UCAS Application Advice

Help with Applications for University through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

The UCAS web site provides lots of help in terms of how to use their online applications, with FAQs, video tutorials etc. There is no point in us trying to replicate that information here. The advice below relates to specifically to DLC Students, the procedures you need to follow, what you can expect from us and what we expect from you.

1. When applying to UCAS you can either apply as an independent student, or a student of the Distance Learning Centre. If you are applying as a student of the DLC, please ask your tutor for our buzzword, our Centre Number is 40438. Your decision whether to apply as a DLC student or independent really depends on who you wish to use for your referee. If you have completed a significant number of Modules (particularly Graded Level 3 ones), it is a good idea to register with UCAS as a DLC student. If you have not yet completed much of the course, so your tutor does not know you well, you may decide you would prefer to have another professional as your referee who knows you better, for instance, a boss at work. In this case you need to apply as an independent student.


2. If you have already asked your tutor for the buzzword s/he will already know that your are applying but if you have a applied as an independent, please let your tutor know that you are applying.


3. When filling in details of your studies on the UCAS application, you need to put in the names of the Units your are studying, not the names of our Course Modules. Here is a full list of our Modules which gives you the correct Access Diploma Unit Titles and Credit Values you should use in your application.


4. If you are doing any full GCSE Equivalences, you don't need to put every Unit Title down for them, just put GCSE Equivalence English, Maths or Science (as appropriate) and the total number of Credits for that GCSEE. If you are only doing part of a GCSE Equivalence, for each Unit you are studying you will need to list the GCSEE Unit Titles and Credit Values.


5. When you have filled in all the Unit names it asks for a Grade. You need to put this in as pending and put July 2012 as the date for Moderation. If you have already filled in your application and it is not quite like this and too late to amend. For example, you may have put in June, or have filled in the Grades already, you don't need to worry as your tutor will also be putting in Grades which will match up, therefore it will not go against you.


6. Pay your money to UCAS


7. Tell your tutor only when you have finished your application. This informs your tutor that you are ready for them to check over your application and for them to provide a Reference.


8. Your tutor will then check your application to make sure the details are correct. If it isn't they will allocate it back to you on the UCAS system, and inform you by email. Once you have made the changes tell your tutor that you have done so.


9. If you want our advice on your Personal Statement (PS), please follow what your tutor says, first time. Tutors will not keep going back over it telling you that you have not done what they recommended and helping you to 'tweak it'. However, they will provide a valid professional opinion which is worth making the most of. Please remember your PS is about you, your tutor will not write or rewrite it for you. As an education provider / advisor on the UCAS system, we are not responsible in any way for your PS, you are.


10. At this point your tutor will write you a Reference, we also put in predicted Grades. These Grades are NOT predicted Grades for the whole course, they are the Grades your tutor has already given you for the Units you have completed and are predicted because every Grade is subject to Moderation by the Awarding Body. The reason we do not predict grades for the whole course is because you may do better or worse than those Grades. If a University wants all Distinctions and we predict Merits you would lose the place immediately. Also, if a University is happy with some Passes, some Merits and some Distinctions and we predicted that we think you will get all Distinctions; all Distinctions is the offer you will get from the university, then you may not get those Grades. Before they offer places, Universities can and do get back to us later in the Course to see how you are doing and whether you are likely to get the predicted Grades, so we need to be canny about this. They also ask us whether you answer the phone when we call to tutor you, are on time with your assessments and should generally be given a place. That's why it is important to be there when your tutor contacts you, do the work according to your ILP and be an exemplar student. We never write a bad Reference but if you are never in, say you are going to complete your work by next Tuesday but don't etc., we can not say that you are reliable and diligent, so we say nothing. It can make for a very short reference!


11. When your Reference has been completed, your tutor also has the option to state that they have checked that you have the GCSE's you say you have. If you have not uploaded your GCSE results onto myDLC they will not be able to tick that box and it is better for your application if they can. However, we won't chase you up if you haven't done it.


12. Finally, your tutor informs the Director of Studies that your application is ready to send. It undergoes a final check before we press send and it goes to UCAS who will send out your Application to your selected Universities. We can't get it back after this point. It has gone. You must make sure you have made any final updates to your PS before this stage, it is not up to us to check that part of your application. So pressing that button is the end point and it is very much up to you to make sure you have done the best job you can of your application.


13. We cannot make you change your personal statement, we cannot make you answer the phone, we cannot make you complete the work according to your ILP. If you don't do these things, you may get a place in theory, or may not. However, if you do get an offer but do not do these things you will probably not get a place in practice, because you will fall behind and fail to complete for June/July Moderation.


14. On the Moderation page on the website (in the Moderation & UCAS menu), you will find details of when the next Moderation will be. Please keep checking this for details as we will update it as soon as the dates have been finalised with the Moderator and OCNNWR.