How to apply for college

When to Apply

You can apply to college as soon as you start Year 11, but no later than 1st January. There's still opportunity to apply after than, but we would highly recommend that you apply as soon as you can, so that you complete the interview process and have your course offer in the bag. This way you'll be able to continue with your GCSEs, knowing exactly what you need to do to secure that opportunity.

At first, it's all about getting offered a place. Whether you actually have that offered place confirmed will then depend on your GCSE results. Make it count!

How to Apply

1. UCASPROGRESS
2. Directly through the providers website
3. Application form - You can pick these up from the LRC (Some colleges, such as Loreto & Xaverian, only accept paper applications. You won't find them on UCAS)

There are various ways that you can apply to college, traineeships & apprenticeship, but the one we promote to pupils to use is UCASPROGRESS. This is because it's instant and all your applications can be tracked throughout the process - no more kissing your application, in hope it arrives, just before you pop it in the post!

Before January 1st, you will all attend a UCASPROGRESS introduction session. You will be provided with usernames and passwords and will be given guidance to complete your UCAS Profiles.

Once you've completed your profiles, you are ready to start applying. Use the UCASPROGRESS database to search through all the course available to you, then you begin to favourite all the course you are interested in. It's just like online shopping in the way you drop things in your basket and then later go through checkout to confirm you order.

When you apply you will also be added to the providers mailing list, which means you will be kept updated of college events and receive newsletters - which is useful!

You may choose as many colleges and providers to apply for, but just be mindful that you're going to get a lot of responses from providers asking you to attend an interview. Be open about your choices, but don't waste yours or the providers time, if you are not serious about attending that interview or provision.