The University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) is the method most students use when applying for university placements in the UK. It is connected to almost all the universities and acts as an intermediary receiving student's applications and redistributing them to the universities. With a few hundred thousand applicants each year, this service is deemed vital in order to ensure that the universities can handle the correspondence with all their potential students.

How it works

UCAS publishes a list of all the courses provided by universities under it's purview each year. This is known as "The Big UCAS Book"¹ as it has course requirements (Basic grades required, subjects studied etc.) and many other statistics (such as population of university, male/female ratio, ratio of applicants to places) relating to the universities.

When it Happens

Students who will be qualified to start university the following September or October² can then ask for an application form and apply for a place on up to six courses. The forms may have been with the schools for weeks but not handed out until the start of final year as the teachers rarely want more work than they have already for the summer. Forms have to be in to UCAS in the middle of October for people applying to Oxford or Cambridge (known collectively as Oxbridge) and the middle of December for UCAS. Generally speaking, the quicker you apply, the quicker the universities will send you an offer or a rejection.

The Form

The form is the bit that you have to fill in to impress everyone in the universities about what you can do so they'll offer you a place on their course. The first part contains the standard personal details, who you are, how old you are, where you live and all that.

Where do you want to go today?

Then comes the bit about what universities and courses you want to apply to. This has to be thought out carefully, some institutions don't react well to you applying to certain others, for example, you are not allowed to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge as they take great exception to it³. There is a limit of six universities you can put on the form. Therefore you need to know that you definitely want to go to those universities that you put down, all of them, in case you don't get an offer from your favourite one.

I knew I should have revised for that exam

The next major section is your qualifications. Here you must put every major certificate bearing exam you have ever sat, from GCSEs to A-Levels or GNVQs or, if you are an international student, the equivalent standard. You are not allowed to just put your most impressive qualifications though. You have to put everything you have sat. This includes the latin exam that you never took seriously because your parents forced you to do it, or the extra maths exam you did because the school made you do the normal one a year early.

You also have to put any exams you are about to sit in the next year so they can check up on you and make sure your predicted grades are accurate. In most cases universities will offer you a place almost on this basis alone, particularly the more popular courses as they don't have time to read all the personal statements.

Please take me....

Now we come to the nasty bit of the form. The personal statement. Ostensibly a way of distinguishing between applicants who meet the entry criteria, this is a torture method designed by the universities in order to give them a reason for rejecting your application. You are not constrained by quantity, you can write as much or as little as you like but as a rule it must fit in the box provided on the form. It also must be legible when reduced to a quarter of the usual size.

You put here anything you can think of that makes you sound interesting, although it's supposed to have a basis in fact. Putting down very unpopular hobbies and saying you have no friends is unlikely to get anything more than a laugh from people reading it. Similarly, lying outrageously is likely to be shown up if you are asked for interview. Basically be as normal as possible but emphasise those tings that make you slightly better as a person than everyone else.

Teacher's take revenge

That's the students' contributions finished. Before the form is sent off, teachers have to put in their say or 'Reference'. This gives them the chance to get back at you for all the years of constant insults and lack of homework for their classes. Unfortunately this is quite an important part of the form where little things such as predicted grades and attendance and punctuality go. It is important therefore to be nice to your teachers for the few month's prior to handing in the form as the nicer your reference is the better chance you have of getting into a university.

Submitting the Form

The earlier you do this, the better as, despite protestations to the contrary many universities will offer you places well before the deadline for all the forms coming in. If you get an early offer, you also have the chance to visit the university to see what it is like again before making final choice. In most cases the school or college will submit the form for you after they have finished putting the comment on it⁴.

Electronic Application

It is now possible to apply for University through what is known as their Electronic Application System. This allows you to fill in the form on a PC rather than in handwritten form⁵. However this method is only available through a teacher or careers advisor at schools or colleges and not on an individual basis. Processing by UCAS should be faster and combined with automatic checking makes sure your application is accurate. Full instructions are available at the touch of a button and your personal statement can be longer as it is pasted directly typed into the box. More information on it can be found at the EAS section of the UCAS website

And the wait begins....

It usually takes a few weeks before the offers start coming through. You may be given an offer conditional on obtaining certain grades in your upcoming exams. The offer may either take the form of specific grades you are required to get in upcoming exams or as a points offer which can be made up in any combination of grades, For example BCC would require you to get an B grade in one of your exams and at least two C grades in two of the others. If you did not manage to get the exact grades they could refuse to take you on the course. A similar points offer may specify 20 points. If you do better than expected in one of your exams, you can compensate for doing badly in others.

The points are calculated from your best three subjects. Each grade has a points value attributed to it in the following manner:

If you have already sat exams to A-level equivalent you may be given an unconditional offer which you can accept and take up the following academic year without doing anything more. The third option may be an offer of an interview, which will determine your commitment to the course as well as your ability. Always offered when you apply to Oxbridge, in other universities, it depends on the course. Unusual applications⁶ will often result in interviews being offered.

The other option is a rejection being sent to you. Nothing is explained on the little card but it effectively tells you that you haven't met their criteria or they don't think you can get the grades they require. Some universities are nastier than others with these rejections going back to GCSE grades to determine whether you should get on the course. Unfortunately their word is pretty much final and it is next to impossible to overturn the decision.

Beware: Junkmail

One problem encountered with UCAS is their tendency to send you junkmail with their correspondance to you. Some of this may be useful in preparing you for thinking about university but the majority is useless waste paper cluttering up your bin. An irritating but inevitable factor.

They've had their fun, now it's your turn...

You've had to wait for weeks or months for the universites to offer you places. Now you have the power to make a choice about where to go, and make them sweat. It's best to choose one uiniversity you hope to get into and one as an insurance choice with lower requirements in case you don't do as well as expected in your exams. Make sure you are happy with these because once made, there is no room to change your mind, you must go to the university your grades dictate. For those accepting unconditional offers you need think no more about UCAS.

Lie back and think of exams

UCAS now plays no further part in your life until after your exams. In the background it continues alert the university of your choice to your acceptance and will contact the exam board about who to send your exam results to. It also begins work on preparing for next year's entrants. Once the exams are over however UCAS springs into action, telling you which university you have got into⁷or giving you a clearing form to apply elsewhere.

I see a clearing ahead

For those who do not achieve the grades they need to get into either of their choices, there is the option known as Clearing. This process is intended to match up potential students with the available courses but is in fact a method of further torturing those already agonising over poorer than expected results. The universities publish which places still need to be filled in national newspapers, on the internet, and on national television via teletext. Students may contact the universities to see if their grades are acceptable. If they accept a position at the university you send in this clearing form provided by UCAS to them. This acknowledges their acceptance of you and your acceptance of them.

A student's life for me

The process is finally over, UCAS no longer plays a part in your life all that remains is to take up a position at university and attempt to do some work in the following three or four years of parties.