INDEX education
Apply yourself
The university application process needs to be attended to urgently this month says Caroline Knight...
Image courtesy of Aaron Murphy
THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR is well underway and for those students in Year 13 wanting to apply to universities, it is a crucial time.
The deadline for medicine, dentistry, veterinary subjects and courses at Oxford and Cambridge is 15 October, with most other application deadlines being 15 January, 2012. Many schools recommend that their students complete their applications before the end of October, as some universities select on a ‘first-come- first-served’ basis. All applications and offers are handled via the UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) website, for which students should usually register via their school. There is a charge for the UCAS application: £11 for one course and £22 for two or more, which is paid via the school or the website.
Students can apply to up to five courses and there is no order of preference on the form. Entry requirements hinge on points earned on exam results – and conditional offers are made on the basis of predicted grades in addition to GCSE or equivalent results and AS results. Grades earn UCAS Tariff points – with an A-level ‘A’ grade, for example, representing 120 points and a B earning 100 points. Key to the application process, in
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addition to adequate UCAS Tariff points, is the ‘personal statement’, which provides an opportunity for a student to ‘sell themselves’. This is usually the only chance the university has to assess a student from a more personal angle, as most do not invite candidates for an interview. The compilation of this important document usually proves as daunting as the crucial exam results themselves!
Many schools
recommend that their students complete their applications before the end of October
Offers are issued by universities by early May and most of these will be ‘conditional’, meaning they depend upon adequate academic results. Some might invite the candidate for an interview at this point. Students must then make their decision by a certain deadline.
Personal Statement help from a handy book
A NEW BOOK by Julia
Dolowicz offers ‘Seven Easy Steps’ to writing a UCAS personal statement. Published by How To Books at £9.99, it includes a whistle-stop guide to UCAS; guides to ‘gathering and pruning’ information ready for the statement; recommendations for a suitable structure of a personal statement; reminders of grammar, punctuation and spelling tips; drafting skills and much more. The seven steps include: Collect it; Expand it; Prove it; Draft it; Build it; Review it and Submit it – and it all makes the process seem simple. Julia Dolowicz has worked with sixth
form and adult students in further and higher education and more recently at the University of Liverpool in the Student Recruitment and Admissions Office.
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The INDEX magazine october 2011
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