Applying to University
A guide to the
process for parents
What is it?
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University and College Admissions Service
•Students
•Parents
•Advisers
•HE staff
•About us
It is a charitable organisation which manages applications to UK higher
education courses in N. Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.
The Process
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The student registers with UCAS. This is
done on-line at www.ucas.com
The student will then receive an Applicant
welcome booklet which explains the rest of
the UCAS process as well as a personal ID
number.
You too can access the parents’ pages at
www.ucas.com where there is information
and assistance should you need it!
Part 1-Personal Details
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personal information (name, address etc)
contact details (telephone, email address)
student support (finance arrangements)
criminal convictions
disabilities/ special needs
occupational background of highest
household earner
Part 2- Course choices
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Students are allowed to make up to a
maximum of five course choices.
I normally suggest four to allow for a ‘change
of mind’ later.
Additional course choices up to the quota
can be made after submission of the
application.
There is no order of priority required as the
choices will be printed alphabetically.
Points to note re choices
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Students applying to Oxbridge can only apply
to one of the institutions, either Cambridge or
Oxford.
Students applying for medicine can only
apply for four medical schools.
Some institutions require additional
entrance tests for their courses;
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UKCAT or BMAT for medicine, dentistry, veterinary
science / medicine.
HPAT for allied health professions (physiotherapy,
radiography,podiatry, optometry, speech and
language therapy etc.
LNAT for Law
STEP for Mathematics
Critical Thinking Skills
Students are encouraged to practise for these tests.
Sample papers are available on-line or in the careers
suite.
Part 3 - Education
Students provide the results, dates and the examining
board of all public examinations under taken or to be
taken.
 GCSE
 GCE AS level
 GCE A2
 BTEC level 3
 Additional recognised awards such as music (theory
/practical), speech and drama, COPE etc.
Education – Grades and Re-sits
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All students must record their AS grades on their
application form even if they are re-sitting a module
in January. However, a student can decide whether
to add in the results of each module or not. I discuss
this with the student as sometimes there are
advantages in not doing this!
Sometimes the institutions contact us for
confirmation of the module results achieved at AS
level if they are not recorded but this is rare.
If a student is repeating AS levels, then he/she
records ‘pending’ and the new final grade will follow
in August.
Part 4 - Employment
Students are invited to provide details of any
paid employment.
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Employer
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Address
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Nature of the work.
Part 5 – The Personal Statement
This is the most crucial part of the application for
several reasons.
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Many institutions do not hold interviews.
Admissions tutors rely heavily on the information
provided in the personal statement when making
their decision.
It is the student’s opportunity to ‘sell themselves’ and
personalise the application.
Personal Statement
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It is vital that your son / daughter takes a lot of time
preparing the personal statement.
He / she should never lie or embellish situations as
they will be detected at interview.
It must be written by him / her and not ‘copied’ from
another source.
(UCAS runs all applications through a similarity
detection system that looks for matches with internet
sources and other statements)
Part 6 – The Reference
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All your son’s / daughter’s teachers submit a subject specific
report to the referee detailing a predicted grade, aptitude for the
subject and his / her commitment and capacity for work.
Each student has filled in a ‘student information sheet’ which
allows the student to provide relevant additional information to
the referee.
The referee will then compile all the information provided by the
students, teachers along with personal information, e.g.,
personality, contribution to school, hobbies, achievements,
experiences etc.
Students will have the opportunity to read the reference before
it is sent to UCAS.
Part 7 - Payment
The application fee costs £23.00
Payment can be made in two ways;
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By credit / debit card directly to UCAS
By paying directly to the bursar’s office here
in school.
Note: the application will not be sent to
UCAS before payment has been made.
The next stages
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UCAS processes the applications which are then
forwarded to the appropriate institutions within one
day of receipt.
Students will then receive a ‘welcome letter’, a
personal identification number and confirmation of
the courses applied to for verification.
Students will be able to access the progress of their
application, reply to offers etc and make additional
choices through the on-line ‘tracking system’.
University Decisions
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Once an institution has received the application, the
admissions team will do one of the following;
Make a ‘conditional offer’ which requires the student
to meet previously specified criteria, e.g., grades,
points and subjects.
Make an ‘unconditional offer’ guaranteeing a place
without meeting specified criteria.
Decline to make an offer whereby the student is
unsuccessful in the application.
The student’s response
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When a student has received notification
from all of the institutions, he / she will be
asked to select two courses, one of which is
CF (firm conditional) and is usually their
preferred choice and their second choice CI
(insurance conditional).
This is usually done by 5th May
What if the student is unsuccessful
and has received no offers?
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This is where the fifth option can be used!
Alternatively, if all five options have been
unsuccessful, he / she can make another
course choice through ‘Extra’.
In this case, they can find out where courses
haven’t been filled and can make an
additional application but this can only be
done one course at a time.
Post Results
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If the student meets the requirements of the CF or
the CI, then they are guaranteed their place on the
course.
Information should be received from the institution
within a couple of days (if not on the day of the
results). This again can be checked on ‘Track’.
If the student exceeds expectations, then he / she is
eligible for ‘adjustment’ where places are available at
alternative institutions.
If the student falls short of the grades required and is
unsuccessful, then he / she is eligible for ‘clearing’.
Additional Points of Information
University of Ulster
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‘Gathered Fields’ - University of Ulster will not be
allocating places until after 15 January deadline
when all applications have been received.
Grade Ranges- Some courses have had a grade
range of UCAS tariff points introduced e.g., 260 –300
and dependent on the number of applicants, the
exact requirement will be applied, e.g., 280.
Increased entry requirement for a number of
courses. These can be found on the online
prospectus at www.prospectus.ulster.ac.uk
Insight nights for Health Sciences, Engineering, Art
and Design, Built Environment etc
Additional Points of Information
Queen’s University
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All applications for nursing / midwifery are on a separate
application form although being reviewed this year.
St Mary’s University College (QUB) separate application form
New interviewing process for medicine and dentistry
Information evenings for parents – Engineering Humanities,
Maths, Business Management
Precise grades only for medicine, dentistry and pharmacy
Above target grade – Actuarial Science, Biomedical Science,
Criminology, Film Studies, Physics, Psychology and Spanish
Further information at www.qub.ac.uk
Most of all
Don’t Panic!!
There will be lots of help here at
the College!
Dates and Deadlines
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15th October - all Cambridge and Oxford
applications
15th October – all medicine, dentistry,
veterinary medicine / science applications
7 January – St Mary’s University College
15 January – All other UCAS applications
24th March – all Art and Design applications
5th May – final two choices confirmed
Thank you!
Any Questions?