UCAS Extra is a scheme designed to help those who have been rejected by all five of their chosen courses, or have turned down all offers. Those who find themselves in this position can use the scheme from late February onwards.
If you are in this position your eligibility will be signalled on your UCAS Track screen, and if you want to go ahead with it you will need to use the search to find out which courses have vacancies. Then put your choice into Track and your application will go off to the university. You can only send off one choice at a time, so make sure there is space on your chosen course.
If you reject an offer and make a new choice through Extra, you will not be able to return to your original choices later, so approach things cautiously.
You need to give some thought to why you were rejected by your original choices. Was your application realistic? Are your academic credentials up to their demands? The range of choices by February will be significantly reduced, of course, and you need to find out if you have a real chance with your new choice. Sometimes joint honours degrees are less difficult to get on to. Your new choice university will be able to see your original five choices.
If you receive an offer you can accept or decline it, but if you accept then you are committed, and no other applications will be accepted. And if you still can’t find a place there’s always Clearing.
If your exam results are significantly better than those demanded by the universities whose offers you have accepted, you can use the UCAS Adjustment scheme to make a new choice. This will be indicated on Track, but will only apply to those who have exceeded the requirements of their CF offers.
Adjustment becomes available on 15 August, the day after the A-level results, and ends on 31 August. From the date when your CF offer becomes UF you have 5 days to register for Adjustment (there is a small fee) and find a new place. You register in Track and contact another university. They will tell you if they are prepared to offer you a place and you say whether you will accept it. If you don’t find a new place, your original choice will stand.
