If you aren’t yet sure which course or universities you want to apply to, see here for our advice on these.
Writing your UCAS Application:
- Register for an ‘Apply’ account with UCAS here. You’ll have to:
- Give some personal details
- Get a username & password
- Give your school/college’s UCAS buzzword (if you’re applying as an independent student, don’t worry about this)
- Set the answers to your security questions (to reset a password)
- Once you’ve registered, you can login to your account & fill in your application (UCAS guide to filling in your application):
- Section 1 - more personal info:
Your residency status, if you have a disability or learning difficulty, funding options, if you have any criminal convictions. N.B. You won’t be at a disadvantage if you declare a disability; the offer rate (82%) is exactly the same for those declaring a disability and those not. - Section 2 - equality monitoring:
You’ll be asked your ethnicity, nationality, parents’/guardians’ education level & jobs, if you’ve ever been in care, etc. These details do not influence your application, they just help to monitor social mobility i.e. who has access to university. - Section 3 - student finance:
UK & EU students can opt to have their details sent to the bodies organising their student loans, to kickstart their loan applications. - Section 4 - course choices:
You can enter up to 5 course/university choices (4 for medicine, veterinary medicine or dentistry). The order you enter them in doesn’t matter (the universities can’t see your other choices). N.B. You can only apply to Oxford or Cambridge, not both. - Section 5 - education history:
List the schools you attended & dates you were there. There are drop-down menus to enter your qualifications (if you’re in year 13 & haven’t got your A level results yet you still need to enter the courses you’re taking, list the result as ‘pending’). Overseas qualifications should be listed or can be entered manually.
Any extra-curricular qualifications you have e.g. DofE awards, dance, music & drama exams, even some horse-riding awards can count towards extra UCAS points! - Section 6 - employment history:
If you’ve had full- or part-time jobs you can add up to 5 here, along with dates of employment, company names & addresses. Any work experience or volunteering belongs on your personal statement. - Section 7 - personal statement:
This is your chance to explain in 4,000 characters why you’re interested in this particular subject & why you’re good at it. You can find tips on writing a personal statement here.
- Section 1 - more personal info:
- Check your application: you can ask family & teachers to help too. Make sure you save it, mark all sections as complete, then read & agree to the declaration (this allows UCAS to process your info & pass it on to the universities you’re applying to, so it’s important!).
- References: If you attend a school or college, your application will (thanks to the buzzword you entered at the start!) first be sent there, for them to add your academic reference. If you’re applying independently, you’ll need to find an academic or professional referee to write one for you.
School referees will write about your studies, ambitions and your current predicted grades. - Pay: you’ll be asked to pay the UCAS application fee; this is £20 if applying to 1 course, or £26 in total to apply for 2-5 courses.
If you’re applying via school/college, they will either ask you to pay them (to pass on to UCAS), or they will ask you to pay UCAS directly, before they add your reference & send your application on for you.
Independent candidates will be asked to pay after you’ve added your reference and, along with some school applicants, pay UCAS directly via direct debit online. - Send: independent applicants can now submit your application; if you’re applying via school/college they will do this on your behalf.
What happens next?
After a few weeks or months, you should hear back from the universities you applied to. They may reply with:
- An unconditional offer - regardless of your exam results, you’re in!
- A conditional offer - you’re in, as long as you get certain grades!
- An invitation to interview - Oxbridge, some other universities & many medicine courses interview candidates before making offers.
We offer info on disabled-access at interview here. - A rejection - unfortunately you didn’t get in - don’t worry, you have 4 other universities & clearing to find a place.
Making Your Decision
Once you’ve heard back from everyone, you have to pick which offer is your ‘firm’ (i.e. 1st choice) & which is your ‘insurance’ (2nd choice).
It’s wise to pick an insurance with an offer which is lower than your firm choice offer & your predicted grades, so you can fall back on it if exams don’t go your way. After making your decision, it’s time to put in the work & wait for results day! You can see potential results-day outcomes below.
Timeline of Applying - Key Dates
Find these on the UCAS website here.
| Date | Significance |
|---|---|
| September | Applications open |
| 15th October | Early deadline (Oxbridge & most medicine/ veterinary medicine/dentistry courses). |
| 15th January | General deadline for submitting applications. |
| Late Feb - 5th July | UCAS extra: if you are rejected by your unis you can apply for other places (like pre-results clearing). |
| 31st March | Informal deadline for decisions (unis should get back to you by 31/3, if you applied before 15/1).
If you’ve heard back from all of your choices, you must pick a firm & insurance choice by 5th May. |
| 6th July | Formal deadline for decisions (unis must answer you by this date, if you applied before 15/1).
You have until 3rd July to pick a firm & insurance choice. |
| 6th July (open until 20th Oct) | Clearing: if you had no offers, applied late or missed your offer on results day, you can still find a place via clearing. |
| August | Exam results. |
Potential outcomes after applying
- Meet your firm offer: your place is confirmed!
- Miss your firm but make your insurance offer: your place at your insurance university choice is confirmed!
- Miss both offers: you can still find a place via clearing. You can also look into re-sitting the exams, or appealing your grades (this usually carries a fee).
- Exceed both offers: adjustment lets you try for a place at a more competitive uni, without risking your firm-choice place.
Personal Statement advice
Some basic tips are:
- Show, don’t tell - don’t just say ‘I’m interested’, discuss why, mention books/articles you’ve read or films you’ve watched & engage with them: why you agree/disagree with what they say?
- Mention any relevant work experience, volunteering & skills you’ve gained from your extra-curricular activities.
- If you’re applying for a very competitive university like Oxbridge, focus on academics rather than extra-curricular interests. They like what are called ‘super-curriculars’ - things you’ve done in your spare time that show interest in your subject, e.g. reading around your subject (beyond the A level syllabus), joining a society/club related to your subject.
- Be honest! Plagiarism software is used to check personal statements sent via UCAS so if you copy one off the internet (even if you make minor changes) they will know & will inform the universities you’ve applied to!
- If you’re applying for a course you’ve never studied before, give evidence that you have explored the subject & are seriously interested in it, rather than randomly picking it. You could read books, find a summer school offering tasters, start learning the new language you’ve applied to or for law, go & sit in court!
- Be yourself! As well as being cheesy, this is actually really important - universities read thousands of personal statements so the best way to stand out & make them interested in you is to be your unique self. They’ll see who you are, whether you’re a good fit for them, and if their course is a good fit for you!
- Pitch it right: this is a formal application, and you want to impress them, so try to avoid slang. That said, you don’t have to use a thesaurus and write in an unnaturally fancy way; using your honest voice is what will make you seem genuine and impressive.
- Check what you’ve written: avoiding spelling mistakes or typos will show the universities that you’ve taken time and care with your application. Also be aware that the UCAS algorithm often misreads accented letters and changes them to symbols, so you may have to drop accents in your text (@ language applicants!).
Support with your UCAS application
If you are in school or college you will probably be guided through the process with the help of your tutor & teacher(s).
UCAS advises independent candidates (anyone not in school or college) regarding predicted grades & references here.
You can find ‘official’ advice online from UCAS, the Complete University Guide, Which? and on some universities’ own websites. There’s also ‘unofficial’ advice on youtube, sites like The Student Room and you can find sample personal statements by searching.
Support and Mentoring
There are organisations offering free help to applicants, guiding you through the university application process:
| Organisation | Which Universities? | What do they offer? | Eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Access | Cambridge, UCL, Oxford, Durham, LSE, Warwick | Mentoring | Nominated by your school or meet 2+ criteria: State-school, your household earns <£42,000, been in care, had free school meals, 1st to go to uni in your family, from an area where few people go on to uni. |
| Zero Gravity | Cambridge, Oxford & Russell Group unis | Mentoring | State-school pupils in year 12 or 13 who averaged 7+ in their GCSEs. |
| Inside Uni | Oxford & Cambridge | Online info on applying | Anyone |
Why not check out Head Up!'s mentoring scheme? If you have a disability, physical or mental health condition, learning difficulty or a neurodiverse condition like ASD, we want to help with mentoring that covers both the educational/academic and non-academic challenges you might face, offering practical advice and support.
UCAS outline of researching & completing your application:
Plain text version:
Start your journey to a winning personal statement:
- Choose the subject you’d like to study.
- Review entry requirements - Look carefully at the information on the entry requirements tab in the search tool and on the universities’ and colleges’ websites and ensure you have the qualities they’re looking for. UCAS search tool goes live in May for the following year’s entry.
- Attend events - Go to a convention or university open day to ask admission tutors what they want to see on the personal statement; record ideas discussed. Conventions run Mar-July (Aug-Sept in Scotland) Outside of the UK, events are hosted by the British Council Education UK.
- Make a list - Make a list of what the universities and colleges are looking for in a personal statement.
- Write a draft - Write a first draft, refer back to the research you did about what to include.
- Check - show it to your parents, teacher or careers adviser and ask them to check it for you.
- Make changes - make changes to your statement and check your grammar and spelling. Check the length is no more than 4000 characters or 47 lines of text (including blank lines).
- Check again - Show your re-drafted statement to your parents, teacher or careers advisor as a final check.
- Deadline - Cut and paste your final statement into Apply by the right deadline.
- Don’t forget - Re-read it before you go for an interview - it may form the basis for questions.
Now relax!