The new school year normally brings with it for Year 13 students a flurry of excitement related to UCAS applications. Starting from the first week of term an enthusiastic babble about university choices, personal statements and predicted grades takes hold in common rooms and classrooms at schools and sixth-form colleges across the length and breadth of Great Britain. And it’s not difficult to understand why. Going to university is a big and exciting experience, and UCAS applications are your ticket for a place on the ride.
What often gets hidden under all this commotion, however, is the fact that UCAS applications are always tied to a strict calendar of submission deadlines. Fail to get everything sent off in time for the deadline that applies to you, and you could see yourself unable to apply for the course or university of your choice for that year.
While some schools and colleges run a tight ship and make sure their students put in their UCAS applications in good time, others take a much more relaxed and light-touch approach. Unfortunately, this often leads to students being unaware of deadlines for UCAS applications and missing the boat.
So it’s really important to know about the key deadlines for UCAS applications, and whether they apply to the course and university that you want to apply to. Here are the main ones for the 2013/2014 school year:
15 October: The application deadline for applications to study medicine, veterinary science and dentistry, or for application to Oxford or Cambridge universities
As you can see, this deadline is only a little more than a month away. And the thing about the courses and universities that fall into this categories is that they’re the elite ones, where only the most perfectly polished personal statement will get you in. In other words, you can’t just cobble something together on 13th October for these ones and expect to have a realistic chance. The moral of the story, then, is to get cracking with your application right now!
15 January: The deadline for sending your application for all other courses (except some art and design ones) if you want to make sure that the university will definitely consider your application
This is really the key deadline for the majority of UCAS applications. Although people can still send off new UCAS applications after this date (all the way up until the end of September 2014, in fact), universities are under no obligation to consider them. This means that if the course you are applying to is likely to be a popular one whose admissions officers will be swamped with applications, you’d be well advised to get your application in before 15 January.
24 March: The application deadline for certain art and design courses
This is a bit of a niche deadline that only applies to a limited range of art/design courses. We’ve included it here so that 1) if you’re going to apply for an art and design course you’re reminded to check if this deadline applies to you; and 2) so everyone else is in no doubt that this deadline does not apply to them, and they should be looking firmly at the 15 October or 15 January deadlines for their UCAS applications instead!