Applying for uni and financial support

Deadlines, deadlines...

There are three application deadlines for courses through UCAS - 15 October, 15 January and 24 March - make sure you know which deadlines are used for your choices.

October is the month to send applications for the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or for medicine, veterinary medicine/science or dentistry. If you're applying for art and design, you'll need to check the deadlines because they can use either the January or March deadline. For all other courses, you need to apply by January.

Applying through a school or college

Although it may seem far away now, try to complete your application soon, especially if you're applying through a school or college, because they'll need time to check your application and write your reference. Check whether they have set their own deadline for your application (most schools have a date between October and December when they want it). The sooner you send it to them, the sooner they can check it and get back to you if there are any problems.

That is not to say rush and apply before you're ready - make sure you're happy with your choices and personal statement before you send it to your school/college or us.

Check out the when to apply page on ucas.com for more info about deadlines. Or check out the video How to Apply

Then what?

When your application has been submitted to us, we process it and send your details to each of your universities so that they can take a look at your application. At the same time, we send you a welcome letter. It will list your choices, so check that everything's as you expected it to be. Once you have this letter, you can log in to our Track service - this is where you can check the progress of your application and see when a university sends us their decision.

Waiting for decisions from the universities

Universities and colleges may make contact with you to tell you that they are considering your application. Not all of them do this, so don't worry if you don't hear straight away from some of your choices.

Each uni considers your application against their own admissions criteria, so you'll hear from them at different times: it could be days, weeks or months before you hear anything, depending on where and when you apply and what you apply for. So don't worry if people you know have heard from a uni and you haven't - they have years of experience and will contact you if they need information before they make a decision.

We'll explain the different decisions next month, but if you want to find out more now, go to the offers section on ucas.com - there's information about the types of offers and a video guide to making sense of them. Go to the offers section

Money matters - sorting out your finances

So while you're waiting to hear back from the universities, start thinking about how you'll pay for your course and living costs while at uni.

If you'll be applying for support, there are different organisations to contact depending on the courses you've chosen and where you're currently living. If applying from an English address, for example, for a non-NHS supported course, you will contact Student Finance England. Check the student finance page on ucas.com to see who you should speak to. In addition, you may qualify for bursaries and/or scholarships so now is the time to check - speak to your university or your local authority for advice.