THE BLUE COAT SCHOOL UCAS 2017 HANDBOOK.

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1 THE BLUE COAT SCHOOL UCAS 2017 HANDBOOK. A GUIDE FOR STUDENTS BUT ALSO TEACHERS AND PARENTS. CONTENTS What does an application consist of?... 1 The sections of a UCAS application Checking and sending the application Student and Tutor meeting... 4 After it has been sent off... 5 Results Day 2017 and afterwards... 5 The Blue Coat 2017 UCAS Timeline... 6 WHAT DOES AN APPLICATION CONSIST OF? A UCAS application is split into the following sections 1. Personal Details, Additional Information and Student Finance 2. Choices 3. Academic History 4. Employment 5. Personal Statement 6. Reference and Predicted Grades Students are responsible for the first five sections above and teachers for the last. However, from the outset everyone needs to be clear that there is a collective responsibility for a good university application. THE SECTIONS OF A UCAS APPLICATION. SECTION 1: PERSONAL DETAILS, ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND STUDENT FINANCE Students complete this section on the UCAS day in June. Please be aware of the following: Register at UCAS.com for Apply 2017, you are making application through a school. Use your school address and the buzzword "2017CovBCS". Put yourself into your Year 13 form. Your fee code is 02. The only exceptions are for those applying for some NHS funded courses and recently arrived (five year or less) international students. Student support arrangements option will be Coventry, Warwickshire or Solihull depending on where you live. Blue Coat 2017 UCAS Application Guide (2017 Version 1.0) Page 1

2 Put John Miller, Head of Sixth Form down as nominated access. This allows me to negotiate on your behalf if you need me to. This is for the all the things that you are not expecting to happen such as seeking clarity on conditions of offer and correcting mistakes. Make sure you get the nationality, ethnicity and national identity section correct or you could end up with international fees and no student loan. Nationalities from the EU are the same as UK National when it comes to fees (except if you are apply to Scottish Universities, ask me about this). Please note this is only true for the fees for the living costs loan you must have lived in the UK for the last 5 years. Nationality is what is on your passport and is not the same as ethnicity, which is about cultural and racial origins. If you were born in the UK, or hold a UK passport, your nationality is UK National, regardless of your ethnicity. The section about national identity is which country do your feel part of. The most important here is the nationality as this will be used to determine which fees you pay. Residential category needs to match the nationality section. If you are not a British Citizen but you have the right to live here then you should select Settled in the UK, check the further information section but this is the correct option unless you know that your status is refugee or asylum seeker. If you get this wrong it s not the end of the world but you ll have hours, literally hours, of extra forms to fill. SECTION 2: CHOICES This is covered in the numerous talks and events that we do. Make a good choice. It does not matter which order you enter your choices, the universities can t see which other ones you ve applied to. SECTION 3: EDUCATION This should be very simple but often isn t. You put in what you ve got and what you are going to do. What follows is a robust way of doing it, please do it, line by line. In July: Complete the education section of the UCAS application up to your GCSE year. Don't put in A Levels yet it's tricky to get right and you'll do it in September. Please put that you are leaving Blue Coat in 2017 as you won t be able to add qualifications correctly if you put an earlier date. There is a short list of qualifications that covers 95% of all qualifications including the FSMQ and Diploma. The ICT qualification that many of you did at Blue Coat is as follows: o In Year 11 in June 2013 students did an OCR Level 2 National First Award. o In Year 11 in June 2014 students did an OCR Level 2 National First Award. o In Year 11 in June 2015 students did an OCR Level 1/2 Cambridge National Certificate. o In Year 11 in June 2016 students did an OCR Level 1/2 Cambridge National Certificate. o In Year 11 in June 2017 (and 2018) students are doing an Edxcel ICT GCSE Diploma students you will have to add the Higher Project as other and fill in the details, it is not an Extended Project. If you joined Blue Coat in Year 12 you will need to bring in the originals of your certificates (not the exam slips), and hand them in at the office so we can take a copy. For the Free Standing Maths Qualification you choose add qualification and then from the short list choose Free Standing Maths. Adv level needs to go in there somewhere as well. If you are in any doubt about what qualifications you have done, ASK. We ve had several disasters where students have put the wrong qualifications in. Blue Coat 2017 UCAS Application Guide (2017 Version 1.0) Page 2

3 In September: Please refer to the qualification short list that is provided. This covers 99% of all Blue Coat Yr 11 qualifications including the FSMQ. Complete the following steps in the following order: 1) Put in the AS you have just sat as completed AS qualifications, with the grades that you got. 2) Put in the A Level qualifications that you are going to sit as pending. 3) If you are doing a new AS Level (i.e., one that you didn t take last year) put that down as pending. If you are redoing the AS in a subject and not doing the full A Level, you put that down as pending. You don t put down any AS retakes as pending if you are doing the full A Level. For the EPQ please give a shortened version of your title as space is limited. If you are doing AS and/or A Levels as a consortium student at another school, you include them with your regular AS/A Levels at Blue Coat, you don t put down your other school. You can put down the module grades if you want, but you don t have to. Here s how: 1) You put down all the module grades that you got in Year 12 in the AS qualifications. 2) You add all the grades that you are not resitting in the A Level section (yes that means they go in twice). 3) You put in as pending any modules that you have yet to sit or are resitting from last year. Qualifications outside of Blue Coat: Exams taken elsewhere (GCSEs etc) need to be under the right school eg Heart of England Music exams need to be listed under the correct exam centre, usually the exam board eg Trinity. Duke of Edinburgh needs to be listed with the correct centre eg Queens Rd Baptist Church. You might need to create a centre for Queen s Rd Baptist or similar. SECTION 4: EMPLOYMENT You put in your employment history (if you have one). SECTION 5: PERSONAL STATEMENT This is a 4,000 character (including spaces) monologue. It is covered in a.pdf document that is sent out to students, which includes lots of examples of different types of personal statement. Read it carefully. Biggest tip don t waffle. E.g., since I was a foetus I have been passionate about Medicine is clearly rubbish, but not far off what some people have written. I have indeed read descriptions of what candidates did before they were born! Don t write a grand narrative, but explain instead your interest in the subject and what you hope to gain by studying it. Avoid the word passion at all costs. Passion: exude it, don t state it. This should be drafted over the summer holidays and a first full version shown to your tutor at the start of September. SECTION 6: REFERENCE AND PREDICTED GRADES Subject references and predicted grades are found on SIMS and will be in place by Monday 19th of September 2016 Tutors are expected to compile a reference in a Word document that is ed to Mrs Power (powerl@bluecoatschool.com). For those doing early entry the deadline for this is Sunday 2 nd of October The following standard paragraph (198 characters including spaces) will be added to each reference at the top. Blue Coat 2017 UCAS Application Guide (2017 Version 1.0) Page 3

4 Blue Coat School serves Coventry and parts of Warwickshire. A quarter of our open Sixth Form joins from other schools. About three quarters reach university; a quarter of these to the Russell Group. Therefore tutors are asked to write a reference of close to, but no more than, 3802 characters (including spaces). The predicted grades are transferred from SIMS to UCAS by Mrs Power. YEAR 14 AND EX-STUDENTS INFORMATION Students sometimes complete UCAS applications after leaving school, this is fine and we are happy to help you. Please ask for the 2018, 2019 or relevant copy of this booklet, you will need to add yourself to J Miller s tutor group not your old one. The information in this booklet still stands but use a personal (but professional sounding) address. You will need to complete the pay and send section before we update your reference. CHECKING AND SENDING THE APPLICATION. This should be nice and straight forward, but doing it right for 150+ students is not easy. STUDENT SECTION If you want to be included in the early application you MUST complete your application by the 1 st of October Once this has been done, students have to click pay/send. You have to pay the fee (only once) via credit card or debit card. Once that has happened the school has to approve the application it has not been sent to UCAS yet. Mrs Power will check the application, especially the education sections. If errors are found, it will be returned to the student. If no errors are found, then the application will be approved. If the application is returned to the student, the student has to make the changes and then click on pay/send again. They don t have to pay a second time, though. REFERENCE SECTION. The reference goes through an SLT check. Once returned it is uploaded to UCAS by Mrs Power. It will be marked as complete on UCAS, but it will not be approved at this point. STUDENT AND TUTOR MEETING This is probably the most important bit of the whole process. It is essential that it is carried out as described below, and not in any other way. Students, you are equally responsible for ensuring it is done properly. Students this is important!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By now the application is approved and the reference complete (three red ticks on UCAS there is no point in carrying on unless there are). Students and tutors must sit down and work through the whole application and reference using only the UCAS teacher screen. The student must verify that the reference is factually correct and he or she will see the predicted grades as they appear on UCAS. We cannot be clear enough about this: regardless of what you have been told before, what you see on that screen at this point is what UCAS will see when it is sent to them. If there are any errors you must alert your tutor to them, and they must be reported to Mrs Power, who will chase them up. It may be necessary to arrange another meeting with your tutor. Blue Coat 2017 UCAS Application Guide (2017 Version 1.0) Page 4

5 When student and tutor agree that the information is correct, the tutor will approve the reference on UCAS (this is different to previous years), and then Mrs Power will send the fully completed application to UCAS. Once it has been sent it cannot be edited a new choice can be added, but that s it. If the grades are wrong, or there are any other mistakes, it s too late. AFTER IT HAS BEEN SENT OFF Keep checking your s, get your s on your phone, there is no excuse for not doing this. Download the UCAS app. Reply to s from unis: you can lose an existing offer by not replying. Remember to update UCAS if any of your details change e.g. address or mobile telephone number. You will get one of the following responses: Conditional Offer read the terms carefully, and ask if it s not clear. Unconditional Offer let J Miller or J Lawrie know immediately if this happens. It should be good news, but it might mean you ve made a mistake. Check with us before you accept. Interview reply! Declined you should be given a response that explains why, but please bring these to Mr. Lawrie or Mr. Miller if you want further information. Students and staff will be able to see offers on the Track screen. Of the five choices, you can select two offers. One is your firm choice and the other (which should really be a lower offer) an insurance. This needs to be done by the start of May Also make sure that you actually want to go to your insurance choice. If you do not really want to go there you could end up in clearing. Save the hassle and really think about this. If you want to defer your entry (enter uni in 2018), this is best done when making your choices; however you might be able to defer up until just before enrolment. At some universities, deferring is as easy as sending an . If you wish to do this, you can do, so long as the uni agrees. Phone them up and ask. RESULTS DAY 2017 AND AFTERWARDS If you have met the terms of your firm choice this will be automatically selected for you on results day. You don t need to do anything. If your firm choice university declines you and you ve met the terms of your insurance offer, then that will be automatically selected for you. In 2013, if a uni accepted a student the offer was changed to unconditional on results day morning around 8:30 AM. You can call your universities from 7am to check whether you have been accepted onto the course. If you accept an unconditional offer at any point, that s it. The complications start when a uni decides to hold you rather than accept or decline. This typically happens when a student has narrowly missed the grade requirements of an offer. This is where you need to be ready to start making phone calls come into school, find either Mr. Lawrie or Mr. Miller, and we ll talk it through. Nothing is final and legally binding until the place is confirmed in writing in August/September 2017, and you sign and return the contract. Celebrate and enjoy the sun. Blue Coat 2017 UCAS Application Guide (2017 Version 1.0) Page 5

6 THE BLUE COAT 2017 UCAS TIMELINE Date What Who Done Thursday 28 th January UCAS Evening Students and Parents January - May Looking at websites, getting prospectuses, arranging work experience Students May Summer Exams June - September Open days (please limit these to three school days in total) Students (and parents) Tuesday 28 th June UCAS Conference at NEC. All students Monday 4 th July UCAS registration and personal statement day at Blue Coat August Exam results September Form group sessions in the computer room to complete education section. Students Monday 19 th September Completion of subject references Teaching staff Early* Sunday 2 nd October Completion of student section of UCAS application (clicking on pay and Students send will send the application to school for approval NOT straight to the uni) Early Wednesday 5 th October Completion of reference Tutor Early Thursday 6 th October SLT Check of reference SLT Early Monday 9 th October Student tutor meeting to review application Student and Tutor Early 14 th October Application sent off Mrs. Power As soon as reasonably possible in September/October. Completion of student section UCAS application (clicking on pay and send will send the application to school for approval NOT straight to the uni) Student Within two weeks Completion of reference Tutor A week later SLT Check of reference SLT A couple of days later Student tutor meeting to review application Student and Tutor A couple of days later Application sent off Mrs. Power Beginning of December All applications sent to UCAS 15 th Jan 2017 Final on-time deadline for UCAS applications to reach UCAS after checking and reference added etc. Early May Accepting firm and insurance offers Students June Exams August Results day final acceptance *Compulsory for Oxbridge, Medicine, Veterinary and Dentistry; optional for others but encouraged for all. Remember, the early applicant gets the early offer. Blue Coat 2017 UCAS Application Guide (2017 Version 1.0) Page 6