How the heck does ucas work :(

Right im just wondering, going into fifth year, doing hopefully and probably 5 highers and hoping to get into uni after 5th year, but what I want to know is.. How does the whole applying for universities work :L ?
How many uni's can you apply for how many courses at each, how the conditionals work etc.?
Someone with knowledge of this please help me ha :frown:

Im kind of backward with all this lol. :wink:

Reply 1

laura_802

You can apply to 5 unis, 4 if you want to do medicine etc (you can apply to one other course as well that isnt medicine.) Unis give you conditional offers if your predicted the grades you need, they give you unconditionals if you already have the grades you need.

Edit: you can apply to as many different courses as you like at one uni if you really really want to go to that specific uni.

Reply 2

liddogx3

So say you get three conditionals for three different universities, do you have to pick one before you get your grades which you will follow through with or do you notify the university you have chosen after you have your grades?

Reply 3

laura_802

Before you get your results you would choose one as your firm choice and one as your insurance choice, your insurance choice usually has lower grade requirements (hence insurance). When you get your results they are automatically sent to ucas/unis you have applied to and then you get an email either saying congratulations you have got onto your course, or something along the lines of sorry you didn't get the necessary grades.

Reply 4

liddogx3

so you will choose only two universities?

Reply 5

laura_802

yep. Even if you have 5 offers you have to choose 2 that you would most like to go to, a firm and an insurance.

Reply 6

Doodahdoo

Essentially... You initially pick five. Hang on, let's try to make this more visual ('cause I'm trying to avoid dissertation work) - sorry if this is really patronising!

Stage one: Application
Pick five unis you want to go to, and the courses you'd like to do (this are all as example, you can pick five courses from the same university if you want to)
1. University of Edinburgh - Maths
2. University of York - Maths and Economics
3. University of Exeter - Maths
4. University of Warwick - Maths and Finance
5. University of Warwick - Maths

Stage two: University response - usually done by March-time
1. University of Edinburgh - Maths - CONDITIONAL: AAB
2. University of York - Maths and Economics - Rejection
3. University of Exeter - Maths - CONDITIONAL: ABB
4. University of Warwick - Maths and Finance - CONDITIONAL - AAB
5. University of Warwick - Maths - Rejection

Stage three: Your Response - once you've got all of your replies
1. University of Edinburgh - Maths - CONDITIONAL: AAB - Firm choice (the one you most want to go to)
3. University of Exeter - Maths - CONDITIONAL: ABB - Insurance choice (the one you'd go to if you don't get into your firm)
4. University of Warwick - Maths and Finance - CONDITIONAL - AAB - Declined (you don't want to go there)

Stage four: Exam results day
- You get AAB, and into Edinburgh
- You get ABB, rejected from Edinburgh but into Exeter (as it's your back-up option)
- You get BBB, rejected from Edinburgh and Exeter and can choose to either go into clearing - where you pick a course from a list of courses that haven't been completely filled - or you can reapply next year.

... Obviously this is all supposed to be an example, you may get offers from all five or offers from none at all, but that's basically what happens. It should get explained to you by your head of year or somebody involved in careers at your school, too.

Reply 7

liddogx3

Thank you

Both very useful, I get it now :wink:

i gave u both the thumb up things 8-) dont know the tsr slang for them haha knew to this :smile:

Reply 8

liddogx3

woops it only let me do one :frown:

Reply 9

ScoCmac

One thing to pay attention to is the ammount of applications you make to each university as places like Edinburgh only allow you to apply for 2 courses a friend of mine made this mistake and applied for 4 courses at Edinburgh and was rejected from 2 and accepted for 2 but this really confused her

Reply 10

Doodahdoo

liddogx3

woops it only let me do one :frown:

Thank you so much for that :smile:

You can only rep (the thumbs up) once per day (00:00 - 23:59). You can find the FAQ here for it.

Reply 11

Doodahdoo

Anon Person

You're going to get the poor OP confused with English qualifications. :o:

The same principle applies, though, surely? Replace the English with the Scottish qualifications, just as you'd replace the universities I put with universities you'd rather go to?
Sorry, though :smile:

Reply 12

liddogx3

No, I understand the english qualifications :L my half brother stays with my dad in england weve exchanged information on how each work :P they think the scottish way is confusing vice versa but i get it lol :smile: