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?

I thought there was a question in the additional information section that asks about your parents education.

There is a part of the form where you can say if any of your parents, step-parents, or guardians have any higher education qualifications - but I think from the context it is used more for monitoring equal opportunities rather than being part of the actual application, so you might want to include it on the PS if you think it is relevant.

I guess its part of the whole "who I am and why I want to go to uni" kind of PS contents.

You can look through the whole form and get some additional notes if you look here

Amuminscotland, thank you for that. I haven't seen the form before. Hmm I couldn't view the drop down menu re parents qualifications. Not sure if my highest will count so it might be worth slipping into the PS.

Also marking my place ,ds1 is applying this year ,he seems to have narrowed down his choices but i am worried that they are all roughly the same in terms of academics needed ,really want a couple of insurance types as well.

PS comming along,he wants to read politics and has some fantastic work experience at Westminster lined up at half term so wants to delay application until after then in order to include some information,will have to talk to school.

Massive row with ds1 this morning re pulling his socks up. Apparently the school usually base UCAS predictions 1 grade below the AS results! Is that normal practice? There is also to be an ALIS test in the next couple of weeks???? Anyone know what this involves?

ds1 was massively disappointed with his results (doing a couple of retakes) and I'm wondering if this is really the case, whether it is worth applying at all especially with the fee hike.

Eatyourveg, yikes no, our school will predict one grade above, especially for DD who seems to pull her module grades up by at least 2 when she resits. Why she cannot do it first time round I don't know.

It's worth applying.

We are prepared for rejections, especially if AS modules cannot be put down as 'pending', then if miracles happen and grades are super duper at A2 she will ring and try and get in, if not then it's a gap year with more resits.

Just googled 'ALIS' tests, they seem to be similar to CATS test but for A level students, meant to be grade indicators for A level but are extremely unreliable. Uni's don't use them or see results. If everyone comes out with good predictions but don't achieve it then it might flag up problems with teaching.

It might go in your son's favour if he comes out well in these tests re predicted grades.

DD2 did ALIS tests at the start of year 12 and they were a complete waste of time. She actually found the really low predictions it came out with upsetting and the head of sixthform used her lack of performance in the maths bit as a factor for discounting oxbridge - at least the school looked good when she got three grades higher in her actual A levels

From the Telegraph facebook page, thought someone might find it useful

"Put your questions about applying to university to an UCAS expert on Monday 19 September from 4.30pm.

You can leave your question as a comment on this post, tweet us @tele_education or ask it live on the day. "

Thanks, Ellisbell, interesting.

I have a question now though - and ds needs to get his UCAS form into the school tomorrow.

Should he put his work experience in the Employment section? It was only two weeks, wasn't paid, but can only go in his favour. Anyone know, please?

(BTW, the school only wants it so early because they do things ridiculously well in advance, and he's having a crack at Oxbridge as well as others.)

Oh, I just rang UCAS and they said no, his work experience should go in his personal statement. Actually, contacting them was remarkably easy! I expect they'll be hearing from me a lot now...

We found UCAS very helpful and friendly last year - we had a problem with a form and they were able to sort it out for us very quickly with no bother at all. I'd certainly recommend giving them a ring if you've got queries/problems.

Just to say we are in on this too, trying to draw up a shortlist.

All sent!

Can forget about it now :)

For DD1s PS last year, she thought about what categories of skills would be important for her subject, then slotted all her extra curricular stuff into those categories. So DofE came under teamwork, sports coaching became "my experience coaching younger children helped the work I did with a lower ability subject Y8 class" which fitted into "why I love my subject". It was a case of making a list of what things she wanted to put in there, and how to sneakily shoehorn them into relevant paragraphs.

Also something she did, don't know if it made any difference at all, was to deliberately wait till after the Oxbridge deadline, so that her choices knew that they weren't insurance choices. Anecdotally Durham is/was a "didn't get the Oxbridge grades" university, and she was preparing herself for "why do you want to study here" questions at interview.

I don't think Durham is influenced in that way Midnight. Durham is still wall to wall Oxbridge rejects and is keen to put out the message that it has no bias against Oxbridge applicants. In fact Durham wants just the sort of students who want to apply to Oxbridge. Of course there'll be others who get offers as well, but the students who miss Oxbridge (especially those who miss it after interview) are Durham's mainstay and have been for decades. So if one wants to apply reverse psychology, it must be at least as advantageous to apply before the deadline. Last year there were plenty of early offers (from early November) to students also applying to Oxford or Cambridge, even in competitive arts subjects.

I think it's a good idea just to apply where you want to apply and to forget any tactical games. The universities want the best they can; it's never been in Durham's interest to reject Oxbridge rejects and I can't think why that would change.

forms in to school, waiting for the school to do it's bit.

Ditto, ellisbell.

First personal statement draft gone in. How long is it likely to take to complete application from here, or is that like the length of the proverbial string?

I'm impressed by those of you whose dc have finished already.

First draft into school: yes, just depends on the school gelatinous. But if the school OK's it as it is and the rest of the form is ready, then it's just a question of paying and pressing 'send'.

DS1 sent his to UCAS at the w/e, sent it back to school on Monday for them to check the exam details and attach the reference and it was sent off to the universities yesterday. So that bit's quite quick.

that should read UCAS sent it back to school

Thanks Yellowstone, I suspected as much. I'll hope the school likes the ps and pulls their finger out with the reference then. I didn't realise the route was
dc->UCAS->school->UCAS->universities, I'd assumed it was dc->school->UCAS->universities, but it sounds as though the extra step doesn't take long (& is probably automatic).

So do you get to read the school reference before hitting the send button?

DS more or less done except the awful PS malarkey. Its the pitching which seems to be the hardest, to sell yourself by writing something that makes you stand out but not boast about anything is a nightmare.

No you don't see the school reference, that goes straight from the school to UCAS.