𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝘽𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙞 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙐𝙆 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨

 

Author: Kazi Tasnim Ferdous 

Many of us wish to obtain undergraduate degrees from top-ranked renowned universities of the world. So many Bangladeshi students apply into different universities of USA, Canada, UK, and some other countries of Europe. I was not an exception to them; I also applied to 5 universities of UK for undergraduate degree and got offer letter from Durham University and University of Sussex.

I would like to share my experience, not in a very formal way but in a simple way, that may be informative and give a brief guide of essentials to Bangladeshi applicants who want to apply for undergraduate study into UK universities.

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is the platform through which applicants have to submit applications to the universities of UK. Some universities may have other applying platform but UCAS is used by almost all the universities of UK. I will discuss all the phases of applying for undergraduate study by breaking down the process into some parts. You have to register through UCAS, give choices, take particular test(s) for applied course (if needed), write Personal Statement, complete Reference, submit written work or essays (if needed), make payment, face interviews, and receive decisions.

Choosing the Course and University According to Requirements 📌

You have to choose the course for which you are going to apply at first. You have to search for the requirements of the course at your desired universities through the websites of those universities. The requirements for the same course vary from university to university. For example, some universities may require you to complete SAT subject test or to have Mathematical course in higher level school for BSc (Hons) in Economics but many universities may not require this. So before choosing the course to apply, you have to make sure that you fulfils all the requirements totally. Some requirements are recommended and these recommended requirements are not mandatory to apply for the course but applicants having recommended requirements will undoubtedly get preference over the applicants who do not have so. To mention, for applying into UK, you have to choose a single course to apply to different universities. You can apply to different courses of different universities through UCAS but eventually your application will have no value except the course for which you will write the Personal Statement (I will discuss Personal Statement in the later part). Please remember that completing only Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) may not make you eligible or qualified even to apply in most of the universities. This eligibility or qualification is called International Qualifications. In that case, universities require you to take some standardized tests like SAT, ACT, or Tests as per mentioned into university website to be eligible or qualified to apply into the university. But students studying into Bachelor degree in any recognized university, better if renowned, may get an exemption from taking those standardized tests to be qualified but all the universities do not offer this opportunity. Even all the universities do not show this information on their websites. You may contact universities to know whether they give you the opportunity or not. I got exemption from taking standardized tests as a student of Bachelor degree at another recognized university.

Moreover, if you are yet to meet English language requirements, you have to submit English language testing scores to the university. But universities may offer you an opportunity to submit English language proficiency proof after you receive an offer from the university. I had the opportunity and I have not yet submitted my English language proficiency scores to the universities that made offers to me.

Registering in UCAS and Filling up the Details 📌

After choosing the course and university, you have to register in UCAS and fill up all the details of yours. All the details mean all the details! You will not be able to select Secondary School Certificate (SSC) as your educational qualification. As a Bangladeshi applicant, you can choose Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and above degrees. If you are already a student of Bachelor degree at another university, you must add this to your educational qualifications in UCAS details. You may think it difficult to add the courses of your degree results of which are not published yet. But you need not worry about it. You can write “Not Available” or “N/A” or “Not Published” or something like these in the result of the course. You have to mention when the courses of the degree will end and the degree will end. You will find difficulty to write the ending year for the third year and Fourth (Final) year courses. The reason is educational qualification section of UCAS do not allow to write the ending year of the course and also the degree which is two years after the starting date of the degree. In that case you will choose the highest year available to write (obviously not the year which will surpass the actual ending year). I faced the problem while applying in 2020 entry. I contacted UCAS for the problem but the problem was not solved then. I contacted one of my desired universities and they told me to write down the highest possible year as the ending year in UCAS details but to inform them the actual ending year through my personal statement. Remember if your chosen university offers you exemption from standardized test as a student of Bachelor degree at another university, you will receive the opportunity only if you show the Bachelor degree in your educational qualifications and otherwise you will not get exemption. You can choose 5 universities at best while applying through UCAS.

However, some universities have applying deadline in October; some have in January and some other may have in another month. You have to go through the university websites to know deadlines appropriately. One last important point about choosing universities. You cannot apply to both University of Oxford and University of Cambridge at the same year. Do not be confused with the uses of Course and Degree in my article. Course or Degree is used in same sense except information on filling educational qualification details in UCAS. In that case, I used courses as modules. For example, Introduction to Computer can be a module of a degree.

Writing Personal Statement 📌

This may be the most crucial part of your application. Some say that it carries more than 30% weight in your application. I will say it carries at least 40% weight in your application. Through personal statement, you demonstrate why you want to study the course, what your focus points are, whether you career goal is relevant with the course you are applying. The admission office seeks to know about your attitude, your ability, your achievements, your co-curricular activities, your passions through your personal statement. Be very careful that you do not copy the personal statement from anywhere else. UCAS verifies your personal statement and if they find you guilty of plagiarism, your application will be rejected totally. Be the YOU when you write the personal statement! Demonstrate yourself in your own way. You can google to know more about how to write a personal statement. Observe some samples and get your own way. You will have to write the personal statement in the personal statement page of UCAS. You may prepare the personal statement in a word processor and then copy and paste into the box. Remember I mentioned earlier that you can apply to different course of different universities through UCAS but eventually your application will have no value except the course for which you will write the personal statement. This is because you can write the personal statement for a single course and if you apply for more courses, this will ultimately be no longer considered by the universities (as the personal statement is for only one course).

Taking Particular Test(s) for Applied Course (if Needed) 📌

Some of the universities e.g. University of Oxford, University of Cambridge may require you to take a test only applicable for your applied course of those universities. When you give choices of the universities in UCAS, UCAS will show whether you need to take a particular test for that course or not. You can also find the information in your chosen course page of university website. Remember you may need to register again with the test center for those particular test(s). For example, if you apply to University of Oxford or University of Cambridge, you have to register again with British Council Dhaka (test center for Bangladeshi students) for the particular test and this may have a different deadline. I applied for BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in University of Oxford (one of my 5 choices) and for this course, I had to take TSA Oxford test. Likewise, you may have to take other tests according to your applied course if the university requires you to.

Completing References 📌

This is also a very much important part of your application. You must complete reference before sending application to the universities. While registering through UCAS, you will apply as an individual and in reference page, you will have to choose whom you want to be your referee. After his/her consent, fill up the details of the referee. After clicking save, referee will receive an email in which login information and password will be sent. The referee has to log in using the information. It is recommended that the referee prepare the reference in a word processor and then copy and paste the reference into the box after logging in because after 35 minutes of inactivity, the system will time out and closes. So preparing the reference in a word processor and then copy and paste in the box after logging in is the best way actually. Guidelines for the referee will be found on the reference page. After submitting the reference by the referee, the password will be expired and can no longer give the referee access to the site. However, applying through college or school instead of applying as individual is not possible for Bangladeshi applicants as far as I know. This is applicable for UK applicants.

Making Payment 📌

After completing all the sections of UCAS pages, this is now time to make payment. If you chose one university, you will have to pay € 20 and if you apply for more than one university, you will have to pay € 25. UCAS accepts UK and International VISA, VISA Debit, Delta, MasterCard, Maestro, Solo, and Electron Credit or Debit Cards. UCAS does not accept American Express, Diners Club, or JCB Cards. For making payment from Bangladesh, you must have an International or Dual currency card.

Submitting Written Work or Essays (if Needed) 📌

Some universities may require you to submit written work or essay for some courses. You will find this information on the course page of the university website. Generally after paying and sending the application to the universities, university will contact you. You have to submit the written work if needed by the university. There might a different deadline for this submission.

Facing Interviews 📌

Some universities may arrange an interview as a part of their assessment process. But all the universities do not use this process to assess the applicants. For example, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge arrange interviews to assess the applicants.

Receiving Decisions 📌

After considering all the parts of your application including written work and interview (if any), university will reach on a decision for you. They may offer you a place or reject your application. Moreover, your offer may be conditional and unconditional. In case of conditional offer, universities will set some conditions which you have to meet to get yourself admitted in the university. Universities may set a deadline by which you have to meet the conditions. You may also defer your year of entry after discussing with the university. For example, you applied for 2021 entry and got an offer. You may defer the entry year to 2022 if university agrees.

Cost, Funding, and Scholarships 📌

To know about cost, funding, and scholarships, you have to search in the relevant webpages of university website. However, you will get some general information about funding in UCAS too. To know further, you can contact the universities via email or any other mode. Generally, there are a few scholarships for international applicants and fully funded scholarships are much scarce.

You will receive any update about application progress from UCAS as well as from respective university. The webpage where you can track your application is track.ucas.com.