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This is NOT a chat thread and such posts will be removed 
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Deadlines
15 October: Oxbridge/Medicine/Dentistry/Veterinary Medicine
15 January: everything else, for guaranteed
equal consideration
30 June: for
immediate consideration by unis where there are
vacancies
More information on
Late applications is available in the Wiki.
International Applicants: should note that these deadlines are broadly the same for you; once the 15 January deadline has passed there are no guarantees that a uni will consider your application. If you are planning to apply later than 15 January, check uni websites and with the Admissions Departments concerned to make sure that this is OK.
Applying early: the pros and cons
Some advisers will tell you that applying early gives you an advantage. It doesn’t, and is even less likely to do so this year. There are hints that after the problems in the 2008-09 round, when some unis found that they had made too many offers, that they will be slower to respond to applications and more likely to hold over everything until the 15 January deadline. This was already true of competitive courses such as History, English, Law, Economics, where unis like LSE, Warwick, Bristol, Durham, and Edinburgh have kept applicants waiting until March or even April for a decision. This can happen even with less competitive courses and unis - some unis have a policy not to look at anything until all applications are in. Others will do a preliminary screening which will weed out the obvious no-hopers and hold over the rest until January.
Applying early is
not a recipe for rejection on the basis that you *might* be applying to Oxbridge. Unis do not see where else you have applied until all your decisions have been made. All those myths about how Durham will reject you automatically because they *think* you have applied to Oxbridge are just that: myths. It is possible for someone to be accepted by a top ten uni and rejected by others - the reason for this is that unis look for different things in their applicants. No uni is going to turn away a good applicant just because they might have applied to a competitor university!
Choosing unis and courses
By and large, forget ‘career prospects’ and
go for what really interests you and you are good at. Avoid applying for a course just because you think it will guarantee you a high earning power in due course. If you fail it or end up dropping out because you hate it, all you will have is dented confidence and debt issues. Equally, don’t dismiss a minority interest course at a lower profile uni out of hand – if this is what you really want to do, go for it. Remember that grade entry requirements are often an indicator of popularity/fashion rather than quality, so don’t assume that it’s a rubbish course because the entry requirements are ‘only’ BBC.
A major advantage of not rushing to get your application in early is that this gives you
time to consider your choices carefully. The number of threads posted on TSR from June onwards from people wanting to change their minds both about courses and unis demonstrates just how much things can change for you, even in a couple of months. So don’t rush it, even if your school is pressurising you to get it done early. There’s a long time between mid October and mid December. You will be two months further in to your A2 courses by then, and will have a much better sense of how the work is going and whether that A2 in Economics is quite as interesting as you thought it was going to be.
Remember that
you do not have to enter all your choices at once. It is possible (and can be a good move) to add choices in later, and provided you have met the 15 January deadline you are still guaranteed equal consideration. Bear in mind though that your personal statement can’t be changed (although unis will sometimes accept an updated PS separately) so it makes sense to ensure that this is as good and as relevant to your course choices as it can be.
The uni and course codes are clearly shown on the relevant UCAS pages: check that you have entered these correctly. Course codes especially can be very similar to one another.
Will I get Offers and When?
No-one can say. Sometimes people who on paper should get an offer don’t, and vice versa. However, you can reduce substantially the risk of ending up with more rejections than offers:
How to Avoid Getting 5 Rejections
On its arrival, an application generally falls into three categories: Yes, No, and Maybe.
The ‘yes’ category will include people who very clearly and significantly exceed the standard required. These people are likely to get early offers from unis
unless there are further selection procedures eg aptitude tests and/or interviews required.
The ‘no’ category will be people who simply do not meet the course entry requirements and/or their application is not strong enough compared with the expected standard; these people are likely to get a quick rejection.
The people who may be waiting a long time are in the ‘maybe’ group: those whose applications meet the essential requirements and the minimum standards expected, but where there are far more applicants than offers to be made. These go through a process of assessment which may include structured scoring systems for the paper application, aptitude tests, and ‘informal’ interviews. Which of these will apply depends on the course and uni.
Note that high entry requirements or so-called ‘prestige’ are no guide to how long it might take for a decision to come through. It can and does happen that Kent will take longer to send a decision than Durham. Some people get offers within days, others will wait months for a rejection. A browse around the forums would show up that Manchester, for example, has tended to be quick off the mark, whereas Edinburgh is much slower. As noted above, things may be different this year for all unis.
Conditional offers may be based on grades or UCAS scores and sometimes a mixture of both (or an offer may be expressed in both grades or UCAS points, in which case you must achieve one
or the other). You may be required to achieve a particular grade in a specified subject. Certain subjects may be 'excluded' from an offer - eg General Studies, Critical Thinking, a mother tongue language. If you don't understand your offer
email the uni admissions department and ask for clarification. Email is better because then you have a written record of their response should there be any query later.
Unconditional offers mean that the uni has accepted whatever qualifications you have achieved already as sufficient to meet their entry criteria. It is clear then that someone who is still doing their A2s or equivalent is unlikely to get an unconditional offer unless they already have achieved A2s in some subjects, or they are resitting but the grades they already have are sufficient for that uni.
Note that an unconditional offer is NOT the same as a 'matriculation' offer - EE - which is made occasionally by Cambridge and one or two other unis. It's called a matriculation offer because the national minimum entry (ie matriculation) requirement for all unis is two A2s, or equivalent (for mature students/those taking IB/students offering other qualifications similar in standard to A2s).
How will I know when a uni has made a decision?
Some unis acknowledge applications, others don't. Sometimes even between uni departments different acknowledgement arrangements apply. A lot of acknowledgements come by email, so check those spam folders regularly.
When your Track changes you will get an email from UCAS. These are sent out twice a day, but Track itself is updated pretty much constantly as decisions come in from the unis. This can include weekends too. It may be that you check Track and find a decision, when you haven't had an email to alert you to it. Also - not all emails saying that your Track has updated mean that there is a decision, though most do. If there isn't a new decision, something else has changed - the terms of an existing offer, a course code, whatever. Look around and if you can't work out what the change is contact UCAS to find out.
Rejections will show up on Track as 'unsuccessful' against the uni choice; you generally won't get a letter from the uni itself (unless it's Oxbridge, in which case you'll normally get the letter first).
Offers will also show up on Track, but most unis will write or email you to say that they are making you an offer. It's a race to see which you get first
. If the offer is on Track, you can find out what its conditions are by clicking on the course code. Quite often unis won't tell you in the letter or email what the conditions of the offer are, and when this information gets to UCAS depends on the Admissions Office staff sending it through. This can sometimes take a few days.
Technical Stuff
Entering grades
You
must make sure that you entered your grades for
all your certificated qualifications
correctly. If it comes to light that you have entered incorrect grades (and it’s interesting how often it happens in such cases that the actual grades are lower than what was submitted by the applicant) you
must tell UCAS and the unis concerned
immediately. Any offer that has been made to you could be withdrawn if it was made on the basis of wrong information, so it is very much worth your while to get this right at the outset. The
UCAS page does explain it pretty clearly, but if you still can’t make sense of it contact UCAS directly for clarification. Note that you cannot enter UMS marks, only grades, against the module details, and that it is optional to do so at all. A U grade in anything - GCSE, AS, A2, AEA - does
not have to be entered as you do not hold the qualification.
Grade Predictions
I’ve seen a few examples on here of teachers making unfairly low predictions, but generally the “But I
know I’ll be able to improve from a C at AS to an A at A2” approach doesn’t cut any ice, for good reason. If a school gets a reputation for inaccurate predictions, this doesn’t help anyone. It also doesn’t help you if you are predicted unrealistically high grades which then become the offer you are working to.
Insist on knowing what your predictions are, however, as this is an important part of making sure your applications are pitched sensibly. Your referee is responsible for entering them on your application.
Personal Statement
Check out the
Personal Statements FAQ and make use of the PS Help forum. Whatever you do, do
not post your PS, or bits from it, in open forum as the UCAS plagiarism detector will find it. PS Help is safe from UCAS and other prying eyes because access to it is restricted by TSR.
Remember that UCAS removes all formatting and simply cuts off the end of the PS if you have exceeded the line/character limits. Unfortunately the Word line/character count doesn't work for UCAS, so whatever you do check using the preview function in the UCAS form that the PS has been entered properly, and also that you haven't left behind parts of previous drafts - it happens!
Reference- If you have pending AS grades and therefore can't enter the module grades, your referee should be asked to mention the stellar grades in your reference. It generally doesn't come across that well if you include this information in your PS.
- If you are applying through a school/college centre, you ‘send’ your application to your referee, who will then add your reference and submit your application directly to UCAS. You may have seen your reference before it is submitted, but your school does not have to show it to you. If you want to see it, you can pay UCAS £10 and make an application under the Data Protection Act to do so (once your application has been submitted, of course).
- If you are applying independently, your referee will have to send you your reference for you to upload into the form. Do not be tempted to make any amendments as unis do check with the referee that what they’ve received is what the referee actually wrote
Mistakes on the Form- Exam grades/plans: if you have made any errors (wrong grades, wrong exam board etc) notify UCAS and the unis immediately. You agreed to do this when you submitted your form. Unis can withdraw or change an offer if it turns out that the information you gave was wrong.
- uni and/or course choices: you have 14 days in which to correct any errors/change your mind; after that you are stuck with it. So make sure you check your ‘welcome’ letter from UCAS carefully and contact them at once if there is a problem. Remember that you can only change a choice if a decision has not been made, so don't delay. Some unis reply very quickly!
- Fee Status: notify UCAS and the unis if this has changed immediately
Remember that you signed an undertaking that the information you provided on the form was complete and accurate. Do not be tempted to tell lies. You will be found out – eventually – having wasted a lot of people’s time, including your own.
Other Issues
Fee Status
If you are not sure what yours is, check with Student Finance
before you submit your application. Offers will be dependent on your status and a change could mean that your offer is withdrawn, so avoid that disappointment and get it right before you start.
Changes in Circumstances
If anything changes (eg you move, you decide to drop a subject or pick one up) make sure you tell UCAS and the unis straight away.
Discussions relating to university entry and applications, including questions about Clearing.
Useful Resources:
Applying for 2010? Look in here first!
