We will be able to help you register for UCAS Apply - don’t forget to add the buzzword, and ask Mr Bradley if you get stuck. Once you have registered and signed in, there are seven stages to complete on the left-hand side of the page. 

This should be quite straightforward, but you may want some clarification. If you don’t, feel free to scroll down to our section on Choices.

1. Preferred names

   • You can add a preferred first name if you want to, but you don't have to - this should be a preferred name, not a nickname.

   • If you've changed your surname since your 16th birthday, you should record your previous surname to help UCAS find your education records.

2. Email address & mobile

   • You must provide these so that UCAS and universities can contact you.

   • If you haven’t updated your email address since you were 11, you might want to think about creating a new, professional email address like firstname.surname@domainname.com.

3. Reference Numbers

   • If you don't have a ULN, ISA, TOEFL, or IELTS number, you can leave this blank.

   • If you've taken an English language proficiency test, you will have either a TOEFL or IELTS TRF number, and you should add this.

4. Student support

   • You will be asked to select your ‘fee code’ from the drop down menu.

   • If you are a UK or EU resident student and you are applying to a UK institution, your fee code should be: ‘02 UK, Chl, IoM or EU student finance services.’

   • If you are a non EU student, you cannot apply for student finance via UCAS. Talk to the careers or higher education team at your school for more information.

5. Nominated Access

   • If you want to, you can name a person who you are happy for universities and UCAS to discuss your results and offers with. This is not compulsory, and is only really necessary if you’ll be unable to discuss your application during the application process or on A-Level results day - for example, if you’ll be abroad.

   • If you do choose a nominee, it should be a family member, guardian, or trusted friend over the age of 18. 

6. Disability/special needs

   • While you don't have to disclose your disability, doing so will help your chosen universities try to meet your needs. Check out our guide ‘Disclosing your disability to a UK university’ for more information.

1. Equality monitoring

   • You’ll be asked about your: religion, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, national identity.... These questions aren’t compulsory or used for selection purposes – they’re just helpful for statistics, and you do not have to answer any of them if you don't want to.

Activities in preparation for higher education

1. • Here you have the opportunity to write about any activities you took part in to prepare for university - like summer schools, taster courses, booster courses, etc. but not open days. 

2. Parental background

   • You'll be asked if you've been in care, your occupational background, and your parents' education. You can choose ‘prefer not to say; if you don’t want to share this information.

1. Student Finance (UK and EU students only)

   • If you are applying for student finance, you should select ‘yes’ for all three questions so you get all the information you need for your application.

You have up to five choices, and you don’t have to use them all. The exception to this is students applying for medical courses, in which case you have up to four choices. At this stage, you don’t have to add your course choices in order of preference, and if you are applying to medicine, veterinary science, or dentistry, you can use your fifth choice to add a related but alternative course - for example, biomedical sciences.

There are a couple of things to bear in mind when making your choices:

• It may seem obvious, but don’t apply to a university that you don’t actually want to go to - even if your family think you should go there or all your friends are applying there. If you do and you get an offer from them, you’ll probably reject it in favour of somewhere you do want to go anyway!

• Another one that seems obvious - take your predicted grades into account when making your choices. If you apply for a course with an ABB entry requirement and you are predicted CCC, it’s unlikely that they’ll make you an offer, and you’ll have wasted one of your choices. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t aim high, though! You can apply for aspirational courses if you and your teachers think the grades are achievable for you (for example, if you have been achieving consistent As and Bs in your mocks but have been out of school, so your predicted grades are lower)- just make sure that your referee mentions that this is the case.

• Try to keep your choices varied in terms of entry requirements: if all the courses you apply to have similar requirements, and it turns out you are doing better or worse in your studies than you thought you would, you won’t have appropriate offers to choose from. Use the Aspirational, Solid, and Safe columns on the UK uni shortlisting tool to help you choose a broad range of courses.

• While variation in entry requirements is important, lots of variation in subject choices should be avoided! You only get to write one Personal Statement that will be sent to all of your institutions. Writing a Personal Statement is challenging enough without it needing to be appropriate for History and Computer Engineering.

You’ll need to add all the qualifications you’ve achieved since age 11. It’s helpful to use your exam certificates for this section as you’ll need your grade, the subject, and the examining body (i.e. IB, AQA, OCR, etc.) for each one. You should also add any upcoming qualifications - like your current courses - and any resits you’re planning to take.

If you are applying as an international student, you can search for your qualification by name and country, or use the ‘other’ option if what you’re looking for isn’t there. Again, you might want to seek out some guidance from your school’s careers or higher education team.

If you’ve had a part or full time job, add the details to this section. If your work was voluntary or part of the courses you are studying, you shouldn’t add them. You’ll be able to write about this in your personal statement instead.

Whether you have something to fill this section or not, remember to mark it as complete.

In case you don’t already know, as part of your application you have to write a supporting statement that goes to all your chosen institutions, demonstrating how you are a suitable candidate for the courses you have chosen.  There is more specific support on this available on the UCAS site and also on this page.

You might not know this, but UCAS runs all Personal Statements through a plagiarism detection software that checks them against all previously submitted statements, published books, and the internet. This means you can’t copy and paste from anywhere! It will also detect if you type out things you have read online and change a few words - it’s a smart programme! If your Personal Statement has been plagiarised in any way, UCAS will contact you and will also inform all of your universities.

Your reference is a way for your teachers to verify what you have written in your Personal Statement, and to demonstrate that you are a good candidate for your chosen courses. It will include your predicted grades, and any contextual information universities should know about you - like if you needed to take time off school, or why your predicted grades are exceptionally high or low. You do not need to mention any of this in your Personal Statement - your teachers have got this.

You won't see your reference and it’s very unlikely that your teachers will be willing to share it with you if you ask! The reference gets sent straight to UCAS so all you need to do for this section is check in with your referee if the deadline is creeping up.

UCAS charges 27.50 GBP to apply for up to five courses (there is no longer a separate fee for single course applications). Most people choose to apply for more than one course so their application fee is cheaper per choice, but this is completely up to you!

You can’t submit your application until you have paid online using a credit or debit card, and you are responsible for this.