How does the UCAS process work?

Question

i find it hard to understand how the UCAS process works:

im 15 atm and i will be leaving school next year and i shoul be staying on to sixth form to do A levels.

what is the UCAS ?

how to do you apply for university thru the UCAS?

how does the UCAS contact the uni?

when do you apply for the UCAS?

any other things i need to know ?

x

Answer 1

UCAS is university and college admission service. When you have got the quals required for uni you will need to apply for certain unis. Your college will send off your application to UCAS for you. UCAS sends on the applications (which has to be done through college and there is a charge of £5 per chosen uni). You will have to put in your application in november of this year to start sept 09, (depending on uni and course). Go onto the UCAS website for more info.

Answer 2

Okay, you register on the UCAS website, and put in your details, such as your name, age, GCSE grades. Then, when you have done your AS-Level exams in Year 12, you begin to think about applying to Uni's, you put select courses you would like to study (you can choose 5), and then UCAS sends your details/results to the Universities you picked.

The Universities reply, they either reject you, accept you on the condition of you getting certain grades (A conditional offer) or give you an offer that's completely unconditional, (An unconditional offer). You pick two Universities out of the 5 who reply, one you want to go to, your firm choice, and the other (usually a lower offer one) is your back-up choice. You reject the other 3. When you get your results, you hopefully get in, but if not, you can go through clearing, which lists courses that have places at Universities for Sept of the year you're going to Uni in.

http://www.ucas.com/students/apply/

Answer 3

Its never too early to be thinking about this, Clearing helps to sort out univeristy and colleges places in the UK. You might go to the first univeristy of your choice or you might go to none that you first think of. You might change your mind after you get your results or you decide that you want to have a GAP year rather than go into colleges when your not ready.

I have sent you the link from the website so you can explore it yourself, you will need to talk to people for advice.

Also there is another way, you might think about the Open University which is now available for those in 16 plus who want to study part-time or wish to have some flexible study plans.

I hope this helps