Finishing off your UCAS application.

Hopefully by this stage you've filled out your UCAS application. It's pretty self explanatory really, you just fill out all of the necessary details, and now that you've finished your personal statement and have attached it you are pretty much ready to go! It's worth going over your application a couple of times to make sure you have all the correct details in. When I was doing mine, it took me quite a while to input my GCSE's and qualifications I have already gained from college. That might make me sound pretty stupid, but trust me, when you're trying to get something spot on it can be quite stressful and mess you around a bit! Make sure that you are putting the right qualification type in, and that you are inputting the correct date for your GCSE's. The qualification date for your GCSE's will be that on your results certificate, not the date you did the exam (there was much debate about this among me and my friends). I also found it useful to have someone else look over my application too, like a parent or tutor just to double check I hadn't missed anything out. When you think you have finished everything, let your tutor know and they will attach their reference for you (they should have already wrote this for you when you told them you were creating a UCAS application).

So, when it comes to sending off your application, unfortunately you do have to pay. If you are applying for just one course (which isn't recommended just in case you aren't accepted and will therefore have nothing to fall back on), it will cost you £12. If you apply for 2, 3, 4 or 5 courses, it will cost you £23. Paying is straight forward really, you read and accept the terms and conditions (if you do agree with them) and then proceed to pay by card.

Once your application has been paid for and sent off, it goes to your referee. This is the person at your college who is responsible for checking over all applications. It is reassuring that there is yet again another person to check the application  as they will send it back to you with a comment on what needs changing if there are any mistakes. As soon as the application is approved, the referee will then go on to send it off to UCAS. If you aren't at college or doing a foundation degree at uni, and are applying independently, your application will go straight to UCAS and you will be notified.

Now you play the waiting game. It's a tense time for all university applicants as you sit there gnawing your nails waiting for a reply. Luckily, I got two offers the day mine got sent off! Although, I was an eager beaver and sent it off way before the deadline. Don't worry if it takes a few weeks before you get any replies, just think about the amount of people applying to each course, it's going to take the staff a while to get through all of them, so don't panic.