How long does it take for universities to reply to your application?
When can you expect a university to reply to your application? As our guide explains, response times on decisions can vary...
It could be a matter of days or months before you hear back from a university about your application, whether that's an offer, invitation to an interview or rejection (hopefully not).
It all depends on when you applied and how that university course chooses to make offers.
So stop refreshing Ucas Track every hour, and read on for the insider view on when you can expect university offers to come out...
- Ucas deadline countdown: advice articles and dates for your diary
When's the latest a university will reply to me by?
Well, that depends – sorry to be vague again.
Based on information that's been released – and how things worked last year – below is a rough guide to the latest you can expect to receive a response or offer from a university, so you can plan out the next few months:
- Mid May if you send your application by the 26 January deadline.
- Mid July if you send your application by 30 June.
- End of October if you've applied through Clearing.
- Full key dates and deadlines – set a reminder for these!
How universities handle decisions and what it means for you
That said, you’ll probably find that you and your friends receive responses back at different times, with different universities and courses acting sooner than others. It might be within a few days, but equally it might be a few weeks or even months.
Most of the time you’ll hear back before the end of March, but some courses stay open until right through until the end of June, or may continue to make rolling offers until the July deadline.
If you're applying to Oxbridge, things are slightly different. As you'll see below, how a university handles applications will affect when you can expect a reply or offer to be made.
It all depends on how the university or department you're applying to deals with applications. To find out more, we spoke to several different universities about their approach.
1. Post-deadline, post-interview
Cambridge has a 'winter pool' for strong applicants who've applied to a college that is over-subscribed (ie there are more applicants than places available) for their particular course. Applicants who are pooled are then considered by all colleges over a few days at the start of January. Applicants may be required to attend an interview by a college considering them, offered a place immediately, or even taken back by their original college choice.
2. Rolling decisions
Here’s what a few different unis told us:
- ‘All applicants should hear back within two to three weeks of applying.’
- ‘All applicants should receive an offer or an invitation to interview within ten working days.’
- ‘We try to respond to all applications within a matter of weeks, but this does vary between departments and depends on the number of applications received at that time.’
Many universities will use a mix of these two approaches, depending on the course.
Watch now: In this video from our sister site The Student Room, uni admissions experts answer members' questions about applying to uni including when universities make their decisions and what impacts whether you get an interview.
'I've still not heard back!'
As one tongue-in-cheek medical school admissions tutor put it: 'We’re busy, get over it!'
- Still waiting? Stay one step ahead and crack on with these
Keep an eye on Ucas Track
Check out our guide to the different university offers you may receive, plus dig deeper into what an unconditional offer really means – they're not quite as straightforward as they sound.
'I've got all my offers, what now?'
Once you have all your offers back, the ball is back in your court: decision time. You’ll need to make your firm and insurance choices based on the offers you've received.
If your number one university didn't make you an offer, pick yourself back up and decide what to do next, whether that's accepting another offer, or going through the Ucas Extra or Clearing schemes instead.
