

That person will need to be able to talk about your work, how you interact with your peers and your suitability for your chosen course. So, what is a reference and how do you get one? For the purpose of your UCAS application, a reference is a written recommendation from someone who knows you from an academic perspective. You’ll need to get a reference before you can send off your application to your chosen universities. Read our full guide to writing your personal statement here. But, where to start? We’d recommend making a list of all the things you want to include and organising this list into headings to help you structure your personal statement (it’ll also help you to stick within the word limit!). But remember, no one knows you better than yourself, and this is your chance to tell universities why you should be at their institution.

You may have been putting off this part of your application because it’s probably the most time-consuming part – we understand that it can feel a bit daunting. You’ll need to submit your university choices in the ‘Choices’ section of the application and for each one, you’ll need to ‘add a choice’ and select the university, the course you want to apply for and when you’d like to start. You won’t be asked to submit your choices in order of preference (that comes later), and the universities won’t be able to see where else you’ve applied until you reply to your offers. You can apply to up to five universities, and if you can, we’d recommend applying to five to give yourself plenty of options. Once you’ve narrowed down your university choices, you’ll need to submit them on UCAS. You can still register even if you haven’t decided on where or what you want to study, and you don’t need to complete your application all in one go, so there are no excuses not to get this started now! 2. You’ll need to include things like your education history and qualifications. Once you’ve registered you’ll need to go through and fill in each section. If you haven’t already done this, you need to register with UCAS before you can apply. Here are our five steps to getting your university application over the line: 1. But if you are yet to submit your UCAS application, why not end the year on a high and get the job done this side of Christmas? You'll certainly thank yourself afterwards and can enjoy the feeling of ticking one more thing off your list.

and it's temping to slide right into holiday mode now that term has ended (admit it, you've probably finished that tub of chocolates already!).
