The last Off To Uni post I wrote was also about the applying process but was more focused towards writing your personal statement this post will be more generalised and more about the UCAS application as a whole.
There are a few different steps in the application on the UCAS website, most of which are easy to fill out and understand. This is things like all of your personal details, education history and employment history. However, there are a few difficult parts. Education may seem easy but you need to know all of your previous qualifications including your GCSEs and your AS grades, this may seem straightforward and it is if you have all of your certificates to hand with all the awarding bodies as well as your grade. This can time consuming so make sure to give yourself plenty of time to fill this out.
A really important aspect of your application is your choices. You can apply to only one university if you wish or you can apply for the maximum of five, or anything in between. Most of my friends chose to apply to five and a few to only four. The amount you apply for reflects the overall price of your application. For me it cost £23 to apply to five universities. The order in which you put your choices in doesn't matter and won't have an impact on your application.
You then have a section which is completely out of your control, the reference. This is a combination of all your subject teachers references including your form tutor. I was really happy with my reference as my tutor did such a good job of 'selling' me to prospective universities. Its important that you read this before your tutor adds it to your application and if you aren't happy with it make sure to say as at the end of the day its your future.
The final bit is the personal statement which I spoke about in my previous post which you can read here and I wouldn't add this until you have completely finished your application as the form can be quite temperamental.
The final bit is to pay for your application to be sent off. If you are doing this through your sixth form or college this is where they can overlook your application to make sure you haven't made any mistakes and add your reference. Once they approve this they send your application off. It's official, you've actually applied for university!
Before I close this post I thought I should include some important information. Make sure you are aware when you have to submit your application by. Some courses such as medicine have an earlier deadline than the other subjects. Also I personally would always make sure to submit your application before this date if possible anyway. For most subjects you usually have to submit your application by January but some subjects are extremely competitive and applying early gives you the best shot. Also the earlier you apply the earlier you can get your offers and then carry on to make your insurance and firm decisions and it just moves the whole process on quickly.
Hope this post has helped you all especially in the next couple of months when applying to university for a lot of you will become a quick reality. The next post will be all about the process of after applying including receiving your offers and will be up later this week as I'm a bit behind on where I'd like to be with these blog posts so there will be a couple a week for the next couple of weeks. So if you are curious to see my advice on the process after applying for university make sure to come back here on Thursday!
