UCAS Shortlist Optimiser - Balance Safe & Ambitious Choices
Turn your shortlist into 5 balanced UCAS choices, safe to ambitious. We check they fit together for one statement and flag UCAS rule traps. Free for UK & IB.
UCAS gives you five choices, and how you spend them matters more than any single pick. The Shortlist Optimiser takes the courses you're weighing up and your predicted grades, and balances them into a set that runs from a genuine safe option to a genuine stretch - then checks the five work as one application. Free with an account: no card, no tokens.
How the Shortlist Optimiser works
- Add the courses you're torn between - two to five of them, by name. If you used the Course Recommender, your shortlist is already here: the two tools share it, and anything you add or remove updates both.
- Add your predicted grades - IB predicted total out of 45 and your HL/SL subjects, or A-levels. Predicted grades are enough, and if you've entered them in another tool they're already saved.
- Get up to five balanced UCAS choices - checked against each course's real published entry requirements, drawn from more than 30,000 live UK undergraduate courses at 343 universities and colleges.
What you get back
- A safety grade for each choice - safe, match or ambitious - judged against your grades via UCAS Tariff points, which over 9 in 10 courses carry.
- Whether you're actually eligible on the course's published requirements, and the reasoning for each choice's place in the set.
- A read on the portfolio as a whole: how the five hold together, not just five separate verdicts.
- Any UCAS-rule problems, flagged before you submit - applying to both Oxford and Cambridge, or more than four medicine choices.
- Where your list is lopsided, a course the tool adds to round it out - always marked as its suggestion, never mixed in silently.
One application, not five separate bets
Five choices share one personal statement, so a scattershot list across unrelated subjects is hard to write one honest statement for. The optimiser checks how your courses overlap and tells you when the spread is a risk - before you've written a word, and before the Statement Review has to paper over it.
The safety-net check
If your list has no genuine safe choice, that is the single most useful thing to know before you submit - and the easiest thing to miss when every course on it excites you. The optimiser says so plainly and can add a safe option to round out the five. A real safe-to-ambitious spread now is also what gives you a genuine firm and insurance choice later, when your offers arrive.
Built for IB as well as A-levels
IB grades go in as IB - your predicted total out of 45 and your HL and SL subject grades, not an A-level equivalent somebody has converted for you. Where a course publishes requirements, your grades are converted to UCAS Tariff points so safe, match and ambitious mean the same thing whichever system you're in.
What it will not do
It won't pick your firm and insurance - those are decisions you make after offers arrive, and a well-balanced five is what makes them real decisions rather than forced ones. Run it without grades and you still get a valid set, but the choices aren't scored for reach until there are grades to judge against. And it's capped at three runs an hour to keep it free for everyone.
Plan the rest of your application
- Course Recommender - free with an account: describe your grades and interests and get matched UK courses to shortlist in the first place.
- IB Points Calculator - free, no account needed: your score out of 45 and the UCAS Tariff points your choices are judged against.
- Personal Statement Review - once your five are set, question-by-question feedback tied to those exact courses.
- UK Course Directory - check any choice yourself across more than 30,000 UK undergraduate courses.
- UK Universities - 343 universities and colleges, with rankings, regions and the degrees they offer.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Shortlist Optimiser do?
You give it the courses you're considering (2-6) and your grades. It returns a risk-balanced set of up to five UCAS choices - safe to ambitious - checks how the courses fit together and whether one personal statement can credibly cover them all, and flags any UCAS rule problems, like applying to both Oxford and Cambridge or more than four medicine choices.
Will my courses work as one application?
That's a core check. We look at how the courses overlap and whether a single personal statement can credibly address all five - a scattershot list across unrelated subjects is hard to write one honest statement for, and we tell you when that's a risk.
What if I don't have a safety net?
It tells you, and fixes it. If your list has no genuine safe choice, that's the single most useful thing to know before you submit - the optimiser calls it out and can add a safe (or ambitious) option to round the set out.
Is it free?
Yes - free with an account. No card.
Does it work for IB and A-level?
Both. Enter IB predicted totals and HL/SL grades, or A-level grades - it judges reach against either.
What course data does it check my choices against?
More than 30,000 live UK undergraduate courses across 343 universities and colleges, with over 90% carrying UCAS tariff points. So when it judges how much of a reach each choice is - or adds a safe or ambitious option to round out your five - it's working from real course requirements, not guesswork.