Let’s trust admissions officers on personal statements

You may have seen that personal statements have been mentioned in the news lately. To address the concerns this might have raised, UCAS’ Chief Executive Mary Curnock Cook, has written about the value of this piece of writing and the important part it plays in the admissions process.

Blog for UCAS

Being a UCAS blogger is a great opportunity to showcase your writing skills, plus your posts will help others who are going through the same application process. As a thank you, you’ll have the chance to enter regular competitions and exclusive prize draws.

Last year’s bloggers did a fantastic job, sharing valuable tips and advice throughout the year. Take a look at what they had to say at www.ucasconnect.com/#blogs

If you’re applying to universities or colleges in the UK and you're interested in becoming a UCAS blogger, all you’ve got to do is email socialmedia@ucas.ac.uk with 200 words about your experience of applying to university or college so far. We’ll then get in touch once we’ve chosen the winning entries, to announce our 2014 bloggers.

The closing date for entries is Monday 28 October. Good luck!

   

The five reasons why you can’t log into your application (and how to overcome them)

We receive lots of phone calls and queries on Facebook and Twitter from people who can’t log into their applications. There are a few different reasons why someone might not be able to log in, but here’s how to overcome the most common login issues, in case you find yourself faced with the following message:

1. You've selected the wrong type of application
When you go to the Apply page at www.ucas.com, there are four different types of application you can log into – UCAS undergraduate, UCAS Teacher Training, CUKAS Performing arts and UCAS postgraduate. Make sure you click on the correct option for the type of course you’re applying for. If for example, you’ve started an application for postgrad teacher training, you won’t be able to log in and complete it through the UCAS undergraduate page.

2. You’ve entered the wrong username and/or password 
If you’ve forgotten your username and/or password, click on the 'forgotten login' link to retrieve them. This will send two emails to the address you gave when you registered – one containing your username and the other your password. Remember, your login details are case sensitive so you must type them exactly as they appear in the emails.

If you haven’t verified your email address yet then your email address won’t be recognised – in this situation you’ll need to call us so an adviser can give you your login details after some security checks.

3. You’re locked out after too many invalid attempts
If this is the case you’ll need to call us so we can unlock your account after some security checks.

4. You’re trying to log into Track by mistake
To log in to complete your application, you have to go to the ‘Apply’ login page and not the ‘Track your application’ page. You’ll know if you’ve gone to Track by mistake because you’ll be asked to enter a Personal ID instead of a username.

5. You haven’t registered to apply for courses this year
If you’ve applied in a previous year and decided to reapply for courses for another year, you must register again. The username and password you had when you applied before won’t be valid this year.

For more help with logging into your application, check out our 'Problems logging in' playlist on YouTube