UCAS is the service which facilitates applications to university throughout the UK. If you are in your last couple of years of school, you are probably very familiar with UCAS, but if you’re not at school or you’re a mature learner, you will still need to navigate the system.
UCAS allows you to choose five different courses, at either the same or different universities. Depending upon your qualifications, you will receive one of three outcomes for each: an Unconditional offer, a Conditional offer or an Unsuccessful decision. Out of your Conditional and Unconditional offers, you will have to make your choice on which university is your Firm choice, and if your Firm choice is Conditional, an Insurance choice.
You can find out more in our article Making Your UCAS Choices to learn more about this part of the process.
The UCAS Cycle
The UCAS Cycle runs September – September from the perspective of universities every year. Along the way, there are a number of key dates that you should be aware of. Some of which all universities need to adhere to, but others afford flexibility based on the individual needs of the courses.
You can find an overview of the Key Dates and Applicant Journey here.
From the start of May, universities will start to list their courses for the upcoming year. If you are planning on applying for the following academic year, this is when you can start to research your options.
At the start of September, any fully complete applications begin to get sent to institutions by UCAS. Don’t worry if you’re not ready yet, you still have plenty of time! Most learners don’t get their applications in until much later.
If you are applying to Veterinary Medicine, an important date to remember is the 15th of October. This is the deadline for all Veterinary and Medicine degrees, as well as for Oxford and Cambridge. This is the same every year and gives universities the time they need to conduct interviews, applicant days, or any other additional parts of the application process associated with these specialist programmes.
You can read more in our article about Making Your UCAS Choices to learn about the best way to use your five choices.
The majority of programmes close on the last Wednesday of January at 6pm GMT. This is known as the ‘Equal Consideration Deadline’ (ECD) which means that this is the date you should aim to have your application in for to ensure it is considered for entry in that coming academic year. All applications received by the ECD are considered equally by universities, but applications received after may be considered on a case by case basis and may not be considered at all, depending on how competitive the programme is.
Every university works slightly differently when it comes to making offers. Some universities make offers on a ‘rolling basis’ which means that you might not be waiting very long after you apply to find out whether you’ve got an offer. Where universities receive more applications than they can make offers for, they will operate a ‘gathered field’ – which means that you will be waiting until after the January deadline to hear. At a lot of institutions, applications are not received until the last couple of days before the deadline, meaning that if you apply close to the deadline even if your course does rolling offers, you may still have to wait to hear. Universities do not have to publish what their offer making strategy is.
Universities do always try to make decisions as fast as they can, even if it feels like you are waiting a while. The best thing to do is to be patient and wait to hear back, research all of your options, and try to remain open minded about where you are going to go to study.
At the end of February, UCAS Extra opens. UCAS Extra is for applicants who have been made unsuccessful from all five options, or are not holding offers (because you chose to Decline all of those you did receive). It is worth noting there is often a reduced selection of programmes available in Extra, and because universities can make offers on a first come, first serve basis at this part of the UCAS cycle, it is recommended you speak to the admissions teams of the universities you want to go to in order to check they are still considering applications. You only get two Extra choices, so it is important you don’t waste them.
For applicants who applied by the ECD, the ‘Reject by Default’ (RBD) date is in mid-May. The RBD is the date by which universities must make decisions on all applications which have been received by the ECD. This means that you will know the outcome of your application by then. You then have until the first week in June to make your Decision. The ‘Decline by Default (DBD) is the date by which if you don’t make your UCAS choices on time all of your programmes will be declined automatically. Therefore, you must make your decision by then.
If you applied after the ECD, you will have a mid-July RBD, which will give you a mid-July DBD (it’s usually around a week after the RBD).
Applicants have two weeks after they have made their choices to change their responses. This is called a Reply Swap. After fourteen days have passed, applicants must ask permission from the universities involved in the swap to allow it to take place. Universities after fourteen days are under no obligation to say yes, so it’s important you make your decisions carefully.
You can read more in our article about Making Your UCAS Choices to learn about choosing your Firm and Insurance places.
On the 30th of June, UCAS closes to new applications being submitted for all programmes, even those which remained open after the ECD. On the 4th of July, Extra closes, and on the 5th of July, Clearing opens.
If you are Unconditional Firm, then the only actions you will likely need to take is to supply any certificates or documents your university has requested. If you are Conditional, you will have to wait for your exam results being released. Your university will tell you whether or not you need to take any action: the majority of UK qualifications are supplied via UCAS to universities, but some are not, and so if there are any documents required, you will be notified by your university directly.
The UCAS Application
Your application to undergraduate study has three main sections. These are your About information, the Personal Statement, and your Reference.
Your About section is all the key information about yourself, including contact details. The UCAS cycle goes beyond the end of the school year, and so if you decide to include your school email address instead of a personal one, you should ensure you maintain access to it even after you finish school, as this is the email address universities and colleges will use to contact you.
It’s also very important you list your qualifications correctly on your application. Many universities will not request more information if you have done it incorrectly. It is your responsibility to ensure your record of attainment is correct, with the right grades, dates, subjects and where relevant exam boards. If you are applying with qualifications that are less common in the UK such as EU or international curriculums, sometimes these do not fit as neatly into the qualifications section. Where-ever possible under these circumstances it is good practise to provide a PDF transcript direct to your universities as this avoids any doubt that you have been transparent about your qualifications.
The Personal Statement is the section that a lot of applicants stress about the most. Every university will take a different perspective on how they choose to use it, and so it’s worthwhile asking every where you are applying to what it is they look for. If you find you’re being asked for lots of different things, try to brainstorm the common themes and concepts amongst all of them. UCAS has helpful information about the Personal Statement here and we also provide a guide to writing an equestrian personal statement here.
The Reference is the section provided by your education provider. Most universities look for an academic reference because for the majority of degrees you need to have studied previously in order to be qualified. If, for whatever reason, you believe you will struggle to obtain an academic reference, you should contact your universities to find out what they can suggest. Every university will have different rules with regards to this, so it’s important you find out what is required of you. Your Referee is responsible for inputting any predicted grades of pending qualifications, including any they are not directly responsible for. If you believe your Referee is not familiar with UCAS it’s good to clarify they need to provide all the predictions, not just for their subject. This is also why it’s a good idea to use an academic reference, rather than a work reference.
Conclusions
Your education provider is likely very familiar with the UCAS process and will be able to support you throughout. However, we know it can be a confusing time, and so you can always reach out to us to ask any questions that you may have about the application process. There are over 110 equine related degrees on UCAS, so there are an awful lot to choose from!