Higher Education Evening

Kennicott Sixth Form Centre

Welcome!

Welcome1. WelcomeMs Jane Richardson, Assistant Principal

2. University LifeAmy Cartwright & Daniel Williams, Plymouth University

3. How to Apply: An OverviewUCAStv

4. Finding your course and choosing your universityMs Jane Richardson, Assistant Principal

5. Writing your Personal StatementMr Dave Waistnidge, Assistant Head of Sixth Form

6. Timetable for Applications/Special DeadlinesMr Dave Waistnidge

7. Student FinanceLaura Kendrick

University LifeAmy Cartwright and Daniel Williams

Plymouth University

Finding your course and choosing your

universityJane Richardson

Q: How do I search for courses?

Q: How can I find out which is the best university or college for my chosen course?

Q: How do I find the entry requirements for the course?

www.google.co.uk

www.unistats.direct.gov.uk

www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk

www.push.co.uk/Choose-a-uni

www.thestudentroom.co.uk

www.ucas.ac.uk/yougo

Writing your Personal Statement

Dave Waistnidge

Planning Your Personal Statement

Admissions staff want to see evidence that students are enthusiastic, well-prepared and have the right skills to do well at university.

Large numbers of students applying through UCAS – impossible to interview for all courses

You may be competing with other students from across UK for small number of places – personal statement could make the difference between a successful or unsuccessful application.

• Before you start, remember this is a personal statement - i.e. it's about you, and there is no real right or wrong way to do it.

• Personal statements are specific so if you decide to change the course you are applying for you will need to rewrite your personal statement.

• When the admissions and subject tutors look at your personal statement, they are likely to be asking two main questions:

1. Do we want this student on this course?

2. Do we want this student at this university?

• Is the student suited to the course that they are applying for?

• Does the student have the necessary qualifications and qualities for the course?

• Is the student conscientious, hardworking and unlikely to drop out?

• Will the student do their best and cope with the demands of the course?

• Can the student work under pressure? • Will the student be able to adjust to their new environment at

university?• What are their communication skills like?• Are they dedicated to this course and have researched it

well?• Do they have a genuine interest in the subject and a desire to

learn more about it?

These are the questions you will need to address in your personal statement.

Admission Tutors

• What do you want to study at university?

• Why?

• What specific aspects of the course interests you?

• What school work have you completed that is relevant?

• What practical work have you completed that is relevant?

• What have you read related to the subject area that has inspired you?

• What personal experiences which lead to the decision to take this subject?

• Where you hope a degree in this subject will lead?

What experiences show you are a reliable and responsible person?

• Part-time jobs?

• Business enterprise?

• Community and charity work?

• Sixth Form committee?

• Extracurricular activities? (Young

Enterprise, Duke of Edinburgh Award, Debating, Sport, etc)

• What have you gained from these

experiences?

Your interests and skills

• What do you do in your free time?

• Any sport and leisure activities?

• Any subjects you study which are not examined?

• Do you play a musical instrument?

• Do you speak any languages?

• Have you won any prizes?

• Do you have any role or

responsibility in any of your interests?

Gap Years/The Summer

• Why are you taking a Gap year? (if you are)

• Why do you want to take a gap

year?

• What do you plan to do?

• How does this relate to your course?

Now, for each point you have made, comment on:

• What it says about your character;

• What skills/knowledge has it given you;

• Why it makes you a suitable candidate for the course and the university.

If you need help, do ask your parent/carer or Tutor for assistance.

or phone the UCAS Student Helpline on 0871 468 0468

Personal Statement

Medicine Personal StatementMedicine for me is a unique profession in that it does not discriminate in its universality of application. It has therefore captivated me as a challenging field of continuous learning that allows me to explore my love of science in a way that is beneficial to humanity. Medicine Personal StatementGiven that over ninety nine percent of the body consists of just six elements, it is hard to imagine the human body as an intricately synchronised and immensely complex machine. Yet, it has done well to puzzle even the brightest minds in history-but I am drawn to a challenge; I cannot think of anything else more fascinating to work with.  

‘Oh dear!’

Personal Statement

English LanguageEnglish has long since endured an inappropriate reputation of being boring, lack-lustre. However, it is not until you've become engrossed in the language that the true power is revealed, how a single word can bend someone's mind to a cause, take them to a world they can only dream off, or create an atmosphere so tense you can not stop reading.

English Personal StatementEmily Bronte had the Yorkshire moors, Austen and Shakespeare had Chawton and London respectively, and I have my bed. This is where their sleeping words are shaken awake by my subjectivity. This is where I become a man.

‘Oh dear!’

Maths Personal Statement“It has become a very strange and perhaps frightening subject from the ordinary point of view,but anyone who penetrates into it will find a veritable fairyland"(Kasner E and Newman J).This saying is perhaps the most fitted to describe my enthusiasm for Maths. Law Personal StatementI promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. My father had always told me my career destined in the profession of Law; I had of course been ignorant to this. Thinking the only reason he had told me so was to carry the family tradition, as he was one himself.

Journalism Personal StatementThe amplification of the inexplicable joy as I finished producing my first piece was too palpable to ignore. It perpetually hung in the surrounding air as waves of electrifying impetus to the growth of the infantile writer residing in every fibre that constitutes my body and whom I gradually nourished with a lucid thought-process and dexterity at juxtaposition of words.

Timetable for Applications/Special

DeadlinesDave Waistnidge

YR12 Spring Term

June 2013

Higher Education programme begins.

o HE Evening with parents.o Student completes and returns a Student Reference request Form to

their Tutor (forms available from the Kennicott Office or attached) by 28 June 2013.

July 2013

Register and commence UCAS application on-line, visit

www.ucas.com/students/apply. Apply for ‘UCAS Card’ to receive free monthly newsletters providing advice

on the application process, advance information on universities, and discounts on goods and services www.ucas.com/ucascard.

Please note that, if a student is applying for Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Science courses and all courses at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (Oxbridge) and courses at UK Conservatoires (CUKAS), that this has an earlier deadline for UCAS application receipt of 15 October 2013. If applying for a course with a 15 October deadline, please advise Tutor and UCAS Co-ordinator.

Student researches into courses and universities - www.ucas.com/students/choosingcourses.

Draft Personal Statement – use feedback from HE Evening, seek advice from Tutors or visit www.ucas.com/students/applying/howtoapply/personalstatement.

Subject staff prepare subject references which form part of the reference which has to accompany your UCAS application.

YR12 Spring Term

August 2013

Continue researching into courses and universities. Find out about

College/University Open Days. You can find dates and times from www.opendays.com. Record findings/ideas on page 5.

Check whether an admissions test is required. This is the responsibility of the student to organise.

Further complete application on-line. Further draft Personal Statement.

YR13 Autumn Term

September 2013

Complete UCAS Application on-line. Print and submit hard copy of UCAS Application to include draft Personal

Statement to Tutor by Monday, 23 September 2013. Liaise with Form Tutor, and if changes have been made to application,

amend UCAS application on-line. Once completed, select PAY and SEND. Pay using a credit card. Once paid, the UCAS application will be sent automatically to the UCAS Co-ordinator who will process application further.

If the student’s course requirement is to undertake an Admission Test, student to advise both the UCAS Coordinator and Examinations Officer.

YR13 Autumn Term

October 2013 – January 2014

UCAS applications are processed further by UCAS Co-ordinators to meet the

necessary deadlines of 1 October (CUKAS), 15 October 2013 and 15 January 2014.

Tutor reports are added to the application by UCAS Co-ordinator. Final check by Tutor. (At this stage, amendments may still be made.

Students to check status on-line regularly. The requested changes to be made as soon as student has been advised to. Once completed, student to select PAY and SEND again to return the application to the UCAS Administrator).

Final version of UCAS application is approved by the Senior Management team (Students to continue checking status on-line in case further improvements and final amendments need to be made to the application. Once completed, student needs to return the application to the UCAS Coordinator by selecting the PAY and SEND option (you will not be charged again!). Application is sent to UCAS.

From October 2013

Track your progress via ‘Apply’. Offers (usually conditional, based on ‘A’ Level results) are made. Some institutions require interviews but an increasing number do not. If you a student is called for interview, the Attendance Officer at Kennicott

needs to be advised of this. It is possible to organise a practice interview with Mr Waistnidge if a student feels this of use.

Student FinanceLaura Kendrick

TheMary Lidstone

TrustKate Mason

The Mary Lidstone Trust

Who is eligible to apply?

Priority 1• Child in Care• Care Leaver• Young Person in receipt of income support• Young person in receipt of Employment Support and

Disability Living Allowance

Priority 2• Receiving Free School Meals

The Mary Lidstone Trust

Who is eligible to apply?

Priority 3Family in receipt of at least one of the following

• Income Support• Income-based Jobseekers’ Allowance• Employment Support Allowance (Income Related)Support

under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999• Guaranteed Element of Pension Credit• The maximum level of Working Tax Credit (WTC)• Child Tax Credit (if it is the only benefit received and where

annual income, as assessed by the Inland Revenue, does not exceed £16,190)

What happens next?Jane Richardson

Opportunity for Q&As

Jane Richardson

CloseJane Richardson