Choice planning
We build the five-choice list around entry requirements and UCAS points, not around league tables.
UCAS applications
One application, five choices, one deadline that decides the year. Here is how the process works, and the dates for 2027 entry.
The application
How the UCAS application works
You submit one application with up to five course choices. Universities see the same form, your grades, your reference and your personal statement. Offers are usually conditional on the grades you are predicted or still to sit.
- Five choices — a sensible spread of ambitious, target and safe courses matters more than aiming everything at the top.
- Personal statement — the format is now three questions with a shared limit of 4,000 characters and a minimum of 350 characters per answer.
- Reference — from a teacher, tutor or employer who can speak to your academic ability, and it must reach UCAS by the deadline.
- Offers — you pick a firm and an insurance choice once decisions are in.
- Clearing — if results do not land, Clearing matches you to courses with places left in August.
Key dates · 2027 entry
The deadlines that matter
Miss the equal consideration deadline and universities can still consider you, but courses with places left become the exception rather than the rule.
- 12 May 2026
UCAS opens for 2027 entry — registration and preparation. - 1 September 2026
Applications can be submitted to UCAS. - 15 October 2026, 18:00
Deadline for Oxford, Cambridge, and most medicine, veterinary medicine/science and dentistry courses. - 14 January 2027, 18:00
Equal consideration deadline for most other undergraduate courses. - February to April 2027
Offers arrive; Student Finance England applications should be in. - August 2027
Results, confirmation of your place, and Clearing for anyone who needs it.
What we do for you
Where our help fits in
Personal statement
Three answers that show why you want the course and that your evidence backs it up — drafted with you, not for you.
Deadlines and results day
We track every date and work Clearing with you in August if your grades come in below the offer.
Figures shown are the published 2026/27 student finance rates and the 2027-entry UCAS cycle. Rates and deadlines are set each year — confirm the current numbers on gov.uk and ucas.com before you rely on them.
Applying this cycle?
We can review your choices and your personal statement before you submit, and tell you if the list is too ambitious or too safe.