University Choices

[Abigail]

Another thing that I thought of is your A level choices. You need to start sending off for prospectuses now to see what subjects each institutions specifically want. Most don't accept key skills, some accept general studies (except Oxbridge and red bricks) and for some courses you will need specific subjects. Obviously for a science degree you will need a science A2 but some places also accept maths.

[Abi]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Oxbridge have entrance tests to test your reading, writing and maths skills. It depends on what college you apply for as Oxbridge is split into lots of different colleges.

Ohhhh I see.. So is there a whole seperate college for Economics and every other subject? How do you know which college to go to?

(Thanks for your help btw it's really helping! x)

No, it doesn't work like that. Each Oxbridge university is split into Colleges, which act like mini-universities. If you decide to apply there, then you pick a subject, and then pick which college you want to study it at. Most subjects are offered at most colleges. Once you decide on that, you apply to a COLLEGE not to Cambridge as a whole.

Some people get rejected straight away. The rest get 2 interviews. 1 at the college you applied to, and 1 at another, random college. You can then get an offer, get rejected, or get pooled. If you get pooled, then any college can look at your application, and give you an interview/offer if they want to, but you have no control over what college this is at.

You can also apply to the pool. You just apply for a subject, and don't specify a college. Then any can pick you up, but at the same time, you have a big risk of not getting an offer from anyone.

Its a bit confusing...

It might be easier to understand if i give you an example. One of my friends applied for Cambridge doing Natural Sciences at Downing. She got an interview at Downing and at Trinity. She then got an offer at Downing. If Downing had decided they didn't like her, then she would have got pooled, and Trinity could have picked her up, if they liked her.

Make any sense?

[.:SpIcYsPy:.]

So you apply to the colleges and not the universities itself at the start right?

And the example made alot of sense.. Thanks! x

[Abi]

I already have an idea on what to write on my personal statement - part of a budding journalists group, work for the newsletter, had a work placement at a local newspaper, and i'm going to mention different short stories and poems i got published in books - i suppose that's a start.

I've applied for the course you want to do, so i can give you tips as to what you need to start to do

Most of the universities stess that work experience is everything. So try and get as many placements at newspapers and magazines that you can. Start to put together a portfolio of your published work as well, because if you get an interview at late notice, they'll want this. And it can take a while to put together.

You need to apply for an NCTJ accredited course, if you want to work in newspapers. Or be prepared to do a course after uni, which is accredited.

Most universities want BBB. They want at least 1 essay subject, like English, and they'll want you to get a B in it. They don't like completly vocational subjects like Drama, Theatre Studies, Design Technology, etc, so if you do anything like that, then work experience is even more important to gloss over that fact!!

Thats just my experience, at least. Feel free to PM me about anything you like about Journalism. I have 4 offers out of the 5 i've applied to, and have an interview at the 5th, so i might be of help

[Abi]

So you apply to the colleges and not the universities itself at the start right?

And the example made alot of sense.. Thanks! x

Yeah, you pick a college and apply to there.

Cambridge and Oxford don't use UCAS, so its a paper-application for them, and UCAS for the rest of your uni choices. Which was annoying this year, because there was the postal strike at the deadline. So find out early where you can get the CAF/OAF form from, so you can start filling it in over summer.

[.:SpIcYsPy:.]

Do you fill in the application forms for uni in Year 12 or year 13 (and send them off)..

UCAS.. do they have all the application forms for all the other universities or something? Thanks!

[Abi]

Do you fill in the application forms for uni in Year 12 or year 13 (and send them off)..

UCAS.. do they have all the application forms for all the other universities or something? Thanks!

You do all your uni applications in early year 13, including Oxbridge.

All other universities use the same application form, which is on the UCAS website. You create an account through your school, fill in the form (Which is soo annoying and time consuming!!), and its sent to your referee (Usually your tutor or Head of Year), they add your reference and predicted grades and send it. Its all done on the computer.

To be honest Spicy, i wouldn't worry about it if i were you. You need to concentrate on doing well in your GCSEs. The people who get into Oxbridge have 12 A*s, AAAA at AS level and lots of extra-curricular stuff. Work on getting to that, and worry about the applying process later. And unis like LSE look for 7 A*s too.

[DaVeyWaVey]

I already have an idea on what to write on my personal statement - part of a budding journalists group, work for the newsletter, had a work placement at a local newspaper, and i'm going to mention different short stories and poems i got published in books - i suppose that's a start.

I've applied for the course you want to do, so i can give you tips as to what you need to start to do

Most of the universities stess that work experience is everything. So try and get as many placements at newspapers and magazines that you can. Start to put together a portfolio of your published work as well, because if you get an interview at late notice, they'll want this. And it can take a while to put together.

You need to apply for an NCTJ accredited course, if you want to work in newspapers. Or be prepared to do a course after uni, which is accredited.

Most universities want BBB. They want at least 1 essay subject, like English, and they'll want you to get a B in it. They don't like completly vocational subjects like Drama, Theatre Studies, Design Technology, etc, so if you do anything like that, then work experience is even more important to gloss over that fact!!

Thats just my experience, at least. Feel free to PM me about anything you like about Journalism. I have 4 offers out of the 5 i've applied to, and have an interview at the 5th, so i might be of help

Thanks Abi. I've already started creating a portfolio of different newspaper articles that I've got published and I've got them all in a folder, so I guess that's a start.

I have to apply for work experience within the next few months and I hope to go to a newspaper/magazine (i went to work experience at a newspaper in Year 10) so hopefully the two work placements will be good, and as it will be a different newspaper/magazine, it will show a bit of diversity. I didn't know about the NCTJ accreddited course stuff, so thanks for saying...

The only thing I'm going to have trouble with are my grades I think..my target grades stand at an A for English, and 3 Cs for my other subjects at AS Level, so hopefully they'll boost to 3 Bs for predicted grades when it comes to sending off my UCAS form.. I am doing Drama, lol, but I think I may be dropping it at the end of the year..

Thanks for posting your experience with applying Abi - I appreciate it and good luck with your interview on the 5th - hope it all goes well, and I'll PM you if I want to know anymore.

[di marco]

To be honest Spicy, i wouldn't worry about it if i were you. You need to concentrate on doing well in your GCSEs. The people who get into Oxbridge have 12 A*s, AAAA at AS level and lots of extra-curricular stuff. Work on getting to that, and worry about the applying process later. And unis like LSE look for 7 A*s too.

yeh i was going to say that, most other unis dont really look at your gcse i dont think but oxbridge do, my school said that you should only bother applying to oxbridge if you got at least 10 A*s at gcse (with the rest being As) and were predicted all As at Alevel

[di marco]

The only thing I'm going to have trouble with are my grades I think..my target grades stand at an A for English, and 3 Cs for my other subjects at AS Level, so hopefully they'll boost to 3 Bs for predicted grades when it comes to sending off my UCAS form.. I am doing Drama, lol, but I think I may be dropping it at the end of the year..

i wouldnt worry too much about your target grades atm cos youre not too far off BBB (and an A in english is good). dont know about other schools but at my school they asked us what grades/points each uni wanted and altered our predicted grades slightly so that we at least got an interview! obviously if you were predicted all Es they werent going to write on our ucas forms all As but i was predicted 1 A, 2 Bs and an E but they highered my E to a C to make it look better lol! maybe talk either to your subjects teachers or your reference writer and say you need 3 Bs and ask how likely it would be for you to get Bs in your subjects, if they think its possible for you to get that then they might change your predicted grades to Bs to write on your ucas form, but make sure you apply somewhere that also has a lower grade/points mark just in case. if that makes sense lol!