University

UCAS: A Walkthrough

What is the UCAS?

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is the universal portal for applications to British universities. This article will focus solely on undergraduate applications. Applying to the UK means applying to a specific course.

You use the UCAS if you plan to enter a British university either in the fall of the next year, or for deferred entry of up to 1 year. If you want a longer deferment, you have to write in personally to universities. You can usually start UCAS in early September of the year before the one you plan to enrol. In other words, if you want to apply for 2018 entry/deferment to 2019 entry, you start your application in September 2017. However, note that not all British universities will accept deferred entry requests so check the university website for their rules and regulations regarding this.

How long will the application process take?

  • Start thinking about your personal statement months in advance.
  • For the application form, expect to take 1 – 2 weeks to complete it, as some parts of your application can be quite tedious, such as visa details and submitting your secondary school grades.
  • Visit the websites of the universities you’re applying to, to find out if you need any pre-interview assessments done. It is crucial to complete these assessments, and universities don’t usually start reviewing your application until you’ve completed them.
    • Examples of these are the LNAT and the BMAT. Universities such as Oxford also generally require applicants to take entrance exams for most of their other courses; for instance, the ELAT for English Literature applicants, or the TSA for Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) applicants.
  • Make sure you fulfil the subject requirements for the course you’re applying for. If you don’t, then sorry, but time to pull out your back-up / alternative plan and apply for that instead.

What documents will I need when applying via UCAS?

  • A reference – usually a teacher recommendation letter. You will need to seek out teachers yourself and request them to write you a reference for UCAS. Only one is required. It is good to inform your referee a lot in advance, as referees who are already inundated with reference requests may either refuse to do so or write a really hasty piece of work.
    • If you are applying via the school, teachers will upload their references through an “advisor” portal.
    • If you are applying as an individual, your referee will be sent a link to upload the reference.
  • Predicted grades. You need to be studying at a level (e.g. JC2) where you are eligible for grade prediction, or have already received your grades. It is unlikely that you will get to know these predicated grades, as the school usually keeps them confidential and submits them directly. You don’t really have to worry about predicted grades, as the school will take care of them.
  • Transcripts of your results. This includes results from Sec 3 – JC2, plus your GCE ‘O’ Level certificate. These transcripts are not always necessary, but it is good to have them on hand. Some schools, like Cambridge, require certain applicants to submit transcripts. If you’re unsure which transcripts are needed, just submit as much information as you can, so that application officers can see your merits and make an informed decision.

What are some important deadlines to take note of, for 2018 entry?

**Dates are all by 6pm, UK time.

The timeline for UK applications are pretty clear and much more standardised in comparison to that of colleges in the US (for US applicants, view the deadlines here). All UK applications are done via UCAS, and you can find the guide for 2018 entry here.

  • 20 September 2017: Deadline for Cambridge applicants who want to be interviewed in Singapore, China or Malaysia.
  • 15 October 2017 (Early deadline): Deadline for Oxbridge applicants who want to be interviewed in Oxbridge or Hong Kong, as well as medicine, dentistry and veterinary sciences applicants.
    • 15 October is commonly known as the Early deadline. These courses usually require an interview so universities need more time to process applications. You must submit the UCAS online form and register for Oxbridge admission tests by this date.
    • Oxbridge usually have supplementary forms to fill in so keep a lookout for them. They are usually due a few days after the Early UCAS deadline.
  • 15 January 2018 (Regular deadline): Deadline for applicants who are NOT applying for Oxbridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary science.
    • 15 January is taken as the deadline for regular entry.
    • Some applicants who are applying for certain art and design courses do not have to adhere to the 15 January deadline, and can instead enjoy a later deadline of 24 March. It is important to check the university’s admissions page to find out the appropriate deadline to follow.
  • 24 March 2018: Deadline for some art and design courses.
  • 30 June 2018 (Clearing): Applications submitted after this date will be entered into Clearing. This is a deadline for international applicants. Don’t be fooled into using this later deadline as not all universities open themselves up to Clearing and you will only have access to “leftover” places should you do Clearing.

REMINDER: Don’t submit your application on the very last day as there is likely to be a lot of traffic on the site and should you submit your application late because the site broke down, universities are not obligated to accept your applications. In addition, if you are applying to the school, the school has to upload your predicted scores and referee letters after you have submitted your application form, and only then will your application be formally submitted. It is good to leave some time for that as well.

What’s the application procedure via UCAS?

Registration

  • To register, click on the red icon on the top right corner labelled “register”. Please check that when you are applying, the year of entry on the application form is the one that you plan to enrol in, with deferment notwithstanding. For instance, if you’re sitting for the November 2017 IB exams, you should submit the application for 2018 entry, unless you plan on taking a gap year (in which case you should select the “deferred 2019 entry” option).
    • It is important to note that if you plan to defer, it is good to have a plan of activities you hope to engage in during the gap year, as some schools do inquire about your gap year plans.
    • If you are in your second last year of schooling (i.e. J1), do not attempt the application form in hope of using the “deferred 2019 entry”, as you wouldn’t have the necessary grades to submit a proper application in the first place. As a new UCAS cycle begins, old applications will be deleted; thus, do not pre-complete an application if you do not plan to apply in the current cycle. You can only apply once in each cycle.
  • There are two paths by which you can apply: (1) school / organisation or (2) individual.
    • If you apply through the school or any other organisation, you will be given a buzzword, and necessary documents such as referee letters and grades will be uploaded by the school.
    • If you apply as an individual, you will have to submit the details of referees, who will later be approached by UCAS to submit their letters.
  • Upon registration, you will be given a UCAS number. I suggest that you memorise this number as you will be using it throughout your entire application process and when in communication with the university with regards to your application.

Completing the Application Form

  • The application form is relatively easy to complete, as UCAS provides a lot of guidance. Look out for the UCAS question mark symbol beside each blank, as it contains explanations and options that you can use as guidance to fill up the blank.
    • Often, students encounter problems when attempting to answer questions (e.g. “When do you plan on arriving in the UK?”). Clicking the question mark symbol will let you know that you are just expected to make a rough estimate, and not provide actual dates. Usually, these nitty gritty details are just useful for schools to determine your fee status (home, EU or overseas) and the type of visa that you will be getting (usually Tier 4).
  • The most important part of the application is probably choosing the universities. You can choose 5 options (or 4 if you’re applying for Veterinary Science, Medicine or Dentistry). One of these options can be either Oxford or Cambridge, but not both. You can apply to different courses, but the next section will discuss the cons of doing that.

Personal Statement

  • Arguably one of the most important parts of your UCAS application, the personal statement can distinguish you from thousands of applications with the same credentials that you have. However, you can only submit one personal statement. This means that your personal statement must suit all the choices that you’ve applied for, without being too vague. Thus, you are recommended to apply to either the same courses, or very similar courses such that your personal statement can be used for all these choices.
  • The personal statement is 4000 characters or 47 lines, whichever is shorter. This limit includes punctuation and spaces, so do take note when drafting your personal statement. Try to adhere as closely to the limit as possible, as a statement too short could signal a lack of depth and breadth in the personal statement. To know your character count accurately, you can copy and paste your statement into the UCAS personal statement form (one of the last sections of the form). However, do not write your personal statement in the box itself; always have a copy somewhere else. UCAS usually deletes anything that is past its character/line limit so you might end up losing part of your personal statement.
  • You can include paragraph breaks while drafting it, but you should remove them (along with any indentation) when filling in your application, as these will affect the word count.
  • You can only write in English (unless you want to do the entire application in Welsh).
  • Upon completing your personal statement, please do not post your personal statement on other websites that can be viewed by the public (eg. The Student Room). This can count as plagiarism against you and not only will your statement be ignored, but you may face other serious consequences! Plus, you’ll likely have to rewrite the entire thing!
  • There will be a separate article on writing a good personal statement. We’ll put a link here once it’s up.

Submitting Your Application

  • There is a fee of £13 if you are applying for just one choice, or £24 if you are applying for multiple choices.. Payment is done online. Upon successful payment, your application will be submitted.
  • Most universities send out acknowledgement emails, although this practice is not compulsory and thus, do not fret if you have not received such emails. Upon submission, you can start using UCAS Track, a service that will update you whenever a decision has been reached.
  • If you want to make changes such as swapping choices and adding more choices, you can do it within 7 days via UCAS Track, or up to 14 days via UCAS’ call centre.
    • UK: 0371 468 0 468
    • International: +44 330 3330 230
  • Note that you can get a refund if you cancel your application within 14 days. Just call UCAS. After submission, everything should be done either on UCAS Track or through their call center.

Offers

  • There are two kinds of offers that you can receive: (1) conditional and (2) unconditional.
    • Conditional offers (the typical one most applicants receive) set out a grade requirement that you must achieve in order to be admitted to the school. For IB students, this usually includes a requirement for your overall grades and your HL subjects (e.g. 39 points overall, with 776 for HL subjects). These offers are usually for students who have not received their actual grades (which will mostly be the case for those applying before IB results even come out, e.g. those not doing NS or taking a gap year). Sometimes, schools give conditional offers even after you have attained the necessary grades. This could be out of the school’s habit to only give conditional offers. Just contact the school to clarify the offer.
    • Unconditional offers are usually given to students who have achieved the necessary grades, or under special circumstances where the student has spectacular predicted grades and the school wants to encourage the student to attend the school. One university that does this is the University of Birmingham, although these offers are usually part of a scheme specific to UK students, and not all applicants.
  • Students accept offers through UCAS Track, by a stipulated deadline.
    • For conditional offers, two choices can be made: a “firmly accepted” choice and an “insurance” choice. If you do not meet the conditions of the offer given by your “firmly accepted” choice but meet the conditions of your “insurance” choice, you will be admitted to your insurance school.
    • For unconditional offers, you only have one choice, which will definitely accept you as there is no condition attached to it.
  • When you are making a “firmly accepted” and “insurance choice”, you automatically reject all other offers. If you want to make changes or switch your firm and insurance choices, you have to contact the university. For all other changes such as changing courses, you have to contact the university.

UCAS Track, Extra and Clearing

Please note that adding more choices in UCAS Track is different from using UCAS Extra.

If you haven’t used your maximum number of choices yet, you can add more in UCAS Track if it’s before 30 June and you’ve yet to accept or decline any offers. UCAS Track may come with a small fee.

Meanwhile, UCAS Extra is a free admissions service that allows applicants to add another choice if they have used up their maximum number of choices and are not holding any offers. This could mean that none of their choices have given them offers, or they do not want to attend any of the universities that have offered them (and thus are willing to reject all offers to choose something else). In UCAS Extra, you usually apply for a different course, and you can apply to as many schools and courses as you want, but only one at a time.

  • Using the UCAS search tool, you can find schools which exercise UCAS Extra. If you are interested in doing UCAS Extra for a particular school, contact the school to make sure that they are indeed considering UCAS Extra applicants.
  • Then, submit a UCAS Extra application. You may want or need to send a personal statement to the school.
  • After 21 days, you can choose to either continue waiting for the university’s decision or replace it with another school. This process can continue until 4 July.
  • To know if you are eligible for UCAS Extra, you can log into UCAS Track. You are eligible if there is an option of “add an extra choice”.
  • UCAS Extra lasts from 25 February to 4 July. If you still haven’t received an offer by 4 July, the next step is Clearing.

Clearing is the final admissions scheme for the UCAS cycle. Clearing is a way for universities to fill up any available vacancies they have, and it begins after 30 June until September. This is scheme is used by students who have not been offered a place in university, who have missed their offers or who have not applied by the stipulated UCAS deadline and want to apply after 30 June.

  • Read the Clearing list to see which university and course interests you.
  • Talk to the university over the phone (informal offers are usually given this way).
  • Add a choice in Clearing after you have an informal offer, and fill in the details as communicated to you via phone.
  • You can also sign up for the Direct Contact Service, which allows universities with vacancies that could suit you to contact you.
  • You are allowed to add another choice if your university doesn’t confirm your place.

UCAS Adjustment

If you have done better than you have expected and would like to “upgrade” your “firmly accepted” choice (which has confirmed your place), you can consider using Adjustment. With Adjustment, you can try for more competitive universities and courses without jeopardising your confirmed choice.

  • Sign up for Adjustment.
  • Talk to universities about possible choices. If you like what you have been offered, you can verbally agree to the offer, and to one offer only. Note that you should verbally agree only if you are absolutely sure you want it.
  • Once you have verbally agreed to take up a certain choice, Track information will change.
  • This is a very discreet process; do not mention to your “firmly accepted” choice that you tried using Adjustment. If you do so, they might revoke their offer. Otherwise, Adjustment information will be deleted after Adjustment ends.
  • Adjustment begins on the British A-level results day, or the day your conditional offer changes to unconditional “firmly accepted” (whichever is later). It ends 31 August. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you will have such a long time to do Adjustment. You only have five 24 hour periods (including weekends) within this time to use it.

How will SJI assist me in the application process?

  1. Bring your transcripts for Ms Joanna Tan (or whoever’s in charge) to scan! The school will tell you when to submit these.
  2. You’ll have to register for a UCAS account using the school’s buzzword (you’ll be applying not as an independent candidate, but through the school). There should be a Level Meeting session where you’ll be brief on UCAS, made to register, and be given this buzzword. Note your personal ID down and remember your password. Fill in all the sections (personal details, course choice, full education history, employment history) honestly and thoroughly. If you don’t know what to put for certain sections, ask the teacher(s)-in-charge of UK applications.
  3. It is your responsibility to email your form tutor, informing him or her of your intention to apply to the UK. State whether or not you’re applying via Early or Regular. This way, they’ll be able to set a deadline for themselves. You need to “chase” them and inquire if it’s completed. Do this politely, of course.
  4. It is your responsibility to write your Personal Statement. I recommend finding a tutor to go through it with you. It is likely that the teacher(s)-in-charge of UK applications (i.e. Mr Karam in my year) will have the time to provide feedback for all applicants in the level (they’re busy people!), so consider approaching a subject teacher instead (e.g. your Literature or History tutor) for comments. Ask nicely, and in advance. They are not obliged to help you, and it’d be irresponsible and not nice of you to pester them last-minute.
  5. Expect to revise your Personal Statement several times. I went through maybe 5 drafts with my tutor. Drafts #1 and #2 saw significant restructuring and general changes (and I was over the character the limit by 50% and didn’t know what to get rid of! So I needed fresh perspective to objectively tell me what to cut down on), whereas Drafts #3 through #5 were really just fine-tuning. My tutor left comments throughout. Google Docs was my best friend. Try to start requesting feedback two weeks before the deadline for submissions.
  6. Speaking of submission deadlines, the school will likely have internal deadlines to ensure that they have time to review your UCAS application as a whole, request for you to make changes where necessary, and upload reference letters. When I applied, the Early deadline was 15 October, but the school’s was 1 October.
  7. Once you’ve filled in all the administrative details in your UCAS application, and are done with your Personal Statement, you should email your teacher(s)-in-charge the final draft of your Personal Statement and get the green light from them to upload it onto UCAS. If they spot anything direly problematic that your subject tutor might have missed, they’ll let you know. If they tell you to just upload it without reading it, don’t worry; this just means they will check it after you upload it. See, after you upload your Personal Statement to UCAS, you’ll have to submit the application (which includes making a payment, so get your credit card out), but this application won’t immediately go to UCAS! It will go to the school. The school will then review your UCAS application as a whole (as I mentioned earlier), meaning that they’ll check to make sure you provided all the necessary details (e.g. I hadn’t realised I needed to declare my ‘O’ level results, so Mr Karam sent me an email asking me to) and check to make sure your Personal Statement is fine. If there are issues, they’ll “reopen” your access to your application so that you can make the necessary changes. This is why they set an earlier deadline! Buffer period! Once they decide that everything is in order, they’ll upload your reference letter and transcripts, and send the application to UCAS! DONE!
  8. You have to sign up for any necessary pre-interview assessments on your own, by the deadline. The main centres that administer these tests are the British Council and RELC (going here for admissions tests might be cheaper than going to the British Council).
  9. If your university or course requires the submission of written work or a portfolio (e.g. Oxford requires Written Work submissions for certain subjects), it is likely that you’ll need to fill in a cover sheet, which will require your subject tutor’s filling in of a portion of the form, and the school stamp. The university you apply to will likely send you a separate email after they’ve received your UCAS application, with information on how and where to submit the written work. Don’t worry too much about this when you’re filling in the UCAS apps; you’ll get more information in an email from your college.

Did we miss anything out? Are you confused about anything? Is there any other article you’re hoping to see posted? Contact us here, anonymously or not. We’ll do our best to respond or meet your request!

Other Resources

  • The Student Room is a really good online platform that’s super helpful re: university research and UCAS. When creating an account, do not use your real name, as it is extremely troublesome to change your username. On TSR, you can meet other applicants as well as current university students, who can help clarify your queries! Beware though, it is the “Facebook of Applicants” and can be highly addictive. If you’re into that, I mean.
  • A guide uploaded by UCAS is available here.
  • Click here for information on making changes to your application.
  • For our calendar overview of key dates, click here.

This article is written by Mario*, from the Class of ’16, who is undergoing her undergraduate studies in the UK right now.

*pseudonym

[Last updated: 21 February 2018]

Published by ASOG&W

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