Happy New Year! And what a way to bring you back down to reality, away  from all those exciting Christmas festivities than with the arrival of UCAS deadline season. Admittedly, after all the glitter and joy of the holiday season, filling out your UCAS application may seem a little overwhelming and lacking in glee. That’s why we’re here to help. 

The initials ‘UCAS’ stands for the University and College Admission Service, and is the official service that students use when applying to UK universities. UCAS is an independent charity providing information, advice and admissions support to students.

 If you are a student in the UK already or an international student wanting to study in the UK, you must apply for university through the UCAS platform. 

What is a UCAS application?

A UCAS application is an accumulation of a personal statement, your current school grades and predicted grades, academic references and your personal details which you send off to universities with the hope of gaining a place on their course. This is the form that you complete to explain why you want to study with them and show universities that you’re the right person to be on their course; you get to show off your academic ability and personal goals!

You are required to submit your UCAS application several months before university starts (usually September) as this gives universities enough time to go through everyone's applications and send them offers. 

This time will also give you a chance to come up with a contingency plan if you don’t get your needed grades to get into the university course. For example, if Birmingham University offers you a conditional offer to study on their English Language course, they will send you the grades you need to be accepted. However you of course won’t know if you get these grades until results day (usually in August for UK students), so it’s good to have a plan in case you don’t get the grades they require - we’ll go over this a bit more later. 

When is the UCAS application deadline?

The UCAS application deadline for the majority of courses in 2022 is 26 January, and you must have your application submitted by this date to ensure your enrolment in university for September 2022.

Before this, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as some other courses that typically require interviews and pre-offer tests had a deadline of 15 October 2021. 

If you don’t submit your form before the UCAS application deadline ends, universities are not obliged to consider your application and you may unfortunately have to wait until the next year to apply again. So, it’s important that you make sure you think ahead and are prepared. Anyhow, your school or college will probably give you regular reminders on when the UCAS application deadline ends, so you can get this information from them or from a quick google if you’re unsure. 

How much does it cost to submit a UCAS application?

There is a small cost for applying to universities in the UK via UCAS. For 2022, fees are £22 for one university application, or £26.50 for two-five university applications. When applying to universities, you are able to put a maximum of 5 options on your UCAS application, and this is what most students do to give them as many options as possible. 

Filling out UCAS application: Your Checklist

Step 1 – grab a hot beverage, make yourself comfortable and don’t be daunted. UCAS have made the application process quite simple and best of all, you don’t need to complete everything in one sitting. You can save, refresh your drink, answer the door, pat the dog, check TikTok and simply jump back in to get the job finished. 

So, settle down (with that hot beverage) and read through our checklist below as we run through everything you need to know about filling out your UCAS application.

1. Register with UCAS

Think of this as your first ‘hello!’ UCAS can’t wait to meet you, so introduce yourself here, at the UCAS Hub. 

Once you’ve created an account and told them who you are, the year and level of your studies (2022, Undergraduate for example) you’ll be taken to your own UCAS Dashboard. Like Han Solo at the helm of his Millennium Falcon, you’ll control your destiny from here. (Top tip – make sure you enter your name exactly as it appears on your passport. Han Solo didn’t do this as he was embarrassed about his middle name and an entire 9-film franchise very nearly didn’t happen).

2. Complete your details

UCAS are sticklers for detail. So you can’t skip any of this. Everything from

Residency Status to Personal Circumstances get an airing in the personal details section of the application.

Don’t be intimidated by the volume or type of questions they ask you - they’re trying to build a complete picture of you and any support you may need in one form, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re asking lots of questions to get to know you best. 

3. Add your education history

Good news! You don’t need to tell them about how 9-year-old you won a ‘participation

award’ at sports day, or upload your 10-metre swimming certificate. Just Secondary School results onwards, any college or university courses you’ve completed and even the ones you started but didn’t complete. 

For most students applying to university, you’re most likely applying before you’ve sat your A-Levels (or equivalent post-sixteen) examinations. Therefore, you’ll need to input your predicted grades for universities to base their decision on. 

4. Employment history

Trained as a lifeguard at your local pool? Worked in retail? Delivered pizza? Any paid jobs you’ve had in the past go in this section and you can enter up to five. Each one will require company names, addresses and dates you worked there, so there’s a bit of memory-trawling to be done.

No voluntary work goes into this part, but you can add those details in your Personal Statement. And hey, if you’ve never had a paid job please don’t sweat it. Just leave this section blank. Onwards!

5. Select your course choices

Now here comes the all-important (and exciting) part of your UCAS application - selecting what and where you want to study at university. 

Still unsure what you may want to study in the future? There are many ways to help you choose which courses to select for your UCAS application. Have you seen our blogs on choosing a UK university and choosing a university course that’s right for you? 

It’s important to choose courses that you are not only interested and passionate about, but also that are achievable for you to get on to with your predicted grades. If you are predicted C grades in your A-Levels, it would be unwise for you to use a UCAS option that requires grade A’s. 

Make sure you check the course specifications on the universities website before you commit to it as one of your UCAS choices. Even on the same course, different universities teach different modules and topics so it’s important you pick one you’re going to enjoy! 

As mentioned earlier, you are able to choose up to five options on your UCAS application, and don’t worry! There is no preference order to your choices and the universities and colleges can’t see where else you’ve applied until after you receive their offer. Phew! 

6. Write your personal statement

At last, a chance to shine! Your personal statement is the only part of the UCAS application where you can relax, write in your own style and be you. It’s your chance to tell universities and colleges why you’d like to study with them, and what skills and experience you have. 

You have up to 4,000 characters or 47 lines – whichever comes first. Top tip - start in Microsoft Word (or something similar) and paste it into your application when you’re happy with it - the online application form doesn’t have a spell check!

Don’t be stressed about this section. They’re not looking for the next Shakespeare or Wordsworth. If you struggle facing the blank page, try recording yourself on your phone telling a friend (even an imaginary one!) about why you want to do the course. Transcribe what you’ve said and you’ll be 80% done. It might just need some polishing. 

The important thing is to be honest. Don’t even think about plagiarising from examples online! All decent universities and colleges have plagiarism checker software, and you and I both know you’re way better than that.

Things get tricky if you’re applying for two or more very different courses, as UCAS only allows just one personal statement which all your chosen universities or colleges will read. This means that if you’re applying to do Exotic Animal Veterinary Skills at one place, and Accountancy at another, your personal statement will be a challenge.

We hope that by the time you are applying to UCAS you will have narrowed down your course options and have chosen similar courses, allowing your personal statement to focus on one area of study and remain clear for the reader. As a tip to really enhance your commitment to that particular course, you could read the description of what each course covers, and use some of those phrases in your personal statement to show you’re a good match. 

Finally, and most importantly, just as you would with any important piece of work, make sure you read and re-read your personal statement, maybe ask a friend or family member to check it too, and preview it again in the online form before you mark this section as complete.

For detailed guidance on how to write a personal statement for UCAS, please take a look at our article here.

7. Submit your application

It’s final checks and then you’re cleared for liftoff! When you finish filling in all the sections of your UCAS application, you’ll be presented with your completed application. 

Read it through one last time to make sure it’s perfect, check a box to agree that it can be shared with your chosen universities or colleges, and you are done… almost!

8. References and payment

Now, I promise: this is the very last job. 

The final part of your application will require a reference, normally a written recommendation from a teacher, adviser or professional who knows you academically. Your mum or the postman will not do, even though they both think you’re great. 

You attach that reference as the final step, and make the payment to UCAS - as mentioned earlier for the 2022 submission this is £22 for a single choice of course or £26.50 if you’re choosing more than one.

What happens after UCAS application?

After you submit your application there is a bit of a waiting game while the universities read through all the submissions. Once this is done, you will then receive word directly from the universities.

There are a few things that could happen at this point, the university could either offer you:

A conditional offer

A conditional offer is defined as an agreement between two parties that an offer will be made if a specific condition is met. For your UCAS application, this means that you have a place at that university, but only if you meet their requirements. They will send you particular grades you have to meet in order to be accepted onto the course, these are the grades you have to aim for in your A-Levels or college course. 

There are some situations where you are offered a place with particular grades, but if you haven’t got these grades on results day, the university may still offer you the place. This is by no means guaranteed, but it’s always worth logging in to UCAS and checking your offered places on the morning of results day just in case. 

An unconditional offer

An unconditional offer really takes the pressure off. This means that no matter what grades you get, you have a place at the university. If you receive an unconditional offer from a university, firstly, congratulations! Secondly, it’s really important that you still work as hard as you can to get the best possible results in your A-Levels or college course. 

It might be a bit tempting, upon receiving an unconditional offer, to take your foot off the gas. But future job applications will still require you to put your educational history on your CV, so make sure you do your best!

Summary

It’s important to remember that while you’re completing your UCAS application forms it’s okay to ask for help from your school, parents or friends. It can seem an overwhelming process as there’s a lot to fill in, but we would recommend you start filling out the forms early as you can save them and go back to it later. Don’t leave it all to the last minute! 

Everyone who has applied to university in the UK has gone through this process so you’re definitely not alone. If you are struggling to ask for help, have a look through some online forums to hear from previous students’ experiences - there’s no better way to learn what to do than from someone who has already done it. 

At Melio, we offer unique university guidance to help students aged 16-17 get ready for the next step in their educational journey. The eight week course will help you learn the whole UK university admissions process, receive one on one sessions from an expert university guidance counsellor and learn transferable skills like personal statement writing and time management. 

At the end of the course, you will have an online discussion connecting your tutor and your parents so you can go through all you have learned and your plans for the future with your family. This course will help ease your nerves about applying for university and get you excited for the next step. 

If you’re applying to university to meet the January deadline, then good luck from all of us at Melio, let us know how you get on!

For more information about our university guidance course, visit our website or contact our admissions team.