1. Firm / Insurance Choices Year 14 General Studies PowerPoint 3 rhscareers

2. Your chosen universities will come back to you with a decision, usually by the end of April. There are 3 options - Unconditional offer – about 15% of offers made by universities are unconditional. These are usually made when you’re applying with actual (rather than estimated) grades. Conditional offer – good news. Assuming your exams go well and you meet the grade conditions that have been set, you’ve got a place. Rejection – a knock back. If you don't get an offer from your first choice university, it's disappointing, but there’s still your other four options…

3. You can hold onto any offer you receive until all your chosen universities have made their decisions and then you have to choose which one(s) you want to accept. You can accept one offer as your Firm Acceptance (often called your CF choice). You can also accept a second offer as your Insurance Acceptance (often called your CI choice) and then you must decline any other offers. Advice on how to select your Firm and Insurance Choices follows -

4. 1.Review your offers Re-visit your course and university options. Re-familiarise yourself with the course description and modules on offer – the course content needs to match up with what you're looking for from a course. Have you visited the university? It’s the best way to get a ‘feel’ for whether you could see yourself studying and living there. Once you receive your last decision, you should have time before you need to reply to your offers (check Track for your deadline - this will depend on when you submitted your application and received your 5 th reply)

5. 2. Making your firm choice If you meet the conditions of your firm offer, then the place is yours – make sure it is the one you really want. Consider if you’ve got a realistic chance of getting the grades required as many unis make offers above predicted grades. Having an achievable firm choice doesn’t mean you shouldn’t aim high but, if you choose a firm choice that’s going to challenge you, then it’s all the more important to choose your insurance with great care. It’s also worth weighing up how flexible the course offer might be. While in theory you’ll only secure the place if you meet your offer, in practice, some unis accept ‘near-miss’ applicants more regularly than others.

6. 3. Making an insurance choice Your insurance choice should act as your 'back-up' option if you don't get the grades you were expecting. In most cases your insurance choice should require lower grades than your firm choice. If your results are lower than expected, you may meet the conditions of an insurance and you’ll have a place confirmed. There's the odd case where choosing an insurance choice with the same grades or higher can work (for example, if there are subtle differences in the conditions of the offer, or if your insurance choice has told you that they may still accept you if you don't quite get the grades they want).

7. Only put down an insurance choice if you’d be happy to go there. If you put down an insurance, you must make sure that you have visited it and researched it well, so that you know if things don't go to plan with your exams, you would be very happy to go there. If you have an insurance offer that you later decide you don't like, it could delay your chance of finding something that you would prefer through Clearing. Bear in mind that your insurance choice might not be able to guarantee you a place in their halls of residence, so you may have to find alternative student accommodation – best to email uni before making your Firm and Insurance choices.

8. You can't simply swap between your firm and insurance choices. According to advisers, there's a common misconception that your firm and insurance choices are interchangeable: Occasionally come across students in August who had chosen a higher grade uni as their firm choice, but the uni they really wanted was their insurance. The students succeeded in getting into their firm choice and thought they could just decline it and go to their insurance. This can work out but is not guaranteed! There is no official swapping between your firm and insurance once the decision is made. Make sure you are totally happy with your decision before making your final choices.

9. Extra, Adjustment and Clearing These can offer more opportunities to have another go within the UCAS cycle if your initial choices don’t work out: 1.If you don’t get any offers => try again with UCAS Extra 2.If you don’t meet the criteria of your firm or insurance choices => go through Clearing (or try again next year) 3.If you do better than expected and want to look at different options=> consider Adjustment

10. QUB – Student Support Sessions A QUB advisor will be in attendance on Friday 11 th March 2016 and Thursday 7 th April 2016 to give impartial advice about making your Firm and Insurance Choices. You do not need to have applied to QUB to avail of this service. To book an appointment – see Dr Hall or complete Student Support Sessions Form in Careers Library (on Dr Hall’s office door).