Application to university - General Information

If you are serious about going to university, you should be serious about researching your course. Think carefully about where your academic skills and interests lie. Be honest with yourself about what you are likely to achieve in terms of AS and A2 grades. Also ask your teachers for their opinion about your potential. This will help you decide which university courses you should consider. In general, the standard advice holds good: apply to two institutions which will require you to achieve grades at the top of your potential, two which will require middling grades, and two with easier offers. Do not discount the newer or less well-known universities; some very good courses are available, provided you investigate carefully.

Use reference books, university prospectuses, the web, open days and any other resources available to you as you continue your research. If you find you have a keen interest in two different disciplines, try to decide between them, or at least make sure you can explain your interests lucidly. (See also advice in FAQ section here.) Otherwise your personal statement may seem "woolly" to the admissions tutors who will read it. Should you have a passion, say, for both computer studies and music, and wish to divide your six possible applications between the two disciplines, I would recommend you to draft a letter of explanation to the admissions tutors of your two preferred university departments. Send this to the tutors separately from the UCAS form. If you can convince the admissions tutor that you happen to be multi-skilled (and not just indecisive!), your diversity of interests may work in your favour.

Note down the university, course and (if relevant) campus codes of your preferred courses as you go along. This will save time later, when you fill in your UCAS form.

If you are at school or college, application forms with UCAS booklets or CDs should be readily available. You can also obtain them direct from UCAS (www.ucas.ac.uk). If you are in full-time secondary education, you should be getting detailed advice about how to complete the form or submit it electronically, but if not, the "how to apply" section at the UCAS website is very clear and can be found here:

http://www.ucas.com/getting/apply04/index.html

Follow the instructions carefully and, using a "dummy" form which you can download from the UCAS website, fill out all the basic required information (name, address, residence code, exam results attained and awaited). It is a good idea to get sections 1-9 completed first, since it is section 10, the personal statement, which normally requires most work.

Check your date of birth. Candidates often insert the current year instead of the year in which they were born.

Residence: as long as you have a permanent address in Britain you should enter 02 for the fee code, even if you have spent time abroad.

Address and contact numbers: if you move, make sure that UCAS and your two preferred universities have your new address. Otherwise they may not be able to contact you and vital documents may go astray.

The personal statement (section 10 of the UCAS form):

Much excellent guidance about how to complete this section of the form is already available in reference books, newspapers and on websites. Yet students do not seem to tire of reading or hearing this information in different forms. What follows is a summary of some of the advice I have given to tutees in the past.

Admissions Tutors will be looking for bright students who have researched course and career options carefully, and who show themselves to be well organised and eager to learn. Keep this in mind when you are preparing your personal statement: the trick is to sound clear, committed and able.

Be as clear as you can about WHY you want to study the course(s) you have chosen. Show that you have taken the trouble to do some proper research, or have at the very least read the prospectuses for your chosen courses carefully. Pick out some aspect of the university curriculum that will fit with both your two favourite courses (i.e., the potential "firm" and "insurance" offers) and say that you particularly look forward to learning more about x and y because you think they are interesting and important (with reasons). At the least that will pick you out from the masses who have merely got a vague idea that Biology (or whatever) might be interesting for three years or so. If you know how you might like to use your qualification when you graduate, and what sort of career or further research in which you might like to get involved, then mention it even if you know it might be very competitive. That will indicate that you are purposeful and have a clear goal.

It is probably a good idea to devote a paragraph to a brief discussion of what you most enjoy about the courses you are studying at the moment. If you are doing A levels or Scottish Highers, try to demonstrate the way in which aspects of the courses you are studying now have led you to apply for the degree you have selected.

The approach outlined above remains relevant if you have a different academic background. If you are a mature student who has completed an Access course, or an overseas student who has been through a different educational system, highlight ways in which you consider that the education you have received has prepared you for university. Be positive about what you have already learned. If you have enjoyed practical work in science, talk up the excellent practical laboratory skills and the particular processes you have learned and enjoyed learning about. Then try to show how what you have learned on your current course has helped you see more clearly what further skills or areas of scientific inquiry you wish to develop at university in the UK.

Perhaps you are a mature student who has faced the discipline of working 9.00 to 5.00, or perhaps you have an unusually varied educational background (for example you may have travelled abroad with parents and been educated in other countries). In such a case, try to think of skills that this experience may have provided, and discuss them. People often feel that any experience which differs from the norm is a handicap, when the reverse is often the case.

In your opening paragraph introduce yourself and make the most of your experience, education and background. As long as you are reasonably confident that you are now in a position to meet the standard offers of your chosen universities, do not allow yourself to become defensive about past setbacks. We could take as an example the case of a student who has travelled overseas with his/her family, perhaps to the detriment of performance at the GCSE stage. If you were a student in this situation, you could point out that although your GCSE results may not be stellar, you have learned a great deal about other cultures and lifestyles, and as a result have broadened your outlook on life. In that way you anticipate criticism and point out a possible advantage.

In your final paragraph, show that you are a well-rounded person by mentioning wider interests beyond the subjects you are studying now. For example, if you are doing science A levels, you might have a genuine interest in reading, archaeology or football; if you are studying the humanities, you might have an awareness of, say, environmental issues, music or I.T. skills. Make a list of all the activities in which you are involved, which are not directly connected to "A" levels. Ask yourself how these activities reflect on you. Music, theatre, sports, debating, Duke of Edinburgh awards, dance, army corps, foreign travel, church or community work: any of these can be used to show that you are a person who has more to offer than a collection of examination grades. Mention any such activities: show what you have learned and outline the skills you have developed. Have you held down a part-time job? Think what skills you've had to develop: reliability, responsibility, and perhaps patience in coping with repetitive tasks, or "people" skills when dealing with difficult customers.

If you have gone through the processes discussed here, you may well find that your draft statement is too long for the space given on the printed UCAS form. Don’t worry, it is better have too much material than too little. Careful editing will force you to consider the content of your statement more rigorously: it will also provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate skill both in your selection of content and the way you sequence your material. You will note that although I have offered some suggestions about content, I have avoided any detailed discussion of structure or format. That is up to you.

Make sure that your statement is accurately written in good formal English. Why should any admissions officer waste time reading a statement from someone who has not bothered to proof read his or her own work thoroughly?

While it is expected that you will accentuate the positive, it is important that you do not make false claims. Admissions tutors are shrewd people who are likely to spot any inconsistencies or statements that do not ring true.

Finally, ask yourself this. If you were interviewed and asked about everything you have said in your personal statement, could you discuss it lucidly? If you can't, you will have no-one to blame but yourself.