1) Deadlines
Keeping deadlines in mind is essential while applying to the UK because deadlines vary with courses, colleges and country of application. 15th October is the deadline for applications to Oxford, Cambridge and all medicine, veterinary and dentistry courses. For all other courses, the deadline is January 15th, apart from some art and design courses that have a March 24th deadline. Furthermore, if you are a Cambridge applicant who wishes to be interviewed in Singapore, China, or Malaysia, the deadline for application is September 20th.
Therefore, the first thing you should do after shortlisting your colleges and deciding on your course is to check the deadline.
2) Registering
To use ‘Apply’ you will first have to register with UCAS by filling out a few personal details like name, address and date of birth. If you’re applying through a school, college or centre, you’ll need a buzzword that will link your application to the school so that your referee can add their reference to it.
3) Components of the application
(a) Educational background: While applying, you will be required to provide details of the schools you have attended since you were 11 and any qualifications obtained. Any certification obtained from an awarding organization classes as a qualification. If you haven’t obtained your 12th grade results yet, you will have to enter the grades as ‘pending’ following which your school will attach your predicted grades with your application. The question in your mind may be, how does the school ‘predict’ my results? Understanding the answer to this is crucial. Your performance in past examinations will be taken as a benchmark to predict your final results. Therefore, it is imperative to never let your grades slip in the 11th and 12thgrade because these might contribute to your obtaining an offer from a UK university.
(c) References: If you are applying via a school or college, your institution will take care of the references for you. However, if you are applying independently, you will have to identify referees and ask them to write a reference for you. Ideally, your referee should be a recent teacher, employer or supervisor who knows your potential and suitability for the course that you will be applying to.
Note for Parents, Students, Counsellors: The information above was to the best of our knowledge at the time that this article was published. With every application cycle, or sometimes even during it, Colleges and Universities may change dates, policies, available majors and other relevant information. These updates will be reflected on the College and University websites themselves.
Please refer to the official college websites in addition to reading these articles. These articles are written only to provide general guidelines to students, not as a substitute for individual college websites.
