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Bluecoat Academy UCAS Evening 2019

Welcome

UCAS Evening 2019 – What to expect…

The Application Process, Competitive Admissions and

Receiving Offers:

Sarah Bromley – UCAS and Student Progression Coordinator

Unifrog and the Personal Statement

Alaina Wood- Deputy Head of Sixth Form

Carolyn Riley – Year Leader

Student Finance

Alex Holland-Leavens – Nottingham Trent University Outreach

Team

THE APPLICATION PROCESS

Mrs Bromley

The role of UCAS

UCAS operate on behalf of all full-time

higher education (HE) courses at member

institutions

Undergraduate Degree

Foundation Degree

HND / HNC

Certificate/Diploma of Higher Education

Unistats website

UCAS Connect

Research – Additional sources

▪ Publications

▪ Institution Open Days

▪ Taster Courses

▪ Subject specific events

▪ Career fairs

▪ Unifrog

Key features of the UCAS scheme

Application is online

1 Choice - £20 2-5 Choices - £25

Maximum of 5 choices

Some choice restrictions:

Medicine, Veterinary, Dentistry – max 4

Simultaneous consideration

‘Invisibility’

5 Choices

1 x aspirational choice, 1 or at most 2 grades above your

predicted grades

3 x courses at your predicted grades

1 x course below your predicted grades. An ‘insurance’

choice in case things don’t go to plan.

Entry requirements

2 different ways of asking for grades

1. Points e.g. 120 UCAS points. This may in some cases

include points gained form AS qualifications.

2. Straight grades e.g. BBB. Some may additionally request

grades from particular subjects.

Extended

Project

Qualification

GCE & VCE AS

levels

GCE & VCE A

levels

Tariff BTEC (QCF)

Extended

Diploma

BTEC (QCF)

Diploma

BTEC (QCF)

Subsidiary

Diploma

BTEC (QCF)

Certificate

168 D*D*D*

160 D*D*D

152 D*DD

144 DDD

128 DDM

112 DMM D*D*

104 D*D

96 MMM DD

80 MMP DM

64 MPP MM

A* 56 D*

A 48 PPP MP D

B 40

C 32 PP M

A* 28 D*

A D 24 D

B A 20

C B E 16 P M

D C 12

D 10

E 8 P

E 6

UCAS points tariff

The UCAS application

Apply 2019 Video

https://www.ucas.com/undergradua

te/applying-university/filling-your-

ucas-undergraduate-application

Making a UCAS application

Every applicant has five sections to complete:

Personal details

Choices

Education

Employment

Personal statement

Forward to tutor:

Reference

UCAS

Universities / colleges

UNIFROG AND THE PERSONAL

STATEMENT

Miss Riley and Ms Wood

What do these numbers signify?

3 years of study minimum

£21,000k at least in fees

37,193 courses available

372 institutions to select from

5 courses to choose

Which subject?

Which course?

Which University?

Key questions

Selecting a subject to study

https://www.prospects.ac.uk

www.totalprofessions.com

https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/home

List aspects of your courses that you find interesting

Plan relevant work experience

Engage with extra curricular opportunities i.e. NCS and Careers Inspiration workshop

– keep up to date with google classroom

Unifrog

Subjects library

MOOCs (also available at www.futurelearn.com)

Selecting a course/university

Read prospectuses and university websites

Read information on UCAS search tool

Attend Open Days

https://unistats.ac.uk/

Refer to League Tables

Run a shortlist on Unifrog using rank/filter

A Guide to Writing Your Personal Statement

Key to writing personal statements

It is a process - likely to require several rewrites

Takes time – start early

Short (47 lines or 4000 characters)

– Clarity, concision, precision

– Well written

– Structured

– No errors in punctuation, spelling and grammar

– Strong opening and closing

Write in a unifrog then paste into Apply

– Spell check, grammar check

Get others to read and advise

Polish – it needs to be close to flawless

How do I show…?

Passion

Willingness to commit

Enthusiasm

Motivation

Super-curricular engagement

Developed skills and knowledge prior to application

Newspapers and news websites

The Times

I

Nottingham Post

Specialist periodicals and magazines

Business/Economics/Politics/Biological

Sciences/Chemistry/Physics/RS/PE/Sociology/Law/History/Geograph

y/Psychology/English Review

The Economist/Aesthetica/Journal of Photography/New

Scientist/Chez Nous

Sample reading lists

Further reading by subject in the library

Online resource banks

HE+/Bright Knowledge/ Staircase 12

Don’t just read – experience

Podcasts(Warwick)/BBC iPlayer/4OD/Radio4/

Support…

IntoUniversity Personal Statement Workshop Tomorrow 2-3pm

Small group meetings – focus will now be on supporting students through

subject, course and university selection

Tutor Period Friday 5th July – IT room session given over to completing

initial section of the UCAS application form and starting work on ideas for

your personal statement

Summer holidays – Open days, research, early drafts of your personal

statement on Unifrog

September – 2 x tutor time sessions 1 x AOW 2 x small group meetings

until Christmas internal deadline 6 December (or until application complete)

Help for applicants

Introduction to Unifrog

Canadian universities

College/ Sixth Form

Oxbridge

Apprenticeships

European universities

Searching for opportunities

US universities

UK universities

Exploring pathways

Activities

Interactions

Competencies

Recording what you’ve done

CV / Resumé

Personal Statement

Teacher References Common App Essay

Drafting application materials

Post 16/18 Intentions

Applications list

Making applications

Locker

Careers library

Know-how library MOOC

Subjects library

The Unifrog tools

Asian universities Special Opportunities

UK Personal Statement

Competency confirmed

An easy way to structure and manage the development of

your best personal statement.

Clarity

A clear template as well as hints, tips and guidance.

Communication

You and your teachers work towards finalising your

statement, with all feedback, notes and comments easily

viewed and stored in one place.

The Benefits

From the

student

dashboard at

unifrog.org/stud

ent, click ‘Go to

tool’ on the UK

Personal

Statement

box.

At the top, you can see the university subject of which the student is writing the Statement for. This can be edited by clicking on the green text.

The tool splits the Personal Statement into three sections. Students can complete these in any order and come back to each section as many times as they like. Click on ‘Preview’ to see how the personal statement will look as one section. Students can also choose to write the personal statement in 1 box rather than 3 by clicking ‘Convert to one box here.’

At the top of each section you will see some prompts in green text. Each one expands to show an example. Students should not try to use these as templates; the entries need to be

personal to you.

Whatever is typed

it will be

automatically

saved within this

box until the

student is ready to

save it as a new

version.

Students can save

as many versions

as they like.

On the Personal Statement homepage students can see if a teacher has written any comments within the text or left feedback at the bottom. Hover over the speech bubble in the text to see the comment.

These comments and notes stay with that particular version of the personal statement.

Scroll to the bottom to see the character count and whether or not a teacher has marked it as finished.

Students can send the latest draft of their full Personal Statement to anyone by using this function at the bottom of the page.

You can download it here too.

Remember you can make as many Shortlists as you like, and can view them any time by clicking on the Shortlist button on the main dashboard.

COMPETITIVE ADMISSIONS

AND RECEIVING OFFERS

Mrs Bromley

Key dates and deadlines

• Mid June-July – start completing

applications online

• Early September –applications can be

submitted to UCAS

• 15 October – Oxford, Cambridge,

Veterinary, Medicine and Dentistry

courses deadline.

• 6th December- Internal deadline

• 15th January - main UCAS deadline

• 24 March – additional Art and Design

deadline

• 30 June – last date to submit

applications before clearing

27/06

/2019

45

Early Entry Students

Students that are applying for a course in Medicine,

Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine or Oxbridge have a

deadline for applying of 15th October.

There will be specific personal statement and interview

support over the autumn term for these students.

Students are usually invited for interviews from December

onwards.

Medicine (and most vet and dentistry courses) request

either the UCAT or BMAT test. Registration is now open

for the UCAT test and students need to do this

themselves.

Oxbridge- admissions test or pre or at interview

assessments depending on the course.

How do Universities make their decisions?

Qualifications

Past, present and future

Predicted grades for ‘pending’ qualifications

Personal statement

Reference

Interview

Piece of written work

Portfolio

Audition

Admissions tests- CHECK CAREFULLY!

Decision making by institutions

An admissions tutor may initially make one of three

decisions:

Unconditional offer

Conditional offer

Unsuccessful

Or recommend:

A place on an alternative course

Applicant replies to offers

Once the final decision has been received, a maximum of

two offers may be held

Applicants have a choice of three reply options:

Firm acceptance

Insurance acceptance

Decline the offer

The Application process at Bluecoat

- Tutor periods and morning tutor periods will be dedicated

to UCAS. Students are expected to attend.

- Once student thinks they have completed their application,

tutor checks application

- If all ready, an appointment is made with either Mrs

Bromley, Miss Riley or Miss Wood who will do final level of

checking and send the application.

- Students can use UCAS track to keep updated on their

application progress.

- Interview Support available where applicable.

STUDENT FINANCE Nottingham Trent University

Useful stuff…

• Call Student Finance England: 0845 300 5090

• Search for Student Finance England on Social Media • Use the Student Finance Calculator to get an idea of what

funds you’ll be eligible for www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator