UCAS for UK University Application
UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service), also known as the British Joint Admissions Service, is the centralized system for applying to universities and colleges in the UK. Applicants can select up to five courses without prioritizing their choices. If none of the five choices are accepted, they have the option to make an additional choice (known as the Extra choice) at a later stage. If they are still unsuccessful, applicants can pursue remaining places through the Clearing process.
Application Period:
From early September to June 30 of the following year.
University Choices: Applicants can apply to up to five UK universities at a time. For medical school applications, a maximum of four can be selected.
Post-Deadline Applications: From June 30 to September of the following year, students can consult with Maxway Education to identify UK universities with available places. If spots are open, you can apply one at a time.
Recommended Timing: If you have a DSE predicted score of 5 in all elective subjects or an IB predicted score of 35 or above, it is advisable to complete your application by early January to enhance your chances of securing a place in your desired university and major.
Additional Requirements: Some medical schools and certain UK law universities have extra examination requirements. Students should begin preparing during the summer vacation between Form 5 and Form 6.
Personal Statement: One Personal Statement is required. Click here to see a sample.
The UCAS Personal Statement is a crucial self-introduction that significantly influences your admission decision. It also showcases your English proficiency. The statement is limited to 47 lines or 4,000 characters. Consider including the following:
Applicants can submit only one UCAS Personal Statement. If you choose subjects from different fields, highlight the commonalities between them. For example, both mathematics and law require logical thinking and the application of principles.
Once submitted, the application cannot be modified. It is advisable to draft your content first, seek feedback from teachers and family members, revise it until you are satisfied, and then submit it online.
Important Note:
Students often recognize important keywords for business school Personal Statements, such as "communication skills" and "teamwork." However, they struggle to demonstrate how they have developed these skills to effectively solve problems.
Many students might simply state that they served as the president of a club, detailing the projects they worked on and the need for collaboration. However, holding a leadership position alone does not equate to effective teamwork. True teamwork involves compromise, experimentation, and adjustments, enabling a group to achieve what one person cannot.
In your Personal Statement, focus on describing your specific roles in teamwork and coordination, rather than just listing projects.
PS Example 1:
University is a place that helps us to broaden our vision. It also helps us to better ourselves with knowledge we learn, and to me, University can undoubtedly give me a consummate preparation for my future career. Among the numerous categories and majors we can choose , marketing appeals to me the most. I clearly understand the importance of marketing to every company. Whether it is a small corporation or a big company, the department of marketing also plays an overriding role. Marketing is a combination of both creativity and the theoretical side. I believe the subjects I currently study, my interest and my achievements have all contributed to my passion towards this subject.
I am now studying Economics and Visual Arts, these two subjects are perfect in enhancing my entrepreneurial creativity, as well as the problem-solving skills. In Economics, I get to learn not only calculations and graph illustrations, but more importantly, I have the chance to build upon my analytical skills by understanding different theories which I can fully utilize in my future educational courses. For the creative side, Visual Art is indubitably a subject that harness my creativity. I have been loving art and crafts since I was a little girl, and my father is a graphic designer and owns his own business. Therefore, I have a lot more contact with art. Despite the drawing skills and art history, I have learned how to think out of the box and think creatively in doing my art assignments and projects. The way I can exhibit my creativity will no doubt assist me in my future study.
Upon my acknowledgment, cognition to different industries is also something important for marketing as it exists in almost every kind of businesses, I worked in a marketing department in a well-known hotel, St. Regis, during summer vacation for a short period of time . It wasn't really meant to be a summer job to me, but an extraordinary experience for me to expose with the job of marketing in a hotel, offered from my uncle who works as the manager in Shanghai St. Regis. It was really a memorable experience and what's more is that having this opportunity made me understand how promotion and advertisements can boost up the recognition and popularity of a hotel. This experience is also a juncture to where I explored my interest in marketing.
Did you participate in any marketing initiatives at the hotel? Even tasks like data entry or assisting on event days are relevant.
What event did you work on, and what was its purpose?
What were the highlights of the event?
Are you aware of the impact or results of the event?
Also, I worked as a secretary in Student's Union when I was in Grade 10. In that year, I enriched my communication skills by working with a team of people, together, we came up with different activities, functions for students to enjoy and promote our association, and I enjoyed it a lot. With the help of the subjects I study, my experience and my passion can successfully take up the job of marketing no matter in academic or social aspect.
Can you name an important activity you organized as part of the student union?
Why was this activity significant? Consider its importance to the school community, social community, or beyond.
What was your role in this activity?
What lessons did you learn from this experience? Focus on aspects such as delivering results under resource constraints, including limitations related to money, time, and manpower.
Maxway's Solution: Identifying Highlights from Five Key Challenges:
Lack of Personal Reflection: Students often fail to showcase their unique strengths and experiences.
Superficial Involvement: Simply stating roles (e.g., club president) without detailing contributions and teamwork.
Failure to Connect Skills: Not effectively linking academic skills to practical experiences in personal statements.
Underestimating Creativity: Neglecting to demonstrate creative problem-solving and innovative thinking.
Ignoring Future Aspirations: Failing to articulate how past experiences will inform future goals and career paths.
By addressing these issues, students can create more compelling and impactful personal statements.
After recognizing these issues, the entire Personal Statement often needs to be rewritten. The focus should shift from merely describing academic projects to illustrating how students have overcome challenges to achieve effective teamwork.
Would you like to see the revised Personal Statement?
As a summer intern at the marketing department of the worldwide hotel chain St. Regis, I learned how different departments can have conflicting key performance indicators. For instance, the responsibility of the marketing department is to initiate timely promotion offers to stimulate sales. However, marketing is a spending department, when there are budget cuts, it gets harder for budget approval, hence, sales usually go down. To ensure budgets come through, there must be strong correlation between the sales and marketing departments. However, I find it very difficult to account for success in marketing campaigns if we use traditional channels. I am especially interested in learning about how to measure the success of marketing campaigns? If the return on investment from marketing campaigns can be measured, then can show contribution to sales, then the company can develop know how on how to evolve its marketing initiatives.
A lot of times marketing is about creating a timely experience for the user. Things like ambiance, music, decorations, showmanship, lighting, timeliness, media, language, presentation, context all contribute to users' experience. Marketing is a dynamic and learn as you do discipline. I am hoping to attend a university with hands on approach in teaching marketing, just like my experience in taking up visual arts in secondary school.
I spent 2 years studying visual art in secondary school. Towards the end of my visual art course, I developed a 3 minute video named 'Break Away', the video was about dreams, fantasy and nightmares. I used body movements, scary masks and red rose to symbolize nightmares and emotions instead of talking and acting. The video was about to have dreams fulfilled, you must break away from pressures. I learned to use images to symbolize things to express a meaning and I believe this will be a useful skill for my future career in marketing.
Last but not least, I want to study marketing in university because marketing related jobs usually require team work. Marketing does not exist in vacuum, it has to contribute to sales and learn from sales about clients' preferences. I honed my team working skills as I was the Secretary in the Student Union when I was in Year 10. We had to work together to create a Funfair day for students within the school.
My key take away for the Funfair experience was that there must be a clear division of labor for a team to function properly! The best is to have division of labor by each member's core competency rather than by their post. Otherwise, time will be wasted in a lot of redundant communication, co-ordination and waiting.
The second lesson learned was that 'when there is a will, there is a way!' We did not have any surplus from previous year for our Funfair, so, we had to spend wisely. Instead of having pop singer, we invited other popular singers from fellow schools. The event was an all-time high as there was more interaction between on and off stage, where as a pop singer usually comes deliver a song and then leave the stage. This happened with a lot of prior communication. So , as a marketing professional, I believe there will be out of control circumstances which require responsive and accurate adjustment, this is the exciting part as a marketing professional.
University can undoubtedly prepare me for a future career in marketing. I clearly understand the importance of marketing to every company, big or small. I believe the subjects I currently study, my interest and my achievements have all contributed to my passion towards marketing studies.
Many students struggle to articulate their motivations for studying a specific major in their Personal Statements. While it’s common to describe the major from an academic standpoint—such as the need for strong analytical skills or citing high school performance in related subjects—this approach can often come across as vague and unoriginal.
For instance, simply stating, "I excel in mathematics, so I am suited for this major," lacks depth and fails to convey genuine passion. If you have notable achievements, such as participating in the Mathematical Olympiad or earning world rankings, your Personal Statement should reflect that.
Instead, delve into your unique relationship with numbers and share how you have consistently challenged yourself and made breakthroughs over the years. This personal touch will make your statement more compelling and distinctive.
PS Example 2:
I am dedicated to studying in building surveying as it has provided the opportunities for me to acquired specialized skills in building technology, operating advanced instruments in construction which is I'm really interested and suit me most. Can you imagine if you have the opportunity to serve buildings to find out the defects which have chance to collapse or doesn't meet the safety standard, being a building surveyor you can minimize the chances of accidents and save life. I hope to be a building surveyor and participate of it.
I have deep interest in physics and mathematics and also the building constructions. Once I have had the experience of attending Intelligent Sensing Technology at the HKUST Summer Institute. Apart from that, I usually explore this kind of matters from different sources such as magazines, books and essay through websites during my free time. The most fascinating things is learning how to plan, design and sketch a building structure before actual build up a new building as well as to be a professional in building services and construction.
I am an outgoing person and enjoy interacting with others in order to broaden my social network and I always captured some new and innovative ideas during the conversation. Apart from that, I am the person who is highly respect on teamwork, as the old saying goes 'Teamwork makes the dream work', every person have their own specialties so we have to co-operate with each other in order to complement each other and work effectively. Furthermore, I am pretty optimistic, I understand that life always meet obstacles and low times, it is inevitable, so I accepted and live with it.
When I was a committee member of my school's Interact Club, I used to participate in planning and hold activities for serving people in the society such as children, elderly and descendants of a few nationalities , I have acquired the various skills for serving specific type of people as well as sharpen the organizational skills and communication skills especially work with the members from other schools.
I follow the target of my study and try to go with the right track to achieve it, other than study in school and I also participate the student guidance team for the lower class students. I enjoy with passion to be a volunteer for the club of serving the society and got the recognition from the social welfare department.
Taking into account of my sociable personality, enjoy innovation and sharing of idea, I believe I am the right candidate. I look forward to study in an advance technical and global knowledge base university.
When I was a committee member of my school's Interact Club, I used to participate in planning and hold activities for serving people in the society such as children, elderly and descendants of a few nationalities , I have acquired the various skills for serving specific type of people as well as sharpen the organizational skills and communication skills especially work with the members from other schools.
I follow the target of my study and try to go with the right track to achieve it, other than study in school and I also participate the student guidance team for the lower class students. I enjoy with passion to be a volunteer for the club of serving the society and got the recognition from the social welfare department.
Taking into account of my sociable personality, enjoy innovation and sharing of idea, I believe I am the right candidate. I look forward to study in an advance technical and global knowledge base university.
Maxway's Solution: Conducting Research on Relevant Industries and Courses
To strengthen your Personal Statement, it’s essential to thoroughly research the industries and courses related to your chosen major. This research will help you articulate why you are passionate about the field and how it aligns with your career goals.
By understanding the practical applications and current trends in your area of interest, you can provide specific examples that demonstrate your knowledge and enthusiasm. This approach will not only make your Personal Statement more compelling but will also show admissions committees that you are genuinely invested in your future studies. Below is the modified version of the Personal Statement:
I am dedicated to studying in building surveying as it furnished me expertise in building technology, operating advanced instruments in construction which I am really interested in and suits me the most. I am thrilled to be a building surveyor, which will have the opportunity to service buildings and identify potential hazards, hence can minimize accidents and save lives.
Attending the Intelligent Sensing Technology summer institute hosted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology further honed my interest in physics and mathematics. Aside, I also read a lot of magazines, books and essays about construction management at my free time. For example, I am aware that the Singapore and Hong Kong government are pushing property developers to use Building Information Modeling (BIM) to minimize waste in the construction process. However, the Hong Kong government is adopting a more liberal approach in pushing BIM as the industry standard when compare to the Singapore government and of course different approach and attitude from the government yields different results and adoption rates. So, building surveying is not only a subject that saves lives but it is also very much a social science.
I am an outgoing person and enjoy interacting with others in order to broaden my social network and I always captured some new and innovative ideas during conversations. Apart from that, I am the person who is highly respected in teamwork, as the old saying goes ' Teamwork makes dream work', every person have their specialty so we have to co-operate with each other in order to complement each other and work effectively. Furthermore, I am pretty optimistic, I understand that life always meet obstacles and low times, it is inevitable, so I accept and live with it.
When I was a committee member of my school's Interact Club, I used to participate in planning and holding activities to serve others, such as children, elderly and descendants of minorities. I have acquired various skills in serving specific type of people as well as sharpened my organization and communication skills especially working with the members from other schools.
Other than study in school, I also participated in the student guidance team to provide mentorship for younger students. I passionately served as a volunteer and got recognition from the social welfare department of the Hong Kong Government. I hope to bring this serving spirit to my future university. I am looking forward to study in a university that can furnish me professionally and yet with a global view.
Summary
The challenge of writing a Personal Statement (PS) does not stem from English proficiency, and Maxway does not need to "make excuses" for students. Our focus is on helping students understand what the PS requires and guiding them to identify their strengths, as well as providing a broader perspective on their chosen industry or course.
It’s important to note that Maxway rarely undertakes PS writing independently. Crafting an effective PS requires more than what machines or outside experts can provide; it demands a deeper effort and understanding. Therefore, we typically assist our clients as a value-added service.
While we have explored working with foreign copywriters, they often only offer superficial feedback, such as suggesting areas for elaboration, without guiding students on how to develop those ideas. In reality, writing a PS can be a profound self-reflective process, essential for fostering the independent thinking needed in college. We encourage all students to embrace this opportunity and enjoy the journey of writing their Personal Statements!
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