References and other UCAS issues

I'm applying to study Informatics at Edinburgh and have a few questions about what I should do.

Firstly, I'm a mature student and although I decided last year to return to college and get the necessary A-levels anyway, I am not applying through the college. (It's a terrible institution and half the teachers are never there anyway... I wish I could add that to the application form.) This only allows me one reference and therefore one predicted grade and I'm not sure what/who to use. My computing teacher who is fantastic (oxford lecturer who I assume only teachers there for some mandatory community service), or my Maths teacher (will definitely predict me an A and Mathematics is a required subject after all).

Alternatively - should I just bite the bullet and apply via the college... might make it easier but I don't know what else that entails

Also, I was wandering if any of you thought it would be a bad idea to reference Edinburgh specifically in my personal statement. It's the only Uni I'm applying to so will not harm my chances with anyone else but was not sure how they would view that.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Reply 1

oxymoronic

Could you get your computing and maths teachers to write a combined reference? This obviously depends on how well they work together though! Say ask one to write a reference, and then give it to the other one to add in a section about your abilities in the other subject and generally agree/add to it. Your referees can mention the difficulties with teachers being away etc in their reference. If you applied as an individual I assume they would be more likely to do this than if you applied through college, but either way, this should be mentioned to the university and exam boards if you feel it might impact on your grades.

With the personal statement, providing you are only applying to Edinburgh it is fine for you to mention the university specifically. This gives you a chance to really discuss the modules on the course, why you like them and why they are right for you. So ensure you use this factor to your own advantage. However, ensure you're not just seen as sucking up - I've seen some excellent applications from people just applying to one specific course and then others which are awful to read. The bad ones generally place the university on some sort of pedastool and constantly speak about how amazingly brilliant the university is, what a world renowned university it is, and just generally speak directly to the admissions tutors speaking about how "I can't wait for you, Dr Brown, to teach me as I've read your book and you are so so so fantastic". You can easily avoid all of this though by just speaking about the course content in detail rather than speaking about the university in general :smile:

If you want some help with your personal statement, stick it into the PS help forum once you've written it and one of the computing/informatics helpers will take a look for you :smile:

University of Edinburgh

Reply 2

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Thanks so much for your advice it was really helpful. I was just wandering if I'm actually allowed to credit the reference to two authors. Should I contact UCAS to check.

Thanks again, your help is greatly appreciated.

Reply 3

oxymoronic

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I think there is only space for one person to be credited as writing the reference, but it seems to be very common for schools to ask the various subject teachers to write a few lines on the candidate and then the head of year, for example, will combine them into one and this will be the offical reference.

You're welcome, and good luck :smile: