Making your first and insurance choices: top tips
University offers in? Before you start accepting and rejecting offers on Ucas Track, consider these factors first to make your first and insurance choices...

So we asked careers advisers and Ucas for their advice on what you should think about when making your firm and insurance choices – take a look at what they said, further down.
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Didn't get the offer you wanted (or still waiting to hear back)?
See what you can do if your top choice rejected you, you're not holding any offers or you're still waiting for a university to reply.Review your offers
Fools rush in! Take some time revisiting your course and university options, especially if it's been a while since you sent off your Ucas application.
- Re-familiarise yourself with the course description and modules on offer – the course content needs to match up with what you're looking for in a course. Will you be happy studying this course for the next three years?
- Have you visited the university on an open day yet? It’s the best possible way to get a feel for whether you could see yourself studying and living there for the next few years – a prospectus can only tell you so much. Our guide to choosing the right student city might be worth a read.
Once you receive your last decision back from the universities you've applied to, you’ll typically have a few weeks before you need to reply to your university offers (but check Track for the exact deadline as this will depend on when you submitted your application).
While you wait for your last few responses to come back, get yourself off to an open day or at least suss out the general area.
Making your firm choice
Your firm choice should be your first choice
As in, this is the course you love the most and have your heart set on – in other words, this course is 'The One'.If you meet the conditions of your firm offer, then the place is yours; so make sure you're 100% happy with the course at this university. Don't just choose the course with the highest entry requirements out of all the offers you've received.
Is the offer achievable?
Before you make your firm choice, ask yourself if you’ve got a realistic chance of meeting it. Be honest with yourself.
Is the offer flexible?
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 universities will still accept ‘near-miss’ applicants.You can get an idea of what students on the course actually achieved (versus the entry requirements the university asked for) by looking at the '% applicants receiving offers' and 'typical Ucas points achieved by students' stats on The Uni Guide. Simply search for a course to see this, plus lots more about a course as you make your decision.
And if in doubt...
Making an insurance choice
Your insurance choice should normally be a lower grade offer
Your insurance choice should act as a back-up option if you don't get the grades you were expecting and miss out on your firm choice. So it doesn't make any sense picking an insurance choice with higher entry requirements than your firm choice.You can't swap between your firm and insurance choices
According to advisers, there's a common misconception that your firm and insurance choices are interchangeable – they're not:
Only put down an insurance choice if you’d be happy to go there
As careers adviser Alan explains, 'an insurance choice is a commitment, not just something you can just dump and go straight into Clearing.'If there's only one university that you really want to go to, then don't put down an insurance choice – insurance choices are optional.
Keep 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 if you end up going there.
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