Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

I don't get what UCAS is.

I don't really get it, can someone please explain it to me. And btw when do you start writing your personal statement, is it in year 12?

Neither do i :ahee:

Original post by Amelia76

I don't really get it, can someone please explain it to me. And btw when do you start writing your personal statement, is it in year 12?

They do a few things but to answer your question UCAS is the organisation that coordinates all university undergraduate applications for the uk. If you want to go to university here you use their online system to apply and to track the progress/success of applications.
https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started

They offer a lot of help to research and identify your options.

Your school will have a process and timetable to help you with your personal statement and to write your academic reference. It's a good idea to be researching your choices and drafting your personal statement towards the end of year 12 so you are ready to apply in year 13. For certain subjects (e.g. Medicine) and some universities (Oxford/Cambridge) your application has to be in very early in y13 so an early start is recommended.

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Reply 3

TheConfusedMedic

It's basically the system that you use to apply to university courses and stuff. There's a section called UCAS Track which tells you the status of your offers and so on A Level results day, students will check Track to see if they got into their firm/insurance universities.

Reply 4

lemxn

You apply to universities through UCAS, track your offers etc - when you have to start writing your personal statement is up to you/your college/sixth form I guess but the official deadline is usually mid January, and a bit earlier for certain universities and courses!

I didn't do my personal statement until the start of Year 13

Reply 5

Lkathryn08

UCAS is basically the system you use to apply to university!
It is basically an application form and All your details including previous grades, predicted grades, personal statements will have to go on UCAS and you will then put the universities you want to apply to on your application. You will submit it when your done with you have completed it and this is what unis will look at and through UCAS track you can keep up to date with all your applications to your chosen unis as offers, rejections and offers for interviews all come through UCAS track!
You personal statement is an integral part and most people start writing it in the summer before year 13 and during the start of year 13 as your UCAS application has to be sent of in January at the latest and October of you're applying for Oxbridge/medicine/vetinary/dentistry.
In your personal statement you must write about why you want to study the subject you have chosen and convey to the uni why they should choose you and what makes you the right person for the course and the skills you have! Hope this all helps

Reply 6

Trinculo

It's Tinder for universities

Reply 7

catinsomehat

Original post by Amelia76

I don't really get it, can someone please explain it to me. And btw when do you start writing your personal statement, is it in year 12?

You sign up to UCAS and apply to universities through them, they track who's going to different universities. They also offer an easy and more streamlined approach that people need to stick to, this makes things simpler for universities.

The cost for UCAS is £13 for a single choice or £24 for multiple courses (I'd recommend paying for the multiple one if you want to apply to a few, you can always add on other ones for no extra cost up to a maximum of 5), this isn't very expensive but make sure to secure that money now, and you need to have the permission of the card holder if you pay by debit or credit card.

You can apply for up to 5 courses at different universities, if you don't get a place at any you can keep adding them one at a time. If you still don't get a place you can go through Clearing which is contacting universities directly and getting places on courses that haven't been filled up yet. You still need to add them through UCAS though once they've offered you a place over the phone or email, that's a final measure though.

If you want to apply for entry in 2017 then September 2016 would be when applications can be sent in, 15th October is the deadline for Oxford and Cambridge, as well as other courses at other universities in medicine and dentistry. After that you'd need to apply the next year if you want those (Oxford and Cambridge don't offer Clearing or anything like that like other universities do). The reason they stop applications so early for these universities and for those particular courses is that there's usually so many applications and they need to interview each person that they consider offering a place to.

The earlier you send in your application the better chance you have, this is because universities tend to deal with applications in batches (they get so many throughout the year). They say they treat applications the same regardless of when you send it but it doesn't seem to really be true in my opinion, I've read some articles on this too which seem to say the same thing.

15th January 2017 is the deadline for most undergraduate courses at other universities. If you apply after this date you can of course still get into a lot of courses and there's then different deadlines that you need to meet.

Once you're offered a place they'll either give you a conditional offer (you need to still get the grades they're asking for) or an unconditional offer (you already have the grades - i.e. you took a gap year or you did your exams before and you've been working for a while).

You then choose to Firm it (say you definitely want to go there if you get the grades they're asking for, if they're asking for any), you can also do other choices like set it so that if you don't meet the grades of the university you really want to go to then you'll go to another university that's your second choice (as long as you have the grades they're asking for).

Keep in mind that universities can't see other universities that you apply for, they have no idea that you've applied to other ones (they'll assume that you have though unless you say something like wanting to specifically go to that university in your personal statement - don't really recommend this though if you don't end up getting the grades as it might make things a little awkward when you apply to other universities with the same personal statement, you only get one of these).

Anyway, like I said, if you apply after January 2017 you can still get into most courses and I think towards the end of June 2016 would be the absolute final deadline that you can send off applications through UCAS (DON'T wait that long if you can help it). Then you just need to wait for universities to get back to you, if they don't get back to you by their deadlines that means they haven't given you a place but the majority will let you know if you've been unsuccessful way before the deadline. You might want to contact them though if they're taking too long as something may have gone wrong with your application. After that you just need to make sure you get the grades in your exams.

As for the application itself you typically apply in your final year, yeah. Do it as early as possible. Everyone also needs to have a reference, this is usually some teacher at your school you can ask to do it for you, or if you're working you can ask an employer to do it for you. Don't try and write your own because they'll see through it.

For the personal statement it's actually a lot easier to write than you might be thinking, just write out a draft, then think about it a little and write out another, think about it and improve on it by writing another. Keep iterating and you'll have a nice personal statement. Don't write something like "Ever since I can remember I've wanted to do ...", admissions people hate that. You only have a certain amount of time that you can write your personal statement so you need to write it out in a word processor first and then paste it in when you're finally done.
There's lots and lots of good advice on YouTube about this. If you want to apply for Oxford or Cambridge they typically don't look at other things aside grades and if you're head boy or head girl, unless the other activities are directly related to things you're applying for. Other universities do look at other things you do so definitely write about them in your personal statement!

Whatever happens don't worry because there's also something called Clearing where you can apply for courses that have places that haven't been filled yet at universities, there's usually lots left.

I highly recommend going to visit the universities you want to apply to.

Hope that helps :smile: