Thursday May 26 2016  by CSI counselor

See also Britain and its university system and an  overview of the process

Getting started. Go on the net to http://www.ucas.com and choose apply for the year of entry you want. A buzzword has been created by the counselor who willsend all declared applicants the buzzword. Divulge it to no one; we don’t want outsiders messing with your applications. When you go on the site, do NOT ask for a personal password or enter a personal name before registering with this buzzword. Each applicant wishing to register and complete an application should enter this buzzword the first time they start filling out their application on line so the application is placed in our school file and not lost. Their name and application details will be visible on the references & applications section in the staff area of Apply which the counselor will consult and verify.

Filling out the forms: Should you require further guidance when using Apply, help text is available in all sections giving you advice about Apply and the application process. You can save what you have entered at any time by clicking save.

On personal information, you’ll most likely choose fee code 2 (student need assessment). Be sure you enter the proper institution and course codes on your university choice section. Choose a campus code only if these are indicated on the website listings. Choose deferred entry only if you want to take a gap year before going. Any mistakes here will be missed by the counselor because it takes too long to check such things. On the qualifications section you will of course mention the brevet, GCSE, any Cambridge tests and the French Bac, selecting "add a module" to include every test you have taken or will take for the French Bac, including grades where you have already received them but otherwise leaving the mark box blank.

Your personal statement is very important. It should explain why you want to study in Britain, why you want to study the subject(s) you’ve chosen, and what kind of person you are (personal qualities, hobbies, ambitions, etc.) Do not hesitate to read the article giving examples of past personal statements and be sure to ask the counselor to look over your statement with you before submitting it.

After you have completed all sections and marked them as finished (click on the "section finished" question), please print out a copy for yourself and note your application number for future reference. You’ll each then have to pay by credit card for your application on line before sending it to the counselor.  Last year the amount was £23. If your parents do not wish to accept paying by credit card on the net (the site is crypted, but one never knows) YOU CANNOT APPLY THROUGH THE SCHOOL and the counselor cannot then help you with your application.

Before sending the application, please ask the counselor to go on the site and look it over; this will avoid having to send the application back to you for corrections because the counselor cannot correct it directly.

Once an application is marked as sent, this signifies the applicant has completed his or her part of the application and no further changes can be made. The counselor then checks the application and approves it or sends it back to you for corrections (in which case you have to go back to EDIT, correct things, remark them as finish and send it again…)

It is essential to download reference forms (go see that article)to give to ALL 1ère teachers. After teachers give the forms to the counselor and you give the counselor your student dossier (attached to the overview article), he or she will write a synthesis entered as a reference for you. This reference cannot have more than 4,000 characters, including spaces, and should not exceed 47 lines of text using Verdana font. If they are longer than this, they have to be shortened before the reference can be approved. Formatting such as bold, italic, French symbols, and underlining cannot be used in the reference. By selecting references, when in "references and applications" the counselor will be able to click on the name of the applicant whose reference is to be added, modified or approved.

After this you will have to wait for offers and can follow any offers made on "track" with the number they give you.

Below, some things are repeated but this gives you the whole procedure line by line and step by step:

UCAS Procedures step by step

The description below is to help you go through the process while making as few mistakes as possible and having to ask your counselor fewer questions.  (Don't HESITATE to ask questions of course, but DO try to read things and act on your own to save the counselors extra work.) All work must be finished and sent before December 15  (our deadline)  NOT their deadline  (January 15^th) !!! After December 15^th we accept helping NO Terminal students who have not already finished their applications.

A.  Choosing courses.

1.  Put ucas.com in your browser.

2. Click on search for courses.

3. On UCAS Undergraduate  click on "Search undergraduate and conservatoires courses.

4.  For where do you normally live, choose "elsewhere in the EU" in the drop down menu.

5. Enter one or more course names  (Example:  biology and management if you want to study these two subjects in combined honours. )  You can also enter names of universities but it isn't really useful because the subject choice alone will give you the whole list of universities that offer such courses. Enter the search button and you'll have a list of courses closely or loosely related to what you're looking for. 

6.  If you want to further limit the offers according to type of provider or whether you want full time, placement  (traineeship or company experience), or study abroad, you can click on the filters section on the left.

7.   Click on the course name at a university you are interested in and read what it tells you.

8.   You can get further information about entry requirements, fees and finance and how to apply by clicking on various tabs.  Usually, neither the French bac nor French bac with OIB is listed among entry requirements.  Bac International or Bac European are NOT French bac qualifications. But we express our references with conversions in to A levels  (ABC) which can give you an idea of whether you meet their requirements.

9. You can eliminate universities if they are too expensive  (England £9000 a year, while Scotland is about £2000 a year for people living in France) or in an area you dislike for some reason.

10.  If you choose a course, you'll need the institution and course codes as well as campus codes.  It is better to pick 4  (medicine and veterinary) or 5 courses which are not all very highly ranked (because this gives you nothing to fall back on if the top universities don't give you offers).   Find rankings at  http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings

B.  Writing a personal statement

You have 47 lines or about 4000 characters to tell them who you are, what you want to study and why, what you do to further your interest in this subject outside of class, and why you want to study in Britain. On our website you can find examples of personal statements to give you an idea of how this works, but be sure NOT to copy a personal statement. You can send your personal statement to the counselor to get the counselor's feedback on what you've written before putting it on the site. USE no accents or special characters when preparing a personal statement. The British system doesn't accept them. Be aware that you should do formatting/lay out only on the Ucas site as most lay-out measures you take aren't allowed on the site.

C.  Applying on line: how to begin: These things won't necessarily happen in exactly this order...

1.  Go to ucas.com/apply.

2.  Choose undergraduate.

3. Click on Apply for (the next academic year.)

4. Click on Register (it may ask for the buzzword immediately or later...)

5.  Read the screen carefully then click on next.

6. Read and then accept terms and conditions and then click on next again.

7. Enter title, sex, name and date of birth.

8. Enter non-UK/International for postal address.

9.  Enter address and click on next.

10. Enter phone and mail address as well as message preferences.  Then next.

11. Create password and security questions and answers. Note these carefully and NOT only on your cell phone or computer... what if it breaks or is stolen? Then next.

12. Note your user name.

13. Log in.  (If you do this immediately, you just click.  If you come back later, you will need to use  your user name and password.)

14. Choose to apply through a school.

15. Enter the buzzword given by the counsellor.

16. Approve the school shown  (it SHOULD be ours!)

17.  Copy down your personal ID number.

18.  Verify your E-mail address.

D. Filling in the various sections

1. Personal information

            a.  Fill in personal details.

            b.  On fee code choose 02 if you will need a loan.

            c.  For first date of entry, if not born in Britain, put the first time you went OR a date in                          September of the year you will start studying.

            d.  Normally don't fill out "nominated access " unless a parent went to a British school.

            e.  Don't hesitate to leave things blank that don't apply to you.

2. Choices

            a. In the choices section, enter the 4 or 5 institutions you  have chosen, complete with                           institution codes, course codes, campus codes if applicable;

            b.  Deferred entry exists only for certain courses (check the institution site for that course)                         Deferred entry means you apply not for the next academic year, but for the academic   year AFTER that.  The advantage is that this allows you to do something else next  year knowing you already have a place for the following year.  It is sometimes NECESSARY if you are under age and is sometimes USEFUL if you want to pursue some personal project.  It should never be chosen just to have a rest!

3. Qualifications

            a. . Add schools.  Click on FIND and enter the name without accents.  You should find our school in the drop down list.   Don't put an exam center number. Give start and  stop dates, click on full time, and put yes for receiving qualifications while at the  school.

            b. If you need to add other schools (not primary schools, only secondary schools), click on Find and type any one letter… then go to the bottom of the page and it will say "my school is not listed here"  Click on this and you'll be able to enter the name of your  other school in the box. Save

            c.  Under each school, it has a link called Add qualifications.  You click on this to list  qualifications acquired while a student at each school  (Brevet for college,  and while in high school, GCSE, French Bac with OIB, language exams like Cambridge, etc.) For many qualifications you'll then need to add modules(see e below.)

            d. Don't select the French Bac unless you are NOT doing the OIB.  Instead, select France Option Internationale du Bac.  Give the overall date for the Bac as the date at which  the LAST qualification will be acquired. 

            e. For each qualification, add modules for each exam taken or to be taken:

                        *  On the Brevet, you'll have the overall mark as well as marks for each exam  (Math, French, History-Geography with separate modules for written in French and oral DNL in English (or in another language) if you had an oral, English if international, and Art History, as well as the  average of class marks... "continuous assessment.")            

                        * For the France OIB add separate modules for written and oral exams.  Put dates and marks for exams already taken but just future date for exams not yet taken.  Use the exact title on each module which the counselor used on your reference forthese modules  (except that you separate written and oral modules ) For example, you  DON'T just put "English Literature."  You put "OIB English Literature British A levels written" and "OIB English Literature British A levels oral."  You DON'T just put Mathematics if you're in S or ES.  You put "Mathematics  A level equivalent."  Find a way to abbreviate especially long titles without losing the meaning.  For example, you might put "Economics-Social Sciences A level equiv. (specialty)"

                        *Remember as well to find in the drop down list IGCSE or GCSE  (Edexcel version)  English Language A if you've taken it, as this is more convincing for the British thanother language qualifications  (which you should ALSO put however…)

            f. Select "Below honours level qualifications" and save the section.

4. . Personal Statement

            a.  Having prepared this in advance, enter your personal statement  and save it.

5. Employment

            a.  If you have had a job, give the name and address of the company.

            b.  It is good to mention the job in your personal statement if it was pertinent to your course             choices.

E.   Submitting the application.

            When all sections are marked as complete, verify with the counselor that it is all correct and   then send and pay with your parents' credit card.  If the counselor sees, after you've sent the  form, that there is a mistake, he or she will send it back to you with instructions on what to correct and you send it again.  Even if it asks you to pay again when you resend, you will   NOT be paying twice in reality.