Is it worth sacrificing a guaranteed offer?

I'll be applying to study law in September for 2025 entry and I've narrowed down my options for university choices. My choices are UCL, Bristol, Nottingham, Leeds and York, all for law LLB courses. I'm part of an access programme at the University of York that guarantees me a contextual offer, but I'm having second thoughts about applying. I really did not enjoy the open day for various reasons and I'm not sure if I'd want to apply there, despite it being my only safety choice. I would be guaranteed a contextual offer of BBB if I do apply since I gained enough credits to pass onto the second year of the access programme. I was looking at UCAS offer rates for my choices and the highest offer rate was Nottingham, with 17/20 applicants receiving an offer. I'm fairly confident I can at least get into Nottingham and probably Leeds too. UCL is an aspirational choice and getting an offer would be heavily dependent on my LNAT and the same goes for Bristol. My issue is that if I were to not apply to York I feel like I'd be taking a big chance and potentially could get no offers as opposed to having a guaranteed one. I also don't know what I'd replace York with. I like KCL, but I don't want to apply to more than 1 London university and I like Cambridge but I'd probably get rejected pre-interview because of my GCSEs. I am also already applying to 2 universities that require the LNAT. I could replace York with Manchester or Warwick, but these aren't safety choices. Would Nottingham be classed as a safety choice since the offer rate is 85%, and if so, is it worth sacrificing a guaranteed offer at York for a university I'd prefer to go to? I'm grateful to be part of the access programme, but I seriously didn't enjoy York and it's making me question what I'd do if nowhere else accepted me.

Hi,
You need to be able to enjoy and be comfortable at the university that you go to. I have found that I always do so much better academically when i feel comfortable in my environment, as opposed to when I don't. Is there a reason why you didn't enjoy the open day at the University of York? I would recommend that you attend other open days at the other university's that you are considering, so that you know what each university is sort of like, before applying. It will also give you a chance to speak to admissions teams about your GCSE's and whether it would heavily influence them giving you a offer.
It's always good to put a 'safe' option down, when applying on UCAS, but I wouldn't heavily rely on offer rates, and would base it more on your predicted grades. As it will be your grades and personal statement, which will most influence whether or not you will be given a offer. If your eligible for a contextual offer at the University of York, you may also be eligible for other contextual offers at other university's, so this could be something you could also look into.
Good luck with your applications,
Suzan - Student Ambassador

Thanks for the advice. The issue with University of York for me was the extreme lack of diversity. I knew York was never going to be the most diverse place on earth but I felt very out of place on campus and in a lecture theatre with over 250 people, I was incredibly disappointed to find that I was one of less than 10 BAME students. Law is a very popular subject so I was hoping for higher numbers of BAME students than most other subjects at the very least. I also didn’t like the architecture or Campus West in general. It was quite depressing and while the greenery was nice, I still didn’t think it was a place I’d want to be in. The city of York itself was alright but in my honest opinion, slightly overhyped. Then again, I didn’t get to see much of it so maybe there were better parts, but after to talking to students about York, I found out that it won’t really offer a good student life, or at least not one that I’d be hoping to have.
I went to the UCL and Nottingham open days and loved them. I didn’t intend on applying to UCL at all, but the open day definitely persuaded me. I really enjoyed the law taster lecture and the parts of the campus I was able to see. I also liked their library. Nottingham was by far my favourite open day and despite not gaining a lot of new information from their law talk, I did enjoy the day overall. They didn’t offer a taster lecture which was a shame but I know how the course works and the facilities are amazing. Nottingham is definitely a top choice for me but I don’t know whether I can class it as a safety or not. My predicted grades are A*AA (hoping to raise my philosophy grade to an A* in September) and my GCSEs are 876554 with an 8 in English language and a 5 in maths. I meet all the requirements for my choices and UCL’s website says they will consider applicants with a 5 if there is a good reason for it and I have several extenuating circumstances surrounding my GCSEs. I only mentioned them because Cambridge considers them a lot more than any of my other potential choices. I’m eligible for contextual offers at all the universities I listed except Warwick.

Hi,
It sounds like you have found some good university's, that you like and will enjoy your time there! If you meet the grade requirements (which you do), definitely apply to those university's! As its so important to enjoy and feel happy where your studying, and it sounds like you were when you attend the open days at Nottingham and UCL. You still have a while yet, before you need to make any concreate decisions, so I wouldn't worry too much at this point about Insurance and Firm choices. I would recommend that you do get your personal statement done by the end of September/ mid October, so you can focus more on your A levels and not have to worry about getting the personal statement written.
In the worst case scenario and you didn't get any offers or meet the grade requirements, which I don't see happening given your predicted grades, you can always apply to universities through clearing. You will be able to see what course are available for clearing from about this time next year (for the 2025 entry) on the UCAS website.
Good luck,
Suzan - Student Ambassador

I'll be applying to study law in September for 2025 entry and I've narrowed down my options for university choices. My choices are UCL, Bristol, Nottingham, Leeds and York, all for law LLB courses. I'm part of an access programme at the University of York that guarantees me a contextual offer, but I'm having second thoughts about applying. I really did not enjoy the open day for various reasons and I'm not sure if I'd want to apply there, despite it being my only safety choice. I would be guaranteed a contextual offer of BBB if I do apply since I gained enough credits to pass onto the second year of the access programme. I was looking at UCAS offer rates for my choices and the highest offer rate was Nottingham, with 17/20 applicants receiving an offer. I'm fairly confident I can at least get into Nottingham and probably Leeds too. UCL is an aspirational choice and getting an offer would be heavily dependent on my LNAT and the same goes for Bristol. My issue is that if I were to not apply to York I feel like I'd be taking a big chance and potentially could get no offers as opposed to having a guaranteed one. I also don't know what I'd replace York with. I like KCL, but I don't want to apply to more than 1 London university and I like Cambridge but I'd probably get rejected pre-interview because of my GCSEs. I am also already applying to 2 universities that require the LNAT. I could replace York with Manchester or Warwick, but these aren't safety choices. Would Nottingham be classed as a safety choice since the offer rate is 85%, and if so, is it worth sacrificing a guaranteed offer at York for a university I'd prefer to go to? I'm grateful to be part of the access programme, but I seriously didn't enjoy York and it's making me question what I'd do if nowhere else accepted me.

Thanks for the advice. The issue with University of York for me was the extreme lack of diversity. I knew York was never going to be the most diverse place on earth but I felt very out of place on campus and in a lecture theatre with over 250 people, I was incredibly disappointed to find that I was one of less than 10 BAME students. Law is a very popular subject so I was hoping for higher numbers of BAME students than most other subjects at the very least. I also didn’t like the architecture or Campus West in general. It was quite depressing and while the greenery was nice, I still didn’t think it was a place I’d want to be in. The city of York itself was alright but in my honest opinion, slightly overhyped. Then again, I didn’t get to see much of it so maybe there were better parts, but after to talking to students about York, I found out that it won’t really offer a good student life, or at least not one that I’d be hoping to have.
I went to the UCL and Nottingham open days and loved them. I didn’t intend on applying to UCL at all, but the open day definitely persuaded me. I really enjoyed the law taster lecture and the parts of the campus I was able to see. I also liked their library. Nottingham was by far my favourite open day and despite not gaining a lot of new information from their law talk, I did enjoy the day overall. They didn’t offer a taster lecture which was a shame but I know how the course works and the facilities are amazing. Nottingham is definitely a top choice for me but I don’t know whether I can class it as a safety or not. My predicted grades are A*AA (hoping to raise my philosophy grade to an A* in September) and my GCSEs are 876554 with an 8 in English language and a 5 in maths. I meet all the requirements for my choices and UCL’s website says they will consider applicants with a 5 if there is a good reason for it and I have several extenuating circumstances surrounding my GCSEs. I only mentioned them because Cambridge considers them a lot more than any of my other potential choices. I’m eligible for contextual offers at all the universities I listed except Warwick.

OP, you appear to have realistic ideas and a sensible approach to university applications. Maybe don't rule out Cambridge. Your GCSEs would be only one factor amongst many. If you remain on track for high A level grades, if you have a teacher who is willing to write you a stellar reference, and if you can achieve a good result in the LNAT, you would have a fighting chance. Cambridge scores well on diversity - you would see a good number of ethnic minority students there. UCL would of course also be an excellent choice. Good luck!

I can see what you're saying, but there is one huge problem with giving primacy to observed diversity when choosing a university (esp off the back of an open day) - it's that you have no control over other people's choices. Undergraduate student body can change by as much as 30-40% every year simply because one whole year is definitely leaving, one whole year is definitely coming in, plus you have people leaving to go on sandwich and coming back from it. In essence, you're choosing a university on the basis of what you think other people are going to do. For example - let's say you visit Birmingham and find it highly racially diverse. When you actually start, you might find yourself in an intake with 9 blokes called Kevin - and there's nothing you could have possibly done to predict that. This is exactly the same as when people choose halls based on their "reputation" for being party halls or whatever. Halls change every year, and you have no control over who you're going to live with - just because one hall/block/flat was like the Rio Carnival last year, doesn't mean it won't be a library this year.
There's two other things to this - First, London universities are a separate case because its an absolute given that a lot of BAME students, especially at mid-lower tier universities do not travel far from home. That's a social/cultural thing and can be observed over not just years but decades and possibly has a lot to do with being a Londoner and the travel infrastructure enabling that.
Second, with all the best will in the world, a lot of people aren't very honest with themselves when they "count" BAME students. Most people don't look for the East Asians, who can often be found in quite large numbers in certain subject groups and very often are large cohorts of international students. This is also a relatively predictable quantity year on year.
Ultimately, how and why you choose a university is up to you. I would always argue that you should go to the best one you can and you meet other people and experience their ideas and points of view quite apart from their racial characteristics- which is the whole point of going in the first place, rather that recreating a situation you might already have.

Haveing been to the wrong university for me at first please go somewhere you like drop York and go somewhere like UCL if you get an offer with an insurance somewhere like Nottingham or Leeds which you seem to like.your there for 3 years after all you might as well be happy I wasn’t and dropped out after Christmas. I then went somewhere I actually liked (Solent) I was much happier and graduated it an honours degree.

I understand your point, but when I was referring to diversity in York, I was more so talking about the city and the university rather than just the university itself. As someone who has been to predominately white schools all my life up until college, it can feel quite isolating being in a place where nobody looks like you and can relate to things that are at the core of your identity. I know that diversity will change year by year, but I'd rather not take the risk. A university with a long-standing poor reputation for diversity probably won't magically have a big increase in diversity the next year. Don't get me wrong, I met lots of lovely people at the open day, but I just didn't feel comfortable there. I do count East Asians as BAME students and I can assure you that diversity was still lacking in this area. I saw one East Asian family the entire day and they too looked as if they were slightly uncomfortable. I'm not very keen on staying in London anyway, but if I'm going to leave, at the very least I'd want to be in a city with more diversity than York. Nowhere will be as diverse as London which is fine with me. Nottingham was far more diverse than I was expecting and while diversity definitely isn't my biggest priority when choosing a university, it does make a university more impressionable to me.

To each their own, but I can't relate to this at all. I can't possibly understand the inherent contradiction of putting race at the core of ones identity, and then to seek "diversity" but also want a place where (paraphrasing) others look like me. Surely if I value diversity, I want a place where nobody looks like me, and more importantly, people don't necessarily think like me.

I don't know you personally and I don't know you're experience with race, but if you are from an ethnic minority background, being in a place where nobody looks like you is being in a space without diversity. It's not as if I'm asking for large numbers of minorities, but to be one of ten POC in a room full of over 250 white people was a culture shock coming from London, even as someone who has been to predominately white schools most of my life. Sure it would be great to have diversity amongst mindsets, but it's not wrong for me to want a community of people who look like me, because unfortunately, race is something that divides us as human beings. If someone were to flip that argument to defend a white person wanting to go somewhere that lacked racial diversity for their own sense of community (because I've seen it happen on here), that argument would ultimately fail because white people are the majority in this country regardless of what university they go to. I could join all the societies in the world but my racial identity is important and not having a support system for that will undoubtedly make me feel isolated. Maybe that is not your personal experience and that's fine, but I would be naïve to commit to a university that I know will make me feel isolated hoping that diversity will suddenly improve the next year, or that diversity amongst mindsets will make up for a severe lack of racial diversity.

Thanks for the advice. The issue with University of York for me was the extreme lack of diversity. I knew York was never going to be the most diverse place on earth but I felt very out of place on campus and in a lecture theatre with over 250 people, I was incredibly disappointed to find that I was one of less than 10 BAME students. Law is a very popular subject so I was hoping for higher numbers of BAME students than most other subjects at the very least. I also didn’t like the architecture or Campus West in general. It was quite depressing and while the greenery was nice, I still didn’t think it was a place I’d want to be in. The city of York itself was alright but in my honest opinion, slightly overhyped. Then again, I didn’t get to see much of it so maybe there were better parts, but after to talking to students about York, I found out that it won’t really offer a good student life, or at least not one that I’d be hoping to have.
I went to the UCL and Nottingham open days and loved them. I didn’t intend on applying to UCL at all, but the open day definitely persuaded me. I really enjoyed the law taster lecture and the parts of the campus I was able to see. I also liked their library. Nottingham was by far my favourite open day and despite not gaining a lot of new information from their law talk, I did enjoy the day overall. They didn’t offer a taster lecture which was a shame but I know how the course works and the facilities are amazing. Nottingham is definitely a top choice for me but I don’t know whether I can class it as a safety or not. My predicted grades are A*AA (hoping to raise my philosophy grade to an A* in September) and my GCSEs are 876554 with an 8 in English language and a 5 in maths. I meet all the requirements for my choices and UCL’s website says they will consider applicants with a 5 if there is a good reason for it and I have several extenuating circumstances surrounding my GCSEs. I only mentioned them because Cambridge considers them a lot more than any of my other potential choices. I’m eligible for contextual offers at all the universities I listed except Warwick.

OP, you appear to have realistic ideas and a sensible approach to university applications. Maybe don't rule out Cambridge. Your GCSEs would be only one factor amongst many. If you remain on track for high A level grades, if you have a teacher who is willing to write you a stellar reference, and if you can achieve a good result in the LNAT, you would have a fighting chance. Cambridge scores well on diversity - you would see a good number of ethnic minority students there. UCL would of course also be an excellent choice. Good luck!

OP, if you've got the A level predictions for Cambridge and mitigating circumstances for your GCSEs, then you should take a Cambridge application seriously.
As mentioned, GCSE grades are only one aspect of the application, and there all sorts of reasons why they might not be stellar - and don't forget, with many overseas not even taking comparable exams at this stage, they are rarely a make or break feature of an offer. If you've got a rising academic trajectory, or had external issues at GCSE etc that's all perfectly normal in a profile, and doesn't preclude a successful application to Cam if you are nowadays right up to the academic level. And Cam is very diverse as an undergrad community and a city.