Support thread for anyone applying through UCAS this year

[Lorelai]

Following on from a thread in chat I thought I would start this so that we can hold each others' hands through the UCAS process with all its challenges.

Who's with me?

Count me in please.

I'm done with Uni myself, but can attempt to help with the UCAS process if that's any use? (might go a bit silent in October as am expecting twins) I learned it all the hard way with 2 years of 17 year-olds applying when I was a college lecturer.

I think there's a few Uni lecturers about the place as well who can give it from the other side as well.

The only thing I'd say at this point is get on with it as soon as UCAS opens the process for the year. A lot of the schools try and get theirs in before half term, and the good places get snapped up quickly.

Me too please

First draft of ds1 personal statement is due in for the start of term next Thursday and so far the page is blank! School say they want all applications to be sent to UCAS by half term.

My biggest problem at the moment is I have lost my GCSE and A-Level certificates - I know what grades I got but not what exam board they were taken with and I need to put that in my UCAS application. I have tried getting in touch with my old schools but no joy so far - my 6th form have said they don't have the results archived but will try and take an educated guess as to which exam boards, and my secondary school haven't got back to me yet (haven't chased as it is obviously a very busy time of year!).

Anyone got any ideas how I can get around this?

Do you have friends who did the same exams with you. That would confirm the exam boards and then you could approach the relevant exam boards directly with name, name of exam centre and dates exams were taken and hopefully they would be able to find your results and issue new certificates. Good luck.

Oh, good thought. I'm not in touch with many of them though, although my hairdresser was in the year below me at secondary school so hopefully the boards were the same. I have got a few others on facebook though so might try them too.

Just popping in to say good luck to you and your DC. I started this type of thread a year ago and we had a great group of regular posters and did a lot of hand holding, particuarly in the last few weeks before A level results. I gained a lot of very useful information from some posters, particularly some that work in University admissions and I hope you get the same type of helpful advice.

Count me in too! Ds also has personal statement draft due by start of term, but not too much progress here either eatyourveg. I'm sure I never had to do one 'back in the day', it's quite a hard thing to do I think.

I'm in too.

dd is my 3rd through the process so I have a little experience. Her personal statement is well under-way but she's having trouble pinning down which universities she wants to look at. With the best will in the world she's not going to get 3 AAA at A2 and really I'm not sure she's wholly convinced about going bearing in mind the debt but she needs to keep her options open.

Lorelai, are you a mature student? I suddenly realised this thread might be meant for people actually applying themselves rather than parents of teenagers who were applying. Do you mind us crashing your thread? We can make a new thread of our own if so.

I did find this site for info on statements of results, but unfortunately you do need to know the exam board(s). I agree that friends are the most hopeful avenue to find these if the schools can't help.

ds has chosen 3/5 universities so far and is also worried about debt.

DS1 is my fourth DC applying through UCAS in five years, so I'm quite up to speed, like saggar. Happy to help with History and Law apps as far as I can. I'm on a sharp learning curve with Medicine myself!

This could be useful yellowstone-refers to 2012 entry

www.bma.org.uk/careers/becoming_doctor/becomingadoctor.jsp

Lorelai it might also be worth going straight to Edexcel, AQA and OCR - depending on when you did your exams. All the boards that I did mine through in the late 80's (Northern, JMB, etc) have been swallowed up by those.

gelatinous You may just have pushed the memory of the dreaded personal statement into the recess of your memory!! I had to do one in 1989. Awful things.

In my treasure box (not sure why it is considered treasure) I have a photocopy of my UCCA form as it was known in 1984. There were about 15 lines where you had to write about your interests and hobbies. At my sixth form everyone had to fill in a draft and have it approved by a senior tutor. Its painful reading and I certainly won't be sharing it with ds1 to give him any inspiration!

Thank you very much indeed funnyperson, DS1 is reading it now! (his PS is due in tomorrow!).

I'm in, too. Ds' PS is due in tomorrow too. Eatyourveg - but you'll share it with us, surely?

I can help with medicine applications if needed, been there and have the wrinkles and gray hair....key point I'd make in writing a PS is to read all information sites very carefuly. Two of the four med schools DS applied to were very specific in what they wanted to see in the applicants' PS, he found the info in UCAS university information.

Can't see it and please correct as appropriate, but to remind all that Fast-tracks applications - so that's for Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary medicine, Veterinary science courses, and ALL courses at Oxford and Cambridge - is the 15 October - (course codes A100, A101, A102, A103, A104, A105, A106, A300, A200, A201, A202, A203, A204, A205, A206, A400, D100, D101 and D102).
Deadline for all other applications is January 15th.

Fluter - I have thought about that, but they charge to even look to see if they have your records, and it is a charge per exam board, per year. I took GCSEs over 2 years and A-levels over 2 years, so that is 4 years worth of results, times however many boards - could end up costing me a fortune :(

I would have done an UCCA form in 1981 so pre-date all you youngsters! There might have been a few lines for interests and hobbies, I can't really remember, but certainly nothing like a full blown personal statement I'm sure. The whole process was nowhere near as competitive back then, I managed to apply for a non existent course somewhere and still got an offer for another course that that university did offer. I hope ds will research his options a little more carefully!

Ds tells me he can only enter one DoE award on the form, so would like to know from you more experienced bods if it's better to put a completed silver or an incomplete gold. He says he's not going to waste space on his personal statement referring to it, he only has one more expedition to do for gold, but it won't happen before the deadline, so thinks he should just put silver and not mention the gold?

But surely you can't do gold without having completed silver, so putting incomplete gold covers both?

The school ref may cover D of E anyway?

Lorelai, I'm sure asking your friends/contemporaries is going to be the quickest solution. They might need to ask their mums. Somewhere there's going to be a family of obsessive hoarders who have all the certificates beautifully filed and easy to access - you just have to find them.

You can do gold without doing any others yellowstone, a number of his friends are doing so, it just takes a few months longer. So an incomplete gold could be a barely started gold and nothing else, which isn't the case at all for him. Not sure what the school might put, they are limited for space in the reference too, but I shall suggest he asks.

No-one here ever got beyond bronze; it shows :o

cassidee short answer - no! Unless of course you want to hear about my brownie badges and similar feats which Cardiff and Bath amongst others obviously figured were crucial when offering places!