St. Andrew’s and St. Bride’s High School

Guide to

UCAS Apply 2017

What is UCAS Apply?

UCAS Apply is a secure, web-based application system, which is available 24 hours a day. It can be used anywhere where there is access to the internet, so you can fill in your application where and when it suits you. If you are applying to University in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland or Wales you must do so through UCAS. Some Colleges and other higher education institutions are also available through UCAS.

Don’t worry! Although you may log in and out of UCAS, only Guidance Teachers are able to forward completed forms to UCAS. It is not possible for you/students to send an incomplete form to UCAS accidentally.

Using UCAS Apply

  • Go to click on Apply or track
  • Click on Apply for 2017 courses
  • Click on register, if registering for the first time
  • Read and tick the box to accept the terms and conditions.
  • Follow the instructions on screen and register your personal details.
  • Choose and confirm your password. Your password must be between 6 and 14 characters and must contain at least 1 number and 1 letter. Please make a note of your password now; it will not be displayed at a later stage. password
  • Carefully complete four security questions given on the drop down menus. Make a note of these questions and answers which may be required when speaking to institutions at a later stage.

Qu1 Answer

Qu2 Answer

Qu3 Answer

Qu4 Answer

  • On the next screen, your username will be given.

IMPORTANT Make a note of this as it will not be displayed at a later stage.

  • You can now choose to login
  • When asked “how are you applying?” Select “through my school/college.”
  • When prompted, type in the buzzword:angrybird This is case sensitive.
  • You will now be asked to choose a tutor/application group – choose your registration group.
  • On the next screen you will be given your personal ID e.g. 107-945-8893.
    Please make a note of this number. You will need to quote this number when you contact institutions later.

You will be sent a verification code to the email address that you have given. (Make sure you can access this email address from both school and home) You will need this code in order to continue with your application.

  • You may continue to complete your form or you may log in later. All additional sections can be found on the list down the left hand side of the screen.

Personal details section

Follow instructions on screen but take care with the following:

  • Area of permanent residence. This is the local authority where you live, i.e. South Lanarkshire
  • Country of birth – United Kingdom is at the top of the drop down list
  • Nationality – UK national is at the top of the drop down list
  • Residential category – Choose ‘UK Citizen or EU National’
  • Reference numbers. These are not relevant for most pupils. Leave blank.
  • Passport Details. These are not relevant for most pupils. Leave blank.
  • Fee Code - Choose‘02 UK, ChI, loM or EU student finance services’
  • Student Support Arrangements - Select ‘Student AA Scotland’ from near the bottom of the drop down list.
  • Nominated Access. This section is optional. You may designate someone to speak to universities on you behalf e.g. if you will be on holiday when results come out etc.
  • Criminal Conviction.
  • Disability/special needs – Select ‘No disability’.
  • Tick section complete and save

Additional Information

A number of the questions are compulsory such as:

  • Ethnic Origin – choose from drop down list
  • National identity - choose from drop down list
  • Occupational background
  • Tick section complete and save

Student Finance

Currently in Scotland all university courses are paid for through SAAS – Scottish Award Agency. You will need to apply to SAAS for this funding to take place. Make sure you tick the following:

  • I will be applying for student finance
  • Then click I want to share my details with SAAS and I want UCAS to send me a reminder
  • Tick section complete and save

Education and Qualifications

  • Add new school or college? - Search for St. Andrew’s and St. Bride’s, SQA centre no. 70344
  • Formal qualifications at centre – click yes
  • Click save
  • Use the add qualification instruction to enter all the subjects that you have taken in S4 and S5 as well as the subjects that you are now taking in S6. You must include fails as well as passes. List all your unknown results as ‘pending’.
  • You will now need to enter your Scottish Candidate Number
  • You will be asked about the highest level of qualification that you expect to achieve before applying. Select ‘Below Honours degree level qualifications’
  • Tick section complete and save

Employment

Please give the names and addresses of your most recent employer. If you have not had any paid work experience you can leave this section blank, but you will need to mark it as complete.

Choices

You may apply for up to five courses. Make sure that you research your choices carefully. These will appear alphabetically on your form. There is no order of preference because each application is treated separately. At this stage, institutions do not know where else you have applied to. However, they will know if you have applied to more than one course at their university. If the courses are very different this may harm your application. (This may indicate that you have no real commitment to any one area of study) If they are very similar then you may not actually need to apply to more than one at that institution. This can result in a wasted choice.

**In the current competitive climate you cannot ‘hedge your bets’. You must research and consider your course choices carefully.**

Personal Statement

There is a lot of good advice on the UCAS website, and university web pages. The ‘Step Up Programme’ available within the school will give you a great deal of help with this and steer you correctly when it comes to content, style and standing out. Special assemblies and one-to-one interviews with your UCAS tutor will also help with this. You should begin drafting your statement now. The mind map attached will allow you to gather important information which will help with this process.

Payment

To send your application to your UCAS tutor within the school for them to include your reference and check your application you will need to choose payment method – pay online by card or ‘bill to be paid by the school. If applying for more than 1 course the cost is £24. For 1 course only the cost is £13.

Reference

It is important that you meet with your designated UCAS tutor, which is usually your Pupil Support Teacher. During these meetings you must share with them the types of courses you are interested in and your personal interests. You must also allow them to see your personal statement as soon as possible because their reference must reflect this. Staff will be under a great deal of pressure with regards to time so leaving things to the last minute will only hinder your application.

Admissions Tests

Applicants to law (at Glasgow), medicine, Oxford, Cambridge and certain other courses and institutions must take additional tests. You must book some of these on line and sit at a nearby test centre. Books are available to buy allowing you to practise such tests. Practise is strongly advised.

Check to find out more.

See Also