Having helped a wide range of students to produce outstanding UCAS personal statements this year, there is no doubt that competition for university places will be fierce. The strong standard which has characterised our client’s applications has left Getting In’s team of top graduate writers in no doubt about the pool of committed and talented students from which the UK’s universities will be able to draw. Wherever you end up, remember this: they will be lucky to have you!

If you’ve missed the deadline, for whatever reason, and can see your chances of getting in to university swiftly disappearing, then please don’t panic! While there are legitimate, practical reasons for UCAS encouraging applications to be in by the January 15th ‘deadline’, in reality they will accept applications through the normal channels until June 30th. Obviously, they couldn’t deal with every application this late, nor can they guarantee you will have the full choice of places available to you if you have missed the earlier deadlines.

If you’ve changed your mind about what you want to study, or about going to university at all, and are now looking to complete a UCAS application please do heed this advice: don’t rush it! Take as much time, and pay as much care and attention, as every other candidate in order to make sure that your later application stands comparison with the rest. Why not contact Getting In today to see how we can help?

Finally, we all know that the job market has been tough for the past couple of years and it doesn’t look like 2012 will prove much different. At Getting In, we’re proud of the work we have done constructing CVs and cover letters for a range of job applications and would also like to wish good luck to all our clients seeking that dream job in the New Year.

Whatever your goals for 2012, the team at Getting In would like to wish you the best of luck in achieving them and to reassure you that our dedicated writers will continue to do all they can to help make them a reality.

Good luck!

Whilst it might not seem the most inspiring of ‘Happy New Year’ messages, there is always something quite fitting about making a major life decision, such as where and what to study, as the year begins anew.

New Year is a time for taking stock, for contemplating the achievements and challenges of the past year and looking forward to the opportunities that 2012 has to offer. For UCAS applicants, these opportunities include the exciting prospect of beginning a new life as an undergraduate: studying a new course, meeting new people and, more often than not, living away from home for the first time.

To ensure that you get a chance to make the most of these opportunities, it is important to pay attention to every aspect of the UCAS application process in these crucial last few weeks. Without detracting from the inevitable excitement when considering the bright future ahead of you, it is vital to keep your feet on ground and make sure that you get everything right before January 15th.

If you’re struggling to complete your UCAS application, and starting to worry that you may not have the time left that you need, then you could always consult one of our experienced team of advisors, who offer expert help and advice. We all know that there has been much talk about the competitive nature of the UCAS application process over the last couple of years. There is no denying that competition for places has got fiercer, but there is no need to be worried if you have made sure your application is the best it can possibly be.

The easiest way to make your application stand out, and to make sure it gets across what is unique about you as a candidate, is to complete an outstanding UCAS personal statement. It’s not always easy to ‘sell yourself’ to other people, particularly for those applicants who are modest or shy. This is where getting someone else to look over your personal statement can be an essential part of the process. You may have a trusted friend, family member or teacher who can offer help and advice.

For a truly outstanding UCAS personal statement, however, it may be best to trust the professionals. Our team of top graduate writers and editors have written hundreds of successful statements. If you’re beginning to panic as the UCAS deadline finally approaches why not let Getting In take the stress out of the application process by helping you to produce the best possible statement? This new year, why not resolve to give yourself the best possible shot at achieving your academic goals?

As the first term of the academic year ends, Fresher’s Week seems like only yesterday. But rest assured that for all of you who have just completed their first three or four months at a university, maybe even in a new town, it’s time to take a well earned break. One of the best things about student life has always been returning home for holidays and catching up with friends and family, so make the most of it.

At Getting In we also like to think that we know today’s hardworking, driven students as little better than most people; so we won’t be patronising you with a load of clichés about taking your washing home to mum! In the competitive, expensive world of contemporary higher education, today’s students are more likely to spend their holidays working or catching up with next term’s reading lists. While this will be the case for many of you, please do try to remember what the seasonal break is really all about: eating far too much food, watching a lot of Christmas telly and trying not to fall out with your siblings over the yearly game of Monopoly. Try and make sure you find some time to relax this Christmas and you’ll return to university in January with your batteries recharged, ready to make the most of next term.

Equally, if you’ve started a new job this year, perhaps with the help of our team of expert CV writers and editors, we’d like to take this opportunity to say a big ‘congratulations’. The job market has become increasingly competitive this year but the opportunities have still been out there for those with the drive and determination to seek them out. We’ve helped people to create all sorts of winning CVs, across all sorts of industries, this year and it’s heartening to think that many of the high calibre applicants we have deal with will be celebrating their first holiday from a new job this Christmas.

Christmas is a time for celebration, but it’s also a time to take stock and think about the year just gone. With our business growing, and our team of top graduate writer’s expanding, in 2011, we at Getting In are looking forward to helping even more students get onto the course of their choice, or applicants get their dream job in 2012.

Season’s greetings!

What is at stake is more than the just the financial ability of UK students to gain access to higher education. Turning education into a commodity, paid for equally by those desperate to qualify themselves for a career and those simply seeking intellectual fulfilment, threatens to change the very meaning of higher education in the UK. We have already heard calls from the coalition government that universities should strengthen links with industry to ensure that they are producing graduates with the skills and knowledge necessary to enter workplace.

With the global economic downturn effecting businesses everywhere, however, some might argue that it is also important to consider their passions before committing to a career-focused course that may not deliver a job at the end anyway. Equally, prospective candidates may balk at the idea of spending large amounts of money on an intellectually rewarding degree that offers them little prospect of a return on their investment.

It is important to take on board the increasing cost of higher education and to make sure that you maintain some sense of ‘protecting your investment’ when thinking about what you chosen course does for your future job prospects. It is also important, however, to remember that university should be a fun, exciting and influential personal experience, which offers you a chance to lose yourself in a subject that interests you.

Make sure you research prospective courses thoroughly, bearing both of these aspects in mind. Check out whether it will allow you to gain important skills, or whether it is more based in theory. If the course is modular, or varied, it will probably be able to offer both. Remember, employers will also be looking for knowledge of your field as well as practical experience, so don’t be completely blinded by ‘internships’ and ‘years in industry’ that may only form a small part of the course. Quality teaching of the basics is the foundation upon which this practical experience will be built

So, don’t be downhearted by the controversy surrounding university education. In truth, going to university is still the exciting, enticing prospect it once was and still offers the best prospects for a fulfilling career upon graduation. The increasing cost of higher education simply requires applicants to make a more informed choice about the way in which they spend their money. Choose wisely and a degree is still one of the best investments you will ever make.

For help and advice on everything related to applying to university, from choosing the course for you to completing a top level UCAS personal statement, visit Getting In today and talk to one of our experienced advisors.

If you were university material you did A-levels before applying for your degree and if you weren’t you chose another course, or an apprenticeship, that offered access to the career of your choice through a different route. With more and more people going to university, however, it has now become harder than ever to get into any career without having that all-important degree.

Unless you are one of the lucky ones, who had a clear idea of where you wanted to end up from a young age, you may find yourself in a precarious position when it comes to applying for places. While there are any number of qualification you can take to gain access to higher education, from Foundation courses to BTECs and GNVQs, some have expressed concerns that universities are more likely to take candidates with A-levels than they are to take ‘risks’ on these newer qualifications.

The Scottish government yesterday shared their concerns that the ‘ancient’ universities of Scotland, which are still the countries most regarded institutions, were limiting access to their higher education courses by refusing to treat Further Education qualifications as fully equivalent to the relevant A-levels. This raises further concerns that the system privileges those from richer backgrounds, who are more likely to have taken A-levels, and disadvantages those from poorer backgrounds, who may have taken a more circuitous route to higher education. This is seen as particularly unfair to those students who have completed a course which is deemed the equivalent of the first one or two years of university study, such as an HNC or HND, and yet find themselves required to begin their studies all over again, incurring extra time and cost.

So why the potential prejudice? University leaders have suggested the style of education is different for a degree, requiring a greater emphasis on personal study, and they are therefore concerned that those who have gained the qualification at a Further Education college may have the knowledge but not the skills to enter university courses at a later stage. If this prejudice remains (and the presence of this news story would suggest that it does!), what hope is there for those who have taken an alternative route to A-levels?

Despite these universities’ preference for A-level candidates, be reassured that they will also be considering your UCAS application as a whole. By including a top flight UCAS personal statement, which addresses these potential concerns by outlining the skills, experience and knowledge that make you the perfect candidate, you have the perfect opportunity to show them the potential that lies beyond the qualifications and the grades.

For expert help and advice on writing a winning UCAS personal statement contact one of Getting In’s top graduate writers today.

Firstly, they argue, the current statistics only apply to the first round of applications, for Oxford, Cambridge and Medical related degrees, with the full picture unlikely to emerge until after the main UCAS deadline in January. Secondly, UCAS argue that this year was always bound to be something of an anomaly, as university applications will always decline in a year were fees rise substantially, returning to similar levels pretty quickly thereafter. While this decline does seem to reflect a reticence on the part of school students to commit to an expensive education that they perhaps cannot afford, the prestigious, arguably more exclusive, nature of the institutions and courses that have already received their applications means that you might expect a sharper drop in applications for the October deadline for the deadline in January.

So, what does this mean for prospective applicants? Since no-one is applying to university you can hand in a shoddy application and waltz into uni this year, right? In reality, the worst thing that students could do at this point is to become complacent about getting on the course of their choice.

While a decline in applications from the high numbers experienced last year is undeniable, it is important to bear in mind that most institutions and degrees were highly oversubscribed last year, leaving many applicants disappointed. While the field may have thinned, you will still be up against stiff competition, so it is important to make your application as strong as possible. As the cost of education rises it is also conceivable that many applicants will be looking for the best return for their investment, meaning that the most competitive courses will remain as oversubscribed as ever.

At Getting In, we like to think that our clients are the best of the best, so we always assume they’ll be entering the toughest competition, whatever the papers say. The professional advice that our writers can offer on completing a top flight application, including a winning UCAS personal statement, will be geared towards making you stand out as the best possible candidate for the toughest courses and institutions.

We haven’t let talk of declining application rates fool us into thinking that getting into university will suddenly become a walk in the park, and neither should you if you want to make sure you get the most out of higher education. Contact us today to see how we can help you with that all important application.

With many universities originally opting to charge the maximum fees of £9,000 a year from 2012, UCAS have seen a sharp drop, of around 12%, in applications. This, in turn, has led to many universities reassessing the amount of money that they can charge in what is sure to become an increasingly competitive market. In light of this, it has been confirmed that more than 25 universities are looking into dropping their fees from the proposed £9,000 a year to a potentially more manageable £7,500.

For students who have already applied to Oxford, Cambridge or Medicine, institutions of colleges that decide to lower fees for certain courses must contact applicants to offer them a chance to stay with the course to which they have already applied or to change to another course that may now offer a better deal. With universities having to submit their decision on fees by the 4th of November, it is hoped that all charges will be defined by the January 15th UCAS deadline for all other courses.

So what does this mean for applicants? While it may be tempting to suggest that the drop in applications for next year will make it easier to get into universities, in reality it is still very competitive. While we are unlikely to see a repeat of the huge numbers that applied last year, the best courses and institutions will still be incredibly oversubscribed. With the cost of education still set to rise, to an average of £8,000 a year across all institutions, people will be seeking a greater return on their investment, increasing applications to top universities as people seek to make the most of their money.

If you are applying to university on 2012, sound advice might be to try your best to ignore the ongoing fees debate. Pick the course you want to do, and the place that you want to do it and spend as much time on your application as possible. Ultimately, while you may find the cost slightly lower than you originally expected, a university education is still an expensive investment, so try and be sure that you are making the right investment for your future.

At Getting In, you will find expert advice on all aspects of the application procedure, including help with completing the all important UCAS personal statement.

With these problems in mind, changes have been proposed that would see the exam period brought forward and the UCAS application procedure only beginning once students are in possession of their final grades. These changes could even be implemented as early as 2016. The advantages of this are obvious, in that it ensures all students who are offered a place based on the strength of their entire application, of which the grades form a key part, are able to take up the places that they are offered. While the limited timescale that this may place on the already complex UCAS procedure could be a problem, some might argue that it would also do away with the administrative headache of clearing and presents a fairer, simpler way of allocating university places.

Two of the UK’s top institutions, Oxford and Cambridge, for whom the application process is longer and more involved, are worried that the proposals would not allow them enough time to select the best students from a range of applicants with similarly high grades, however. Renowned for including a higher level of written work and giving a greater weight to interviews, the Oxbridge application process currently attempts to seek out the best applicants by looking beyond the grades, a wise move considering the high academic standard of many of their applicants. Not only would a shorter application process potentially not allow them the necessary time to get through each stage of this process, but it could also lead to rise in applications from students who gained better grades than they expected. Fairer for students? Almost certainly. A logistical nightmare? Probably.

In reality, the UCAS system for university application, just like the Oxbridge application procedure, has never been entirely based on simple grades, predicted or otherwise. The only way to ensure that you get the place you want is to make sure you stand out throughout the entire application, including making sure you have an exciting, engaging UCAS personal statement. If the proposed system is brought in the UCAS personal statement will only increase in importance, as it show the admissions tutors what makes you a good applicant beyond your grades, which are now concrete, or becomes a valuable opportunity to explain the reasons you may not have achieved the specific grades that you want.

Getting help and advice on the UCAS personal statement is essential for all applicants, in the current or the propose system. Contact Getting In today to find out how we can help you produce a winning piece of writing.

While last year’s application process may be bearing fruit, in the shape of thousands of newly enrolled undergraduates, it doesn’t mean that UCAS, and those of us who work within the higher and further education industry, can rest on our laurels. In fact, the new term proves to be one of the busiest periods, as next year’s applicants begin the complex, and nerve-racking, process of gaining a place at university.

For those applying to Oxford and Cambridge, the deadline for applications is actually just around the corner. With both universities asking for applications to be received, through UCAS, by October the 15th, now is the time to make sure that you have crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s on your form, if you’re looking to apply to either of these prestigious institutions.

As you will already know, Oxford and Cambridge are slightly different from other universities, in that they expect all of their candidates to be predicted the best grades in their subjects. With this in mind, these elite institutions necessarily look to additional tests, such as written exams and interviews, to make sure that they offer places to the best candidates. Even reaching this stage of the process requires a flawless application from each student however; including a strong, effective UCAS personal statement. With Getting In’s specific Oxbridge Service offering to match you up with one of our team of top graduate writers, you can get the best advice on completing your personal statement from those who know what it takes to get into the top universities.

It is not just Oxbridge applicants who should be paying attention to upcoming deadlines, however. With only a few months to go until the January UCAS deadline for all other institutions and courses, it is never too early to make sure you have the best possible application. Starting to write your UCAS personal statement as early as possible gives you the maximum time to refine your work through multiple drafts. If you have a draft of a personal statement that you would like an expert to look over, or you don’t have any idea where to start in crafting a professional, impressive statement from your skills, knowledge and experience, get in touch with Getting In today to find out how one of our top graduate writers can help you.

Make sure you get ahead when it come to getting in by giving yourself plenty of time and getting the best possible advice when completing your UCAS application.

There are still options for those who did not quite get the grades they needed. If you’ve narrowly missed out, gaining an A grade instead of an A* for example, it may be worth checking with your chosen institution whether they would be prepared to accept you with this slightly lower grade. While this has often been the case in the past, prepare yourself for universities to be extra fussy this year. They can afford to be with so many people chasing a few precious places.

If you definitely have not made it to the university of your choice, there is no need to despair just yet. As always, there will be a number of places at various universities that have not been filled and you may be able to find an alternative institution or course that matches your goals and interests. The ‘clearing’ process, which is also run through UCAS, is designed to match up students who have not secured places to those that are still available.

Clearing has been all over the front pages in the last few days, with many pronouncements of doom and gloom being made. Stories of “desperate” students crashing the UCAS website in a scrum for university places may put you off joining the competition yourself. But don’t be put off if you really have your heart set on going to university. While there have been teething problems, these are to be expected with nearly 200,000 students vying for only 30,000 available places. As the bugs in the overstretched system are ironed out it will become easier and easier to match students up to the universities that have places for them.

You need to be proactive when it comes to the clearing process. While details of available course are on the UCAS site if the site is experiencing difficulty you can still find this information elsewhere; such as The Telegraph. Once you have taken a look at the available courses it is up to you to contact universities to see whether the course is the right match for you.

The clearing process can de daunting and scary, particularly with alarmist news reports and technological problems standing in your way. Rest assured, however, that by approaching it in a clam and determined manner you may still be able to achieve your dream of studying at university level.