Building Your UCAS Shortlist of Five

Your UCAS application allows you to apply to a maximum of five courses (four for medicine, dentistry, and veterinary science). These five choices are one of the most consequential decisions in the entire process. Get the balance right, and you will almost certainly end up somewhere you are happy. Get it wrong, and you might find yourself without any offers — or, worse, with offers only from universities you do not actually want to attend.

This lesson teaches you how to build a strategic, balanced shortlist that maximises your chances of success while ensuring every choice is somewhere you would genuinely be happy.

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The 5-Choice Strategy

The most effective approach is to distribute your five choices across three levels of ambition:

1-2 Aspirational Choices

These are universities where you would love to study but where admission is not guaranteed. The entry requirements might be at the top of (or slightly above) what you are predicted to achieve. You are reaching — but not unrealistically.

Example: If you are predicted AAB, an aspirational choice might ask for AAA or A*AB.