Guide to Completing Your UCAS Form Online

to make the process less painful...

First Things First.

• Make a note of your username and password

• Keep all information about courses/ applying/ personal statement together in a folder


• Be careful with basic info like DOB; don’t say 01/09/06!


• If you were born in the UK, there’s is no need to put in ‘date of first entry to UK’


• Keep the dates of the deadlines someplace where you can always see them - it's easy to let time fly by and be forced to rush your final application.

Research the Courses and Universities you’re interested in

• College/University prospectuses, find these in the study area.


• UCAS website: www.ucas.co.uk


• Aim higher website www.aimhigher.ac.uk or www.ahgtm.ac.uk


• UCAS Directory – all courses and codes for all universities are listed here. I personally don't feel that searching for courses on the UCAS site is as useful as actually visiting the websites of the universities you are interested in


• UCAS ‘The Big Guide’


• University websites, the local Universities are on handout K3

How to decide which is the right course for you?

• Find out what is the course is about and what it entails.


• Does it reflect your area of interest and suit your style of learning?


• What are the prospects at the end of it? Where do the students go? What jobs did they get? Believe it or not, in 3/ 4 years time, applying for UCAS seems a breeze to looking for a job!


• Do most students go on to do post-graduate courses?


• You are entirely entitled to ask questions - make the most out of contacting admissions officers about any issues you have when researchin


• And once again, check out the content of the course before writing your personal statement!

Reference

Once you confirmed your choice, ask your teacher to write a reference for you as soon as possible - your teachers probably already have a lot on their minds and other things to do besides your reference. Reminding them not only ensures that you'll get your application done as soon as possible, but also show them that you are a committed and responsible student.

Write your personal statement

Other useful information

• You can apply for more than one course at the same institution but make sure that your personal statement is relevant for all the courses you are applying for. Converse to popular belief, applying to 2 courses you really love in the same university in some cases makes it clear to admissions officers that you rally want to study there.


• The uni’s that you apply for will not know about your other choices


• List the courses you are applying for in alphabetical order, not in your order of preference.

Before submitting your final application

• Have you filled in all sections of the application form?


• ‘Additional information’ will be deleted later and will not be sent to the HE institution or university so will not bias your application in any way

Offers

Offers may start to come through as soon as 2 weeks after you’ve sent off your UCAS form.  But don’t worry if you don’t get replies straight away.  Most students applying through UCAS normally have to wait about a month before they start getting offers back, and they normally stop sending replies around May.

Once you have received replies from all the Universities you’ve applied to you then need to choose your best 2, your first choice and your insurance choice (just in case you don’t get the grades for your first choice).  Send this back to UCAS who will let the universities know your choices - it is extremely important to keep all letters from UCAS and to reply to them otherwise you could lose your place.