4.Completing your UCAS Application

You complete your application online, using your UCAS account. There are a number of sections that have to be filled in carefully by each student. Help will be on hand to assist with this at school, but some key points are included below for your information.

Contact and Residency

Within the Contact and Residency section, it is important to highlight that you are allowed to authorise an additional contact who can speak to the universities on your behalf. It is up to the student who you choose, and many put a parent here. We alternatively recommend nominating Sam Cotsford (our Head of Futures) who then can speak on the student’s behalf directly to universities if required.

The Residency section also needs some careful consideration; the school cannot advise on this, but this section helps universities determine fee status, namely, home or international. Universities will require additional information to determine the student's fee status in due course and will email directly with their requests. You also need to input an email address, which the university will use to contact you. It is best to use a personal email address as the Claremont one is cancelled around 6 months after leaving school, so, if you defer your application, it will cease to be valid.

English Language

Universities use the English Language section to determine a student’s English proficiency This is required both for academic and visa purposes. If a student has a GCSE or IGCSE in English Language at grade 4 or above, then this is usually sufficient for the majority of courses. More competitive institutions will require a higher grade, however For those students who did not study GCSEs or IGCSEs, they will need to undertake an English proficiency test to the required standard prior to leaving Claremont. The school provides full individual support with regards to the student’s English pathway Please note that an IGCSE in First Language English is not usually sufficient for university purposes.

Finance and Funding

UK domiciled students should select 02 UK and the county of the home address, which will allow them to apply for UK government student finance. Alternatively, you can select Private Finance but this confirms that you will pay all fees in full through private funds. This is the same option that international students would select.

More About You

The More About You section is where students include full details of any special educational needs that they have and any additional requirements relating to assessments, for example, extra time or rest breaks.

Education

Students use this section to detail their previous qualifications. You need to include exam dates, grades and the exam board for all GCSEs/IGCSEs. For those who studied at Claremont, we will have a copy of these details but for any other student, it is important that they obtain this information. We recommend bringing in copies of any exam certificates during Futures Week so we can make copies and use the correct information within the UCAS application. Many universities will require students to bring their exam certificates when they enrol at the start of their course.

Current Qualifications

Current qualifications refer to those the student is currently studying at Claremont You show the grades as "pending" The school formally predicts expected final grades in October of Year 13 and these are communicated both to students and parents via our school portal Predicted grades are based on a range of information, including the student's results in our school end of year summer exams in Year 12

Employment

The Employment section is optional but you can use this section to give details of any part time jobs which you have This section is optional

Extra Activities

You should use this section to detail extra curricular activities that you have undertaken to prepare for university study Examples could include MOOCS (Massive Online Open Courses, found via Unifrog) and any other extension opportunities, such as university summer schools Again, this section is optional

Personal Statement

The Personal Statement will remain in its current format for the current cycle, but we expect this to change from the following year onwards Typically, this is the section that students find the most challenging and takes up the majority of time overall in preparing the application This is the section where you, the student, explain to the university why they should accept you on their course Only one personal statement can be submitted, to support all five of the courses which you have applied to The school provides full and comprehensive guidance on how to tackle the Personal Statement and it is a requirement the student has a first draft complete when they first return from the summer holiday They should submit the draft via Unifrog, whereby their tutor can give them feedback, also via Unifrog The Personal Statement should be no more than 4,000 characters (including spaces) and should explain why you should be selected to join the course Typically a Personal Statement should be 80% focused on course suitability, as opposed to general skills and extracurricular activities It should be evidence based, for example, the activities you have undertaken to prepare you for university study, for example, books, authors, documentaries you have read/watched and how this has helped you decide on your selected course

Choices

You use this selection to select your university and course You can choose up to five different courses (four for medicine, plus a backup non-medicine course, e g biomedical sciences) When choosing courses, you need to be mindful of your predicted grades In our experience, students who apply for courses which require grades in excess of the predicted grades, are rejected automatically This is universally true for Russell Group universities in particular We recommend that you select no more than one aspirational choice, that should be within one grade of your predicted grades Three choices should be within the region of your predicted grades and one should be under your predicted grades You also use this section to specify which year you want to start your course (year 1 or Foundation) and whether you want to live on or off campus

Course choice should be finalised in conjunction with your form tutor and the Sixth Form team Our aim is for all our students to make aspirational but realistic choices, which maximises opportunities going forward

Predicted Grades and Reference

The Predicted Grades and Reference section are completed by the school As mentioned, students and parents are notified of predicted grades in October via our school portal These are evidence based and will typically be based on end of year exam performance in the summer term of Year 12