Demystifying University Applications

Good universities want an application to prove simply that a person is teachable. In other words, a personal statement showing how two or three particular experiences (such as an experiment, a conversation, a journey or a poem) inspired the applicant to do further research, how they have proved to be the germs of a world view, and how they might lead to further exploration during higher education and indeed life - this statement will consistently impress a tutor more than a catalogue of achievements. It will also provide the basis for an interesting interview (in the case of an Oxford, Cambridge or medical application) on topics about which the candidate is likely to be well informed.

Those students who load their UCAS applications with work placements and charitable trips undertaken during their teens are usually the children of well-connected and ambitious parents: university admissions tutors know this, and are therefore likely to treat such applications with a degree of scepticism.

In their flurry to do what they think is the right thing for their children, many parents accomplish more harm than good. Young people who come to me for help with UCAS often have extraordinary notions, fed at home and at school, about what they need to do before they write their statement or attend interview. My job tends therefore to involve suggesting that, if they have chosen a course in which they are actually interested, there will inevitably be a great number of experiences and interests in their past about which they can already write interestingly. Their task is to stop and think about these things thoroughly, perhaps doing a little more research for purposes of consolidation, and to stop rushing insanely forwards.