Applying for the Early UCAS Deadline?
If you’re applying for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or Oxford or Cambridge, your UCAS deadline is 15th October. This means you will need to have your personal statement finalised over the first few weeks of the autumn term to ensure you meet the deadline. Remember that your sixth form or college will likely have an earlier internal deadline to check over applications before submitting them to UCAS. Make the most of any support offered by your sixth form or college!
Autumn Open Days
Higher education providers often hold Open Days in September and October, so be sure to keep updated on when these are and register to attend with the university or college to ensure you receive all of the correct pre-event information.
UCAS Deadline
The standard UCAS deadline for all courses (other than the ones mentioned above) is in January. This means it is important that your personal statement is in the final stages of its draft before you finish for the Christmas holidays to give you enough time to tweak it ahead of the deadline. Also ensure other elements of your UCAS form are completed in full, and accurately.
Responding to Offers
If you start to receive offers from the universities and colleges you applied to, then you will also need to start making decisions about how to respond to them. UCAS have written a handy blog post to explain what your decisions mean, and how to make them.
Student Finance
Remember to apply for student finance before the deadline, to ensure your payments are made in enough time. Once you have filled out the online form, and your parent(s)/carer(s) have submitted any required information, you will be sent a declaration form in the post. It is important you remember to sign this document and return it to Student Finance England. For more information, see our student finance page.
Results Day
If you have applied for courses through UCAS, then you can log in to UCAS track from 8am on results day to see an update on your application status. Check in advance what time your sixth form or college will open for you to collect your results.
It is useful to carry a pen and paper, your UCAS ID, important numbers and your mobile phone with plenty of charge left so that you can call universities or colleges to discuss your application if necessary.
Clearing
If your results were different to the ones you were expecting, or you’re not holding an offer from a university or college, you can apply for courses through clearing. Clearing opens on 30th June, so you can browse for vacancies, and make an application if you haven’t already applied, but it becomes very busy on results day.
If you are wanting to apply to a course on results day then you will need to call the university or college directly, phone lines can be very busy but keep trying because they will answer! Once on the phone you will speak to a member of staff who will ask you some questions about the course you want to study, your current grades and qualifications, and take some personal details from you. It’s ok to feel nervous when calling universities and colleges, but remember that all of the staff you speak to are here to help and are there to answer your questions and guide you through the process.
