Academia 32: My UCAS Experience
Hello my beautiful friends!
I have decided to write a diary-style blog post about my UCAS experience. When I was starting Year 12, I remember feeling daunted by the UCAS process and unsure about what to expect. Eve Bennett, a revision Youtuber, uploaded a diary-style video about her UCAS experience, which was very helpful. Similarly, I hope to help some of you through this blog post about my own experience.
02/07/18
Today I started my UCAS application (I had a UCAS day at sixth form)! I filled in all of the relevant forms and completed the first draft of my personal statement. It was not as daunting as I thought it would be and the form itself did not take long to fill out... I'd advise that you do a few supercurricular activities to ensure you have subject-relevant things to write about on your personal statement (this makes the process so much easier).
26/09/18
There is a slight gap between my last entry and this one. During this time, I have redrafted my personal statement about five times. I found this quite stressful because my further maths teacher and tutor had different opinions regarding what I should include and cut out. In the end, I did create a draft that the teachers and I were happy with.
I hit 'pay and send' on UCAS, which means my UCAS form is sent to the Sixth Form admin and Head of Sixth From for approval before being sent off to UCAS. My final five university choices are Oxford, Imperial, Durham (a bit of a wildcard), Nottingham and Birmingham. Now my full focus is on the MAT...
05/10/18
Today I sent my application to UCAS (finally) and I can now log into UCAS Track... Now it's just a waiting game...
15/10/18
So... I got my first offer! I have a conditional offer from the University of Nottingham of A*AA with an A* in maths. I am both happy and relieved to have my first offer. Hopefully, I'll hear back from Birmingham soon. I won't hear back from Oxford, Imperial and Durham until after my MAT because Oxford and Imperial rely on the MAT whilst Durham will give out a lower offer if my MAT score is good. Equally, today was the UCAS deadline for Oxbridge and medicine.
19/10/18
Today was the last day of Sixth Form before half term and I got an offer from the University of Birmingham! If I use Birmingham as my firm choice, which is unlikely, my offer is unconditional. Otherwise, my offer is subject to me achieving a combination of A*AA in any three out of my four A Levels.
31/10/18
Happy Halloween! As well as today being Halloween, I took my MAT exam. Although I found the multi-choice questions slightly tough, I think the exam went okay, but not amazingly. Hopefully I have done enough to receive a lower offer from Durham, an offer from Imperial and/or and interview from Oxford. We'll just have to wait and see...
23/11/18
The day I was rejected by Oxford... I have already (by the time this post is up) posted a blog post about my rejection, so please do read this for more details. I figured that I would rather write about my rejection in depth in a full blog post rather than trying to squeeze the details here and missing things out.
13/12/18
I got an offer from Durham! I am super excited by this because Durham is one of my top choices. I received an offer of A*A*A with A*s in maths and further maths. I did not receive the lower offer, which probably means my MAT was appalling and it is unlikely that I will receive an offer from Imperial, so Durham will probably be my firm choice. Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to attending Durham next year if I achieve the grades.
13/02/19
As I expected, today I was informed that my application to Imperial College was unsuccessful. Whilst I am disappointed, I am aware that I do have offers from three amazing universities. I am currently considering two options: firming Birmingham to receive my unconditional offer or firming Durham and using Birmingham as my insurance choice. Either way, I will update all of you somehow when I do decide.
My UCAS experience has been a roller coaster with ups and downs, but, as I mentioned, I do have offers from three fantastic universities. It has definitely been a learning curve because I have not come out of the process with the all of the offers that I wanted, but this process has taught me acceptance. Life does have a plan and I will end up at a university that is best for me. I hope that this blog post has both helped others through rejection and helped future university applicants through the UCAS process.
I have decided to write a diary-style blog post about my UCAS experience. When I was starting Year 12, I remember feeling daunted by the UCAS process and unsure about what to expect. Eve Bennett, a revision Youtuber, uploaded a diary-style video about her UCAS experience, which was very helpful. Similarly, I hope to help some of you through this blog post about my own experience.
02/07/18
Today I started my UCAS application (I had a UCAS day at sixth form)! I filled in all of the relevant forms and completed the first draft of my personal statement. It was not as daunting as I thought it would be and the form itself did not take long to fill out... I'd advise that you do a few supercurricular activities to ensure you have subject-relevant things to write about on your personal statement (this makes the process so much easier).
26/09/18
There is a slight gap between my last entry and this one. During this time, I have redrafted my personal statement about five times. I found this quite stressful because my further maths teacher and tutor had different opinions regarding what I should include and cut out. In the end, I did create a draft that the teachers and I were happy with.
I hit 'pay and send' on UCAS, which means my UCAS form is sent to the Sixth Form admin and Head of Sixth From for approval before being sent off to UCAS. My final five university choices are Oxford, Imperial, Durham (a bit of a wildcard), Nottingham and Birmingham. Now my full focus is on the MAT...
05/10/18
Today I sent my application to UCAS (finally) and I can now log into UCAS Track... Now it's just a waiting game...
15/10/18
So... I got my first offer! I have a conditional offer from the University of Nottingham of A*AA with an A* in maths. I am both happy and relieved to have my first offer. Hopefully, I'll hear back from Birmingham soon. I won't hear back from Oxford, Imperial and Durham until after my MAT because Oxford and Imperial rely on the MAT whilst Durham will give out a lower offer if my MAT score is good. Equally, today was the UCAS deadline for Oxbridge and medicine.
19/10/18
Today was the last day of Sixth Form before half term and I got an offer from the University of Birmingham! If I use Birmingham as my firm choice, which is unlikely, my offer is unconditional. Otherwise, my offer is subject to me achieving a combination of A*AA in any three out of my four A Levels.
31/10/18
Happy Halloween! As well as today being Halloween, I took my MAT exam. Although I found the multi-choice questions slightly tough, I think the exam went okay, but not amazingly. Hopefully I have done enough to receive a lower offer from Durham, an offer from Imperial and/or and interview from Oxford. We'll just have to wait and see...
23/11/18
The day I was rejected by Oxford... I have already (by the time this post is up) posted a blog post about my rejection, so please do read this for more details. I figured that I would rather write about my rejection in depth in a full blog post rather than trying to squeeze the details here and missing things out.
13/12/18
I got an offer from Durham! I am super excited by this because Durham is one of my top choices. I received an offer of A*A*A with A*s in maths and further maths. I did not receive the lower offer, which probably means my MAT was appalling and it is unlikely that I will receive an offer from Imperial, so Durham will probably be my firm choice. Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to attending Durham next year if I achieve the grades.
13/02/19
As I expected, today I was informed that my application to Imperial College was unsuccessful. Whilst I am disappointed, I am aware that I do have offers from three amazing universities. I am currently considering two options: firming Birmingham to receive my unconditional offer or firming Durham and using Birmingham as my insurance choice. Either way, I will update all of you somehow when I do decide.
My UCAS experience has been a roller coaster with ups and downs, but, as I mentioned, I do have offers from three fantastic universities. It has definitely been a learning curve because I have not come out of the process with the all of the offers that I wanted, but this process has taught me acceptance. Life does have a plan and I will end up at a university that is best for me. I hope that this blog post has both helped others through rejection and helped future university applicants through the UCAS process.
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