If your original UCAS choices leave you with no offer you want to accept, check whether every decision is complete before changing anything. Then work out whether you still have an unused choice, qualify for Extra, need to wait for Clearing, or should make a fresh application next year.
Check that every choice has actually finished
Open your UCAS application and check every choice. A choice that is still awaiting a decision is still live, even if the other universities have already replied. For 2027 entry, universities have until 12 May to decide on applications UCAS received by 13 January. For applications received after 13 January but by 30 June, they have until 14 July. UCAS records any choice still outstanding after the relevant date as unsuccessful.
An unsuccessful decision means the university has decided not to offer you a place on that course. If all five choices are unsuccessful, none of those original choices can still make you an offer. If one remains undecided and you're certain you wouldn't accept it, UCAS lets you cancel that choice. Cancelling is permanent, so keep the choice open if you'd still seriously consider an offer from that university.
Some applicants reach this point while holding an offer they don't want. UCAS lets you decline all your offers if you've decided not to accept any of them. Only give up an offer after deciding you wouldn't take the course. If you'd still choose it over the courses available to you now, keep it while you see what those alternatives actually are.
Before choosing another course, look at what happened
Read any reason a university has given for an unsuccessful decision. If no reason appears, ask whether the admissions team will discuss it. Universities don't always provide detailed feedback, so compare the original choices with their published entry requirements and selection methods as well.
If all five courses asked for grades above your predicted or achieved grades, look for a new course whose requirements match your grades more closely. If your grades were competitive and a rejection followed a weak interview or admissions test, prepare for that selection stage before using another choice. If every course was highly selective, make sure the next choice has entry requirements you can realistically meet. The five decisions don't have to share one cause. Use what you know before sending essentially the same application to a similar course.
Extra opens on 25 February 2027 for applicants who have used all five original choices, hold no offer and have no original decision still pending. It isn't available while you hold an offer. You can cancel an outstanding choice if you're certain you wouldn't accept it, but you can't restore that choice later.
If you used fewer than five choices, check whether you still have an unused choice. Before 30 June, UCAS lets you add it if you haven't replied to any offers. If you've already declined all the offers you received, contact UCAS about adding the unused choice. The new course's own deadline still applies, and adding it later doesn't restore equal consideration after that deadline has passed.
If you decide to use Extra, follow How UCAS Extra Works: you apply to one course at a time, and after 21 days without a decision you can keep waiting or replace it. The final date to add an Extra choice for 2027 entry is 1 July.
A vacancy doesn't tell you whether the course is right for you. Read the current course page, check the entry requirements and any interview, test or portfolio requirement, and contact the university if its published information doesn't show whether it will consider you. If you would have rejected the same course when you built your original five, receiving no offers hasn't changed what the course teaches or where you would have to study it.
If you reach Clearing without an offer
Clearing opens on 2 July 2027. Applicants who aren't holding an offer can use it to look for courses with places still available, including after Extra hasn't produced a place. Vacancies change as universities fill courses, so the list will keep changing through July and August.
Check the course before treating a Clearing offer as a solution. Find out what you would study, where the course is taught, the entry requirements and any conditions attached to the offer. Once a university is willing to offer you a place, use How UCAS Clearing Works and add the choice only after you've decided you'd take it.
Reapply next year if the courses available now are wrong for you
If the courses available this year aren't ones you would choose, leave them and build a new application for the next cycle. Use the time before reapplying to change something that gives you a better set of realistic choices.
Applying with achieved grades lets you compare course requirements with results you already know instead of predictions. A higher resit grade changes the courses you can realistically target when grades were the problem. If an admissions test or interview was weak, use the time to prepare more effectively for that selection stage. Better course research helps you avoid repeating a shortlist whose requirements all sit beyond your current grades. Base that work on what actually weakened the first application; simply waiting a year doesn't make the next application stronger.
Build the new shortlist from courses you would genuinely attend and requirements you have a realistic chance of meeting. If you find such a course through Extra or Clearing this year, apply for it. If you don't find one, make a fresh application next cycle.
