Completing the UCAS Application And an update on Personal Statements

Completing the UCAS application What does a completed UCAS application look like? What are the most common mistakes (so I can avoid making them)?

1. Personal Details Title, Gender, First/given name, Surname/family name, Preferred first name, Previous surname at 16 th birthday, Postal address, Is your permanent home in the UK?, Telephone, Mobile, , DoB, Country of birth, Nationality, Area of permanent residence, Residential category. You do not need a Unique Learner Number (ULN), Test of English as a Foreign Language Number (TOEFL), or International English Language Testing System Number (IELTS). Student Finance Code: 01 – Private finance (if your parents are going to pay £9000 tuition fees each year plus approximately £10,000 maintenance each year – VERY RARE!) 02 – UK, Chl, IoM or EU – Student Finance (Student loan – MOST COMMON) 99 – Not known Any other finance code should be discussed with your tutor.

1. Personal Details Student Finance Code: 01 – Private finance (if your parents are going to pay £9000 tuition fees each year plus approximately £10,000 maintenance each year – VERY RARE!) 02 – UK, Chl, IoM or EU – Student Finance (Student loan – MOST COMMON) 99 – Not known Any other finance code should be discussed with your tutor. Student support arrangements – this is the local government that you will the funding for your student loan – MOST LIKELY Nottinghamshire. Have you ever lived or worked in the EU? Do you have a parent, step parent, spouse of civil partner who is an EU national?

1. Personal Details Keeping you informed about your UCAS application: I want to receive targeted course vacancy information if I am unplaced. Yes I want to receive sales information by Yes I want to receive sales information by text message to my mobile phone Yes I want to receive sales information by post.Yes

1. Personal Details Nominated Access – a person you want to be able to alter your UCAS application. NOT USUALLY USED. Full name of nominee: Relationship to you:

1. Personal Details Criminal convictions – MUST be declared. (You must declare anything, including a warning from the police – we have had students declare these before and we can only help if we know about them). Disability / special needs – must be declared. Category – Please give details of any special needs –

2. Additional information Ethnic origin, national identity, Dual national identity. Activities in preparation for higher education: 1 -This is any course you have been on, or any training you have received that has introduced you to study at university or prepared you for life there. -Sponsor, Start date, duration (days), school year, location You do NOT need to have these to be successful; nevertheless if you have done anything add it!

2. Additional information Have you been in care? Duration in care Parental education Occupational background Would you like correspondence from Welsh universities in Welsh? (Probably not …)

3. Student finance I will be applying for student finance (MOST PROBABLY – YES) I want to share my details with the Student Loans Company (A GOOD IDEA IF YOU HAVE ANSWERED YES ABOVE) I want UCAS to send me a reminder of when and how to apply for student finance (ANOTHER VERY GOOD IDEA – YES)

4. Choices Name of university: University of Bristol University code: B78 (Can find on UCAS website or university website) Course: Chemistry Course code: F100 (Can find on UCAS website or university website) Campus: Main site for majority of universities unless choice e.g. Colleges in Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. Live at home while studying? Yes / No – your decision Start date: September 2016 unless … Deferred entry?: (Do you want to take a gap year?) (in which case September 2017)

4. Choices MUST: 1.Check the entry requirements match your predicted grades. -There is no way for us to check this on the application – if your university does not match you will simply be rejected and lose one of your options. 2. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A RANGE OF OPTIONS. If you are absolutely committed – and I do NOT recommend this – you can try ONE option above your predicted grades; you will still most likely get a rejection straight away. TWO - THREE CHOICES – at your predicted grades. AT LEAST TWO CHOICES – below your predicted grades.

5. Education You must put down the schools you attended for the duration of secondary school. E.g. Toot Hill School (Centre number 28308) Sept 2009 – July 2016 You must include all the qualifications and results you have gained while at secondary school. For most of you this will be: -GCSEs and BTECs in Years 9 – 11 -A Levels and BTECs in Years 9 – 13 You do NOT have to include modular breakdown – this is your choice about what you think will look best.

5. Education You will need to know the subject/course name, overall grade, date of award and exam board. BTECs – at GCSE level: -BTEC First Diploma BTECs – at A Level: -Single: BTEC Subsidiary Diploma (QCF) – E.g. Pass, Merit, Distinction -Double: BTEC Diploma (QCF) – E.g. PassPass, MeritMerit, DD, D*D* You do not have the overall grade for these yet, so you will need to select ‘Pending’.

5. Education GCSEs: -Subject, grade, date of award, Exam board AS Levels: GCE Advanced Subsidiary You must list all your results from the summer. -Subject, grade, date of award, Exam board -Remember: You can choose if you want to show modular breakdown or not.

5. Education You must also include the subjects you are studying this year, even though you don’t yet have a grade. This is probably the most common error I have seen on applications. A2 Level = GCE Advanced Level - Subject, Date of award, Exam board and select ‘Pending’ for date of award or overall grade.

5. Education There are other qualifications you can add too including: -Other qualifications completed in school -Duke of Edinburgh -Music grades

6. Employment Name of employer Address Nature of work Start date End date (if working at the moment select ‘to present’)

7. Personal Statement Remember to proof-read your personal statement after you put it on the website too. Another common mistake students make is that it is slightly too long on the website. OR it copies and pastes funnily – make sure the sentences flow from one line to another.

8. Finish (your end) and pay Once everything is submitted, you need to pay and send. You pay directly to UCAS so you will need a debit / credit card to pay online. The cost is: -£12 for single choice of course (NOT recommended) -£23 for multiple choices (FIVE)

What next? Then we need to add: -Details of referee -Your predicted grades -Your UCAS reference We can only begin this once you have paid and sent your application to us. Nevertheless, if after you have sent it to us there are mistakes we can send it back to you where you can resubmit. In this case, you will receive an telling you your UCAS application has been sent back to you and why. You need to log on asap, make the changes and resubmit. YOU WILL NOT NEED TO PAY AGAIN.

Timing? It will take time for us to complete our end of the application. Please remember there are 125 UCAS applications this year.  You cannot expect your UCAS application to go off in the days following you submitting it.  This is especially true during the busiest periods (so if I were you I’d aim to get it in before everyone does!) Remember – if it has taken you the best part of two months to submit it your end, we still have to fill in ours and write the UCAS reference…

Deadlines? 15 th October 6pm – Early entries Friday 23 rd October (final day of half term) – ALL applications including Russell Group Friday 25 th November (two weeks before Christmas holidays) – ALL applications If you miss these deadlines, you cannot expect your application to be prioritised as these have deliberately been built around staff workloads. In addition, if you application is not received by the deadline, you may not leave us enough time to send it before the UCAS external deadline on 15 th January.

Bingham community led plan