Get on and get in

There’s an art to filling in your UCAS form, and it doesn’t involve simply listing your after-school activities. Jamie Mathieson separates the bad from the good

Applying to university is like moving house. You need to know what you want, you have to be realistic, and you have to get the paperwork right. It can be very stressful, and an awful lot comes down to luck. Yet, wherever you end up, it will start feeling like home very quickly. A university, like a house, is just walls, and you can put whatever you like inside them.

If you’re reading this, you may well be at an independent school. If so, you are at an advantage. Accept this. It means you have no excuse — admissions tutors will show no mercy to a shoddy application and are hugely wary of all your extra coaching. It also means that you need not find admissions statistics off-putting; you are almost certainly one of the better applicants.

The most important question to answer in your UCAS form, and in any interviews you might be called to, is the most basic: why are you applying? Do think about your answer. If you really can’t come up with a decent one, you’re probably applying for the wrong course, to the wrong university, or for the wrong reasons. The number one priority of most universities is to keep their drop-out rate as low as possible. They need to know that you’re serious, not just about studying generally, but very specifically about your subject.