1. education
2. school

GOING TO UNIVERSITY - HOW TO CHOOSE AND APPLY
Your Head of University Applications is Mr Hulme. His office is in the
Business Studies Portacabins and his rôle involves:
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Managing the Electronic Applications System
Organising Higher Education events such as parents' evenings and the
Sixth Form visit to the annual Higher Education Convention
Training Form Tutors in new applications requirements
Ensuring that all references are complete, that they represent students
fairly, accurately and positively, and that they have all been checked by a
Deputy Head Teacher
Writing certain references, including those for Oxbridge applicants
Advising individual students where necessary about courses, institutions
and qualifications
Buying and distributing research resources
Checking every student's application for accuracy and consistency
Preparing students for Oxford and Cambridge interviews
Distributing student finance application forms and giving advice
Keeping up to date with changes in universities and in applications
procedures
Liaising with Ucas
Liaising with Careers to ensure that students' applications meet their
careers requirements and that non-applicants to university or art college
receive appropriate careers advice
RAVENS WOOD Y13 STUDENTS COMPRISE…
1. Many who apply for university get the grades for their choices and go to
the university they chose, obtaining a BA Hons or BSc Hons, usually after
a three-year full-time course.
2. Some who apply for university but don't get the grades for their choices
and go to a university through "Clearing", whereby students without
courses are matched with courses without students. Clearing begins on
the day the results are published in August.
3. Some who decide to go to a local art college and do a one-year Art
Foundation course, using forms and advice and help from our Art
Department.
4. Some who decide that they want to get a full-time job when they finish
their course here. They are encouraged to consult the Careers Service for
help and advice, since job vacancies are published from January onwards.
5. A few who decide to take a gap year working and/or travelling before
going to university, and apply either while they are in the Sixth Form or
after they have left. Some do this by applying in the normal way but
opting to begin a year later (sometimes also called a deferred year).
Others opt not to apply until the following September; an advantage of this
is that the student knows their results, though there are a number of
disadvantages.
6. A few who apply half-heartedly for university because either they think
they ought to or that their parents want them to, but who don't actually go or who drop out after a few weeks.
This document below is aimed at groups 1, 2 and 5.
WHY GO TO UNIVERSITY?
Students go to university because it is an excellent, rewarding, enjoyable way
to spend three years and to make the break from being a young person at
home to being an independent young adult. They go because they gain
intellectual and personal confidence, knowledge, and better learning and
thinking abilities from following a degree course. They know that graduates
tend to be better paid than non-graduates, and are less likely to become
unemployed, so they have a better prospect of financial independence and of
the opportunities that regular income brings. They know that a third of their
age group will get degrees and that young people without degrees will be
disadvantaged in the job market.
APPLICATIONS: THE (COMPARATIVELY) EASY BIT
Filling in the forms online is comparatively easy; you get a detailed guide and
you will be using an Internet system, which will often tell you if there are
mistakes in your application. Writing your Personal Statement is not so hard
once you have worked out what it is for and analysed yourself so that you can
successfully relate what you want to write about to your objectives. Examples
of Personal Statements are available, and your Form Tutor is experienced in
writing them and can offer you lots of helpful advice.
THE HARDER BIT
The biggest challenge you face is deciding where to go and what to read
(study) there. There are hundreds of universities and colleges and tens of
thousands of courses. The choice is too huge for anyone to be 100%
confident they have got it right, so what you have to do is make the best set of
choices you can.
FIRST THOUGHTS
When you apply to university, you must apply for courses that interest you
and not courses you think you ought to do because they will guarantee you a
better career at the end. They won't, and you will be bored and unhappy for
three years; you may fail or get a Third Class degree, a less desirable
outcome. Do some research – yes, of course you need to read medicine to
be a doctor, dentistry to be a dentist, science or engineering degrees to be a
scientist or engineer, but a big percentage of graduate jobs are not degreesubject-specific. You don't, for example, actually need a law degree to be a
lawyer or an accountancy degree to be an accountant. Spend your time at
university enjoying your studies and university life.
THE QUALIFICATIONS YOU NEED
Degree course offers range from 3 grade A's at A level plus a further pass in
a fourth AS down to two grade E's at A level. These differences are largely
based on how much demand there is for courses. Engineering courses are
not in very great demand and so lower grades may be required; on the other
hand, Bristol University, for example, has over 1,000 applications for less than
70 places to read English, so it can and does demand three grade A's. A
course demanding three Bs is not necessarily any more difficult that one
demanding two Cs and a D - in most cases, courses demanding higher
grades are more popular courses and they manage the excess demand by
making it harder to get in. A level grades are the currency with which you
purchase access to degree courses, and the more in-demand a course is, the
more "expensive" it will be.
You will need to make sure that you know what your predicted grades at A
level are, so you can apply for course for which you have a realistic chance of
receiving offers. There are courses for which you will not get an offer unless
you get 3 or 4 A grades at A level, and courses which you can get onto with
two grade Es, and many courses which you can do with AVCE passes. You
will need to consult the Brian Heap book - your tutor will receive a copy in the
summer term for you to use - which will tell you what grades or Tariff points
you will probably need, based on what institutions offered last year. Your
certificated AS grades from Y12 will go onto your Ucas form, so work as hard
as you can this year to ensure you get the best set of grades you can.
Tariff points are awarded for A level grades - 120 for an A, 100 for a B, 80 for
a C, 60 for a D, 40 for an E - see table below. The new system of AS and A2
has made it a little more complicated to work out whether you will be qualified.
Not all universities ask for points – expect the most highly rated institutions to
require specific A level grades.
Each university creates an Entry Profile for each course it offers. These are
found on the Internet by using www.ucas.com and navigating to the Courses
pages. The key terms you must understand are Units and Tariff, and you
must be clear on what these mean.
Units
 Three units means one AS or three AVCE units.
 Six units means two AS's or one A level (=AS + A2) or six AVCE units - an
AVCE Single Award.
 Twelve units means two A levels, or four AS's, or two A levels and two
more AS's, or an AVCE Double Award, or an AVCE Single Award plus
one A level or two AS's.
 Eighteen points can comprise any combination of AS's, A levels and
AVCE units, although universities may make it clear that they want
qualifications to be made up of a particular combination. It is also very
likely that many courses will also require particular A level passes - e.g.
Maths A level at grade B for a Maths degree. See the Ucas Tariff pages
on their web site for details of tariff points for other subjects.
Tariff
GCE AS
A
B
C
D
E
GCE A level
A
B
C
D
E
Tariff points
AVCE
240
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
50
40
30
20
AA
AB
BB
BC
CC
CD
DD
DE
EE
For example, an offer of 200 points could be achieved by getting BB at AVCE
Double Award), or two grade B's at A level, or CDD at A level, or two C's at A
level plus a further C in a different AS…. This makes more sense when you
start applying the Tariff to your own situation and your own predicted grades.
WHERE TO START
In general, pick the course first and then the institution. Use Course Search in
the Ucas web site www.ucas.com or the careers specific software on the
computers in LRC. You can do single honours courses like English, joint
honours courses like Business Studies and French, or Foundation Degrees
which are a little less academic than degrees and tend to be more vocational
- but you can usually turn them into degrees with an extra year's study if you
choose.
WHAT TO STUDY
If you particularly like one of your A level courses, for example English or
Geography, then it is very sensible to continue with that subject at university,
possibly together with another subject you like the sound of as a Joint
Honours course. Make sure the universities you choose offer subject options
you like - if you want to read English and prefer 20th Century literature, don't
apply for institutions where Chaucer is compulsory and learning Anglo-Saxon
is expected.
There are thousands of other courses you could pick
 There are academic subjects that you haven't studied at A level - and
haven't needed to or couldn't study at A level - such as American and
Canadian Studies
 There are more vocational courses with a particular career in mind, such
as Software Engineering or Public Relations. Excellent if you are
committed and stay committed to the subject; less good if you lose interest
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and find your qualification is too narrow for other employers to be
interested.
There are courses with professional qualifications attached, such as
teaching - some National Curriculum subjects give you QTS (qualified
teacher status) as well as your BA or BSc. There are new courses being
devised all the time which take a flexible approach to the job market they
relate to, and may offer extra professional qualifications in, for example,
ICT while you are studying.
There are courses like engineering which come in many varieties and
enable you to progress to professional qualifications that you study for
while in the job you get after graduating - qualifications you can't get
without the degree.
There are courses that are linked to foreign universities and send you to
study there for a year, earning a dual accreditation.
OXBRIDGE
If you are a very academic student in all the A level subjects you are studying,
and you are going to get three or four grade As reasonably easily, and you
want to study a traditionally academic subject at university, then you must
consider Oxbridge (Oxford or Cambridge). You will need to make sure that
one of your AS subjects – passed at Grade A, ideally – is in a contrasting
subject – e.g. Maths if you are studying French, German and History, or
English if you are studying Maths, Physics and Chemistry. Again, entry is
early, like medicine. These ancient institutions are very protective of their high
standards and they are also very sensitive to suggestions that they are
finishing schools for public school Hooray Henries and Henriettas, so they try
very hard to recruit students from state schools, especially comprehensives,
when they can. Don't be put off - talk to me about it.
MEDICINE, ETC.
If you want to study medicine, dentistry or veterinary science, you will need to
get your application in very early. Ucas' deadline is October 15th and we need
time to write your reference. You will need a forecast of three A grades at A
level in the right subjects (e.g. Chemistry is a must). You also need a portfolio
of evidence of all the relevant work experience you have done. Plan such
applications very, very early and do lots of research. Talk to me at the end of
Year 11 or the very beginning of Year 12 if you are interested.
UNIVERSITIES - WHERE TO GO - HERE ARE SOME CRITERIA:
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All big cities in the UK have a traditional university (e.g. Manchester
University). Courses are mostly traditionally academic and you will need
quite high A levels to go there - they are very popular, especially (for some
reason) Nottingham and Leeds. These cities also have more vocationally
minded institutions (e.g. Manchester Metropolitan) which used to be called
polytechnics and tend to require slightly lower A level grades. Cities vary some have lots of social life, some are quite welcoming and others quite
alarming. Research! Go to Open Days!
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There are out-of-town campus universities such as Keele, self-contained
sites that include halls of residence, which appeal to students who want to
feel part of a community.
There are former colleges of further education that can now offer degree
courses. Usually the range they offer is small and vocational, and you can
tell from the A level grades required that they aren't always in high
demand…
There are various high quality league tables available on the Internet etc.
of subjects in different universities in rank order, using a combination of
such variables as teaching quality, graduate employment, number of
books in the library, number of computers available, quality of research
etc., which may help you. There are also league tables that show
employers' preferences when recruiting. These show that employers tend
to prefer graduates from Oxbridge, Bristol, Durham, UCL, Imperial, etc.,
unless they are looking for graduates of very modern technological
courses. If you want to fall in line with these employers' views, choose a
university that has been in existence without changing its name for more
than a century - but remember that its A level requirements will be higher.
Assessment techniques vary. When I was at university I sat ten threehour exams in five days halfway through the course, and a further ten at
the end. You should not expect anything so brutal. If your course is
traditional it will probably be heavily examined; if your course is more
modern it may well have assessed coursework and shorter modular
exams during the course. You may well have to write a dissertation –
essentially a long essay - as well.
Some students have to contribute to the family budget and that is a good
reason for living at home while studying, as are special health reasons. If
you must live at home you could commute to (in alphabetical order) City,
Goldsmiths, Greenwich, Imperial, Kings, London Metropolitan, Middlesex,
South Bank, UCL and Westminster. However, if you wish to live at home
just so you can go on working at Sainsbury's, living free at home and
enjoying your comfortable Orpington lifestyle while expecting Mummy to
go on doing all your washing and ironing for you, then you have missed
the point about Higher Education and you need to grow up.
Oxbridge if you are academically able and committed to what they have
to offer. Talk to me now if you are interested.
RAVENS WOOD'S EXPERIENCE: most students choose universities
 because of the courses on offer there
 because they or their parents know the places that they are in and like
them
 because other students whom they know have already gone there and like
it there
 because the universities are listed in the Heap book as requiring the right
sort of points
 or even because one of their teachers went there
Don't start with all the courses available and whittle them down to six - you
haven't time. Start with what you know and what you think you want to do,
and research that.
RESEARCHING - The Internet
The Ucas web site www.ucas.com acts as a browser for all the universities, all
of which maintain their own sites with their prospectuses on. Highly
recommended.
RESEARCHING - printed materials
We send you to a Higher Education Fair in Y12 where you can talk to
representatives of most of the universities and collect prospectuses - booklets
produced by universities which list the courses available, explain what else
the universities have to offer and generally try to sell the universities as
products. Prospectuses don't actually lie, but they can make the truth seem
somehow less disappointing. Some of the least attractive places in Britain,
such as Wolverhampton, have universities, and these prospectuses can be
masterpieces of disguise. Get as many prospectuses as you can. We no
longer keep copies in school - they take up too much space.
RESEARCHING - go and see
You really ought to visit the institutions you have put on your Ucas form
(there's room for six) - not necessarily all of them but the ones you are most
interested in. They have Open Days, and these dates are on web sites and in
prospectuses etc. Don't go all the way to Aberdeen, for example, unless
you're really keen.
HOW TO APPLY
We will be using a system called APPLY, which means that you will not fill in
a paper form but apply on a computer. There are five sections for you to
complete:
 a list (in alphabetical order) of your choices of courses and institutions
 your education and the qualifications that you have already achieved and
expect to get
 your personal details
 your work experience
 your Personal Statement, in which you have a chance to "sell yourself" to
your chosen universities.
PERSONAL STATEMENTS - WHAT DO UCAS AND UNIVERSITIES EXPECT?
This is the Ucas view:
This is your chance to tell the universities and colleges you have chosen why
you are applying, and why they should want you as a student. Admissions
officers will want to know why you are interested in your chosen subjects, but
they will also want to see that you are ready for university or college life. A
good Personal Statement is important - it could help to persuade an
admissions officer to offer you a place.
You do not have to use all the space here, but you must not continue on extra
pages. Your statement must be clear, and your writing should not be too
small because we will need to copy your form and reduce it to half size during
processing.
It is up to you how you write your statement but we suggest you include some
or all of the following points.
 Why you have chosen the courses you have listed.
 Why you are interested in the subject.
 Any job, work experience, placement or voluntary work you have done,
particularly if it is relevant to your subject.
 Details of key (core) skills you have gained through, for example,
AVCE.
 Other achievements, such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
 Particular interests you have in your current studies.
 Your future plans.
 Any subjects you are studying that do not have an exam.
 Any sponsorship or placements you have or have applied for.
 If you are planning to take a year out, your reasons why.
 Your social, sports or leisure interests.
You may want to include information from your National Record of
Achievement or Progress File, if you have one.
How do you go about it? The following may well work for you, but remember
that there are a number of ways of arriving at an effective Personal Statement
– and that Personal Statements do not look the same.
The logical approach to writing a Personal Statement might be to produce
paragraphs like these:
1. Why I want to study my chosen subject(s) - not just because “it’s
interesting” - why is it interesting - and where I think this will lead me
(career etc.)
2. What I have contributed to my school - to show what a positive, helpful
and talented person I am
3. What I do outside school (to show my all-round abilities and interests) –
e.g. representative sport, musicianship etc.
4. Anything else (see Ucas’ list above). All students should refer to how their
key skills have developed in the Sixth Form.
However, if all Ucas forms look like this they run the risk of failing to
differentiate you from everyone else, so if you can have a different approach
this could be very effective.
Start by choosing what you want to study – your Personal Statement must
consider this carefully. Explain to yourself why you want to study it. Create a
key word list of reasons to use when writing about this. Talk to your form tutor
about what makes us choose different subjects and why different subjects
and careers interest different people.
Work with other students who know what you get up to in school to
brainstorm a list of things you do in school. Emphasise especially the things
you have done in the last two-three years.
Work with parents and friends to help you write down a list of what you do
outside school, and highlight the things that will put you in a good light.
“Outside school I mostly socialise with me mates” is not likely to win the
hearts of most admissions tutors…why?
Get students who have already been through the process to discuss how they
went about it.
Set out the objectives of your Personal Statement - what are you trying to
achieve? The answer to this question should involve your awareness that you
are selling the total YOU as a package – academic, sporting, community,
leadership, teams, independence, personality, social, ambition, motivation,
maturity, travel are all aspects of your character and application that you
should consider.
Don’t be afraid to draw the reader’s attention to your personal qualities – e.g.
“During Activities Week in the Sixth Form I helped to lead a group of students
in planning and executing a camping and canoeing trip to South Wales, which
developed my leadership and organisational skills”. But don’t just boast – “I
am popular and a natural leader” – without providing evidence.
Don’t include lies on your Personal Statement that may be picked up later at
an interview. If you want to read English, don’t state “My favourite book is…..”
unless you have read it and can discuss it.
When you come to write the Personal Statement, draft and redraft like
English GCSE coursework, and try to make your Personal Statement as
literate as possible (spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax…). The Personal
Statement must finally be word-processed (minimum 12 point), though I
would recommend you hand-draft your original. You will find it difficult to get
more than 500 words onto the space in the form.
TIMING
March Y12
Higher Education Information Evening for all - students and parents
Higher Education Convention
March-August Y12
Gather information
By the end of the summer term in Y12 you should have completed your
Personal Statement on computer and given it to your form tutor on a diskette
so he/she can keep it on file. Your tutor will help you with the Personal
Statement, and it is important that every student whether applying for
university or not does this. There are so many students in Year 12 that we
cannot allow you to miss any of these deadlines and still consider yourself
genuine Ucas applicants.
Autumn term Y13
Oxbridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary surgery candidates must have
completed the whole process of entry by September 17th.
At the beginning of the autumn term I will give Form Tutors a detailed
timetable explaining what has to be done and by when. It is in your interest to
treat your Ucas application as your most important task this term.
By Half Term all applicants must have filled in subject reference request
forms for their tutors and given them to me, so we can write their
references.
We cannot guarantee that any form I see after November 26th will meet
Ucas' own deadline. Remember that all the administration ultimately has to
be checked and dispatched by me alone, and I am not a magician or a Time
Lord.
November 26th is a deadline, not a target. ALL SERIOUS UNIVERSITY APPLICANTS
WILL HAVE COMPLETED THE PROCESS IN SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER. You should aim to get
your Ucas application finished and with me before the end of September, so
you are free to concentrate on academic work. If your Y12 application work is
complete in July, as it should be, all this means is inserting your six choices.
The later you leave it, the more likely it is that you will need to wait for hours
to see me, and the less likely it will be that your chosen universities will want
to know.
The key to applying is - the earlier, the better!
You may have interviews from November to April or May of Year 13, although
you will probably only be interviewed if you are applying for science, medical
or teaching courses. Many students get invited to Open Days, when there are
informal discussions with tutors as well as university tours, instead of having a
formal interview.
Spring term Y13
In February/March, apply to your local authority (Bromley LEA if you live in
this London borough, or Croydon/Lewisham/Greenwich as appropriate) to get
most of your fees paid – I will supply forms for Bromley-based students via
your form tutor. You'll also be applying in Y13 for a student loan to help pay
for your maintenance at university. These loans - plus parents' contributions are how your living costs, plus a proportion of the fees, are paid for. You
repay loans after graduating once your income reaches a certain point, at an
interest rate equal to the inflation rate - very low these days, and the money
will come out of your monthly salary like Income Tax. Try not to worry about
the financial aspects - see them as a challenge rather than an obstacle.
Make your firm and insurance course choices (this will make sense by then!)
and notify Ucas.
A level results day
Ucas will have told you what to do if you have the grades you need. You will
be able to check if you have been accepted on the Internet, using the
application number and password sent to you by Ucas. If you haven't the
grades but are "nearly there", ring your chosen university and be very polite. If
you haven't a place, use the Clearing process. Ucas will have told you how to
do this, and all the information you need will be in the newspapers, on
Teletext, on the Internet and at Prospects. We will be there on Results Day to
help as much as we can.
Hundreds of thousands of students each year manage the Ucas process
successfully, so you can, too - so long as you set yourself targets for research
and decision making, discuss your progress sensibly with your form tutor, and
leave nothing too late. I will put up a notice in September giving the times
when I am most likely to be in my office.
Jonathan Hulme