely add choices via track like everyone says, but my teacher seems skeptical about it so I am going to call UCAS just to be 100% sure and so that for any reason. Thank you for recommending that, don't think I will apply for it however.

I have 2 choices now and am just concentrating the other potential Uni's down to 3 and I will hopefully add all my choices before my application is sent off anyway, and if I get rejected I can add more or whatever. Adjustment and clearing are also backups, but ideally I should get into BU because my points are fine and I can get more than they ask, plus apply for lower entry requirement etc so I don't see why I would get rejected(that sounded super cocky I know).