Back Again With Some Fun UCAS Advice

Hello and welcome back to another post from my blog - prompted in part by my father asking when there would be another, and also by UCAS reminding me that I was going to write a post about applying to university.

So here I am, packed with knowledge about UCAS applications and personal statements and all of that fun stuff, all of which I hopefully still remember.

Firstly, I hope that you, dear reader, are keeping fairly well in these times - with lockdown coming back in the next few days, I do hope that you can remain positive and loving and I shall try to write more blog posts to keep you entertained (although as I am still going to school, this may have been an empty promise).

Secondly, the reintroduction of lockdown has meant that my driving theory test that was to occur on Friday 6th November has been cancelled (to be rescheduled!) which is highly unfortunate. But I shall endeavour to go out driving with my parents despite no longer being able to have lessons with an instructor. We shall see how that goes.

Thirdly, I am 18 soon which is simultaneously exciting and terrifying, although there will be no pub/nightclub outing to celebrate. I am completely devastated by this. Obviously.

Fourthly: UCAS stuff! I'm sure that there will be loads of things that I don't mention/forget to say and do remember that this is based on my own experiences with the whole thing. If you have any questions, you can comment below or I found it helpful to message the various friends/family members I have who went to/are at university for their advice.

Choosing a University
Before this, you will (probably) need to choose a course. I'm very lucky and unusual in the fact that I've known that I wanted to study History and English since I was fairly young, and so I could basically skip this step, but for the more normal people out there, this will require careful consideration and probably quite a bit of frustration.

After having chosen the course, use the UCAS tool (?) to find universities in the UK that offer than course.

I wrote them all down on a sheet of paper, then crossed off any in London, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and big cities like Birmingham. Then, as I knew that I wanted to go to a campus-based uni, I crossed off any that were city-based (like Bristol). Then it was just a 'simple' matter of comparing courses (remember to check  :)

Note on Oxbridge
I can comment on this, as I've applied to Oxford :) You have to choose one between Oxford and Cambridge, then you can either choose a specific college or do an open entry to just be placed somewhere. I chose an Oxford college to apply to, which was chosen by having the list of potential ones for my course and then visiting the websites - Corpus Christi is an older college that's also one of the smaller ones, without a massive focus on sport. 

You'll have to do some extra work to apply to these two unis - for Oxford, you might have to do an entrance exam and send some written work, then you're maybe selected for an interview, and then you might get a place after all of that.

Just be sure that you want to apply, I'd say. But also, even if you're not 100% sure that you do want to go yet your grades are good enough, apply! The only thing you'll lose is one place out of five possibles.

Personal Statement
Read lots of articles/other advice on what the universities are looking for in a personal statement. The important thing to remember is the character count (4000 characters!) and the line count (47 lines on the UCAS website!). I would also say that the thing I kept having to edit was the links between what I said that I did and why it mattered when considering the course I was applying to do.

It almost goes without saying that you want to know what you're applying to study before beginning to write your personal statement.

And also get your teacher/another person/parents to read through it to edit. Editing is important.

Oxford History Aptitude Test (HAT)
Obviously, this only applies if you're applying to Oxford to study something to do with History. However, it was a 'fun' experience for me and I'm going to write a bit about it because that's why I have a blog.

The HAT is a source question, in which you have 60 minutes to write an essay about a given source, without needing any historical context of the time. The source is the weirdest source that they can find - this year, we had an extract from a book written about the beginning of the Mongolian Empire, and the extract detailed the actions of Gengis Khan's daughter-in-law as she took the throne. It was tough, because I did not have much time and also because I kept forgetting who was who... but I did it! And actually wrote a mostly comprehensive essay in which I mentioned historical approaches and interpretations!

And lastly, the most recent update on my current university status: I have received a conditional offer for York, Lancaster and Southampton, and am waiting to hear from Warwick. With regards to Oxford, I shall get an email soonish to say whether I have been invited to an interview or not - I'm actually hoping that I do (obviously, because then I'm closer to actually getting a place but also because the questions on the website for History and also for English look like fun questions to answer/discuss).

You may hear from me soon, or you may not. I'm not going to pretend that there's a schedule when there isn't one - for instance, this post has been saved in my drafts for about three weeks now.

Have a good day and week! :)