Surviving the UCAS process
Finishing year 12/ starting year 13, half way through A levels, and now you have to start applying for uni. It is stressful. It does get you worried, but it’s okay once it’s over.
UCAS process
Make an account
Produce application
Send off internally
Send to UCAS
Send to uni
Interview (Maybe)
Acceptances
Choose your uni
Overall tips
Get it done quickly- Get your application done as soon as possible. When I did mine, it had to be sent back twice, meaning it was at the back of the queue and it took ages to be sent to UCAS. This stressed me out so much, so if possible, submit it to your school as soon as possible.
Add qualifications you haven’t got yet- As I said, some of mine were sent back, and that was because I only put in the qualifications I had already attained. Make sure you add in the subjects you’re doing now, with the date you’ll finish them, and just don’t put a grade in the box. We were never told that and it wasted a lot of time for me.
Use your teachers- Your form tutor, and all your subject teachers will be writing you a reference, so talk to them. If you’re planning on doing one of their subjects, tell them, and ask them to say something about how interested you are in the subject. Even if you don’t seem it, most teachers will exaggerate to help you with this. They want you to get into uni.
Negotiate your predicted grades- If you need your predicted grades higher than what you’re being given, go ask them to increase it. Show your teachers evidence that you deserve a better predicted grade, and I’m sure they will do something to help.
Ask for help- If there is anything you don’t understand, ask someone. The staff at your school have probably done this every year for a long time, so they know more than you.
Trust your school- I know when others from different schools have got 4 offers and an interview, and yours hasn’t even gone off to UCAS, you begin to feel as though your school are messing up, but chances are, they know what they’re doing. As I said before, they’re fine, so don’t worry. If they’re taking their time, don’t worry, but also trust them to tell them when they’re doing something wrong. Tell them if they’ve screwed up and trust them to fix it.
Stress out- I can sit here and tell you to relax, calm down, chill out. It doesn’t work. I can tell you to stop refreshing that UCAS application page every day until it gets sent through, only to do the same with UCAS track. It doesn’t work. If you want to look at it every day, go ahead. If you need to have your moments of panic, that’s okay too. Just remember, everyone else is stressed out too. It’s normal, and it’s okay. You don’t have to hide it because others tell you it’s not such a big deal
Personal statements
They don’t matter all that much. You’re going to spend up to 2 months stressing about what to write, how to write it, looking at a thesaurus more in that short time than ever in your life. And then you realise it wasn’t that important. But, you will write it a hundred times, cry at 3am, and you will stress, so here are some tips to make it a little easier for you.
Overwrite- When you do a personal statement, you have a character count, and a line count. (I can’t remember the character count, but I think it’s 47 lines long) Everyone always wants to know if it’s best to write a minimum and fluff it up, or overwrite and take out later. It’s definitely better to overwrite and take out later. If you get everything you want to say, professional and precise, and then you have to start adding words, it’s awful. It’s much better to write loads then take out the irrelevant stuff.
The golden ratio- I’ve seen loads of people talk about the ratio of academics to extra curricular detail, and it’s often 60:40, so there is a slight majority focused on academics. From what I’ve found, this isn’t that important. In my personal statement, I had about 1 or 2 sentences about hobbies and stuff, and I got into all 5 choices for uni.
Talking about extracurricular- Be concise and specific. I focused on talking about my work experience, in terms of how it will help my degree, and I talked about specific books/films/documentaries that I read that also would link to my degree.
Talking about hobbies- Don’t go into detail. They don’t really care what your hobbies, and so no matter what you say, or how little you say, will be more than enough. If you do talk about hobbies, explain what they do to enhance your life (E.g football has made me a team player/ E.g cooking has given me a chance to be independent/ E.g singing has helped to increase my confidence around others) As long as you put something, it’s good enough.
‘Over-exaggerate’ your achievements- When I say over-exaggerate, I wouldn’t say lie. Don’t say that you got an award in XYZ if you didn’t. First of all, I just don’t like lying, but even if you’re okay with that, you never know when they’ll catch you out. Instead, talk about things that you have done, and just really sell them as important. For example, talk about how you recently (in year 9) played 10 netball matches for your school. Talk about how you tutored some younger students in their GCSEs, whilst doing your AS. (No one needs to know that it was your little sister and her mates) As long as you can back it up, with truth and evidence, you can add it in.
It’s yours. No one else’s- As you see it, it is a personal statement. You should have it how you want it, allowing it to represent you in the way you want it to. If your angle is your love for learning, talk about it. If you want to write, showing what a good personality you are, go for it. Your teachers will give you advice and adjustments. Take them into mind, but remember, they have one structure; who’s to say it’s the only right one? I didn’t take all the advice given, and I was fine. So yes, if something is factually incorrect, or misspelled, take advice, but don’t change everything that makes it personal.
Predicted grades
What are they?- These are the grades sent by your school to the university, telling them what they expect you to get. From my experience, they are usually higher that what you’re actually predicted. A lot of my subjects sent my ‘predicted grade’ at least one grade higher than what they’d put as my predicted grade on my reports. These help the unis to see which students are the most likely to meet the entry requirements.
They are very important- I really think they might be the most important factor in determining whether you get accepted into in or not. Of course, your personal statement is important too, but a great set of grades will always speak louder than a good personal statement. Therefore, look at your grades. If most of your hope is on your personal statement, I would think again. I was predicted A*AAB and so I got into all my unis despite very little extracurricular or work experience. They are more important than actual grades. The uni wants your money, so as long as you get accepted, I think you’re 90% there. They’re likely to accept you if you miss out on a grade or so in your real exams as you’re already there and they’re already getting their money.
Get them as high as possible- As I said, predicted grades are very important, so whatever you do, get them high. This can be done in so many ways. Maybe you can negotiate them, maybe you can’t. I already talked about negotiating grades above, so I’ll focus on other ways. My predicted grades were calculated heavily based on how well I did in my trial exams in January, so I knew, more than anything, I had to take these seriously. If your other grades are high, that helps too, but I knew that these were as important as my real exams, so I pushed myself. If you can do that, give your everything for these mocks, you will be rewarded.
Use them as a guide- When you’re applying to uni, you need to know your limits. For example, if you know your predicted grades are CCC, you shouldn’t look at unis with AAB, because that’s highly unlikely to work out. Make sure you therefore can use your predicted grades for this Therefore, if you can, find out what they will be as soon as possible. I was sure mine would be all Bs, so I applied to some unis, and then I found out last minute they were so much higher and I had to change my choices the day before sending off my application. Stressful
They are only a rough guide- While you take them into a guide of what uni you should apply to, don’t stick to it completely. Try a uni with slightly higher grades, and definitely go for lower unis if that’s what you want. My advice was to always choose 3 unis that want your grades, 1 uni a bit higher, and 1 uni a bit lower. That way, you can always aspire for higher but also have something to rely on if you don’t end up doing as well as you’d hoped.
Interviews
Clothes- Your clothes aren’t that important. People always stress out about what they will wear, but honestly, it’s not that important. If you’re dressed moderately smart and neatly, probably what you would wear to sixth form, you’ll be fine. Avoid joggers and hoodies, and I wouldn’t go for anything that looks too ‘clubwear’ but other than that, don’t worry. Most people I know go to interviews in the same clothes they would wear for an open day, so don’t worry.
Subject knowledge- Go with knowledge. Make sure you have enough to show that you are interested in the subject. Ensure you know a few basics on the course, and also what’s on your course. Look through the course spec and pick something that you’re really interested in doing so you can talk about it. For example, doing genetics, you could talk about how you’re looking forward to epigenetics and stuff like that. However, my sister was never really asked about anything. She was more asked why she wanted to do the subject and why she picked a specific uni.
You don’t have to be a genius- So many people read up on everything possible in their subject, but that’s not needed. As long as you show you’re interested and you have some basic knowledge, that’s fine. My teacher had an interview for Oxford (Maybe Cambridge) and they asked him a question, which he had know idea on. He simply answered ‘I don’t know. How?’ From that, he got a whole explanation for an hour; showed off his interest, and consequently was given an offer for uni. So don’t worry if you’re not an expert in the subject, just go, do your best, and ask questions.
Personality- This is going to be important. The university already know how smart and intellectual you are, and they already like you. Now they want to see that you’d be a good fit in their school. They want you to show them how much of an asset you as a person will be. So be yourself, but put your best self forward. Don’t be too formal, relax, and be confident.
Offers
Conditional offers- These are (like in the name) offers given to you on the condition that you achieve a certain grade. Now these can often be negotiated. Mine got moved from AAB to BBB just for putting it as my firm choice. Also, as I already said, they care more about your 9 grand than they care about you (as much as they try to deny it) and so even then, these conditional offers may not be so fixed.
Unconditional offers- These are basically where you get the offer no matter what. Sometimes they will say that you only get an unconditional offer if you accept it as a firm choice. This is such a benefit and while you’re doing your exams, you will wish for this. However, if you’ve got an unconditional, don’t let it ruin your motivation. You still need your grades.
Accepting offers- Don’t rush into it. I accepted my offers the day I got my last one, but a lot of people waited. One of my friends waited so long, their first choice uni changed her offer from a conditional to an unconditional. Take your time, really think about it. You will spend 3, 4, maybe more years there, so don’t pick somewhere you’re not really interested in. Also, don’t accept an offer just because it’s unconditional. Make sure you want to go there before anything else.
It’s YOUR choice- Don’t reject an offer because others say it’s not the best. I was told not to accept my offer as I had offers from much ore high status unis, but I knew which one was for me, and if you get like that for a specific uni, stick to it. Trust me. Pick the university you think is best for you. If others complain it’s too far away, or it’s not high up enough on league tables, forget them. This is your choice, and your future; not theirs. (If you don’t like a uni because it’s too far away or low in league tables, that’s fine too, as long as it’s your choice)
Getting rejected- I didn’t get any rejections, but I know how hard that can be. Don’t worry. There will be other unis/ Just apply again, go through extra. Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe you don’t really want uni. Maybe you needed those rejections to show you that. Or maybe you’ll see how much harder you need to work. Either way, everything will turn out okay.
What now? Focus on meeting the requirements of your course. Work as hard as you can, getting ready for it. Smash your exams, and take a well earned break. By that time, you’ll be in my position; writing your own UCAS survival guides, waiting for your results. And in that time, I wish you all the best of luck!
Thank you for reading, I hope it’s helped! If you have any questions about UCAS, unis, or anything like that, let me know. Send me an ask, or a private message and I’ll definitely get back to you! Good luck with everything and remember; it will be okay. It always does. Let me know how your applications go!
Disclaimer: I didn’t have any interviews so all my interview advice comes from my school to our class, not my personal experiences. Psychology very rarely does interviews, but for other subjects you may not get this escape. Also, I never applied for Oxbridge universities, so some things may be a little different.
