This document provides information about a higher education evening event at Kennicott Sixth Form Centre. It includes an agenda with multiple presentations on topics like university life, applying to university, writing a personal statement, application deadlines and student finance. The presentations are given by staff from the sixth form as well as representatives from Plymouth University. The document provides details of each presentation and questions that will be addressed. It also includes sample personal statements for different university courses and information on applying for financial support from the Mary Lidstone Trust.

1. Higher Education
Evening
Kennicott Sixth Form Centre
Welcome!

2. Welcome
1. Welcome
Ms Jane Richardson, Assistant Principal
2. University Life
Amy Cartwright & Daniel Williams, Plymouth University
3. How to Apply: An Overview
UCAStv
4. Finding your course and choosing your university
Ms Jane Richardson, Assistant Principal
5. Writing your Personal Statement
Mr Dave Waistnidge, Assistant Head of Sixth Form
6. Timetable for Applications/Special Deadlines
Mr Dave Waistnidge
7. Student Finance
Laura Kendrick

3. University Life
Amy Cartwright and Daniel Williams
Plymouth University

4. Finding your course
and choosing your
university
Jane Richardson

5. Q: How do I search for courses?
Q: How can I find out which is the best
university or college for my chosen
course?
Q: How do I find the entry requirements
for the course?
www.google.co.uk
www.unistats.direct.gov.uk
www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk
www.push.co.uk/Choose-a-uni
www.thestudentroom.co.uk
www.ucas.ac.uk/yougo

6. Writing your
Personal Statement
Dave Waistnidge

7. Planning Your Personal Statement

8.  Admissions staff want to see
evidence that students are
enthusiastic, well-prepared
and have the right skills to do
well at university.
 Large numbers of
students applying through
UCAS – impossible to
interview for all courses
 You may be competing
with other students from
across UK for small number
of places – personal
statement could make the
difference between a
successful or unsuccessful
application.

9. • Before you start,
remember this is a personal
statement - i.e. it's about
you, and there is no real right
or wrong way to do it.
• Personal statements are
specific so if you decide to
change the course you are
applying for you will need to
rewrite your personal
statement.
• When the admissions and
subject tutors look at your
personal statement, they are
likely to be asking two main
questions:
1. Do we want this student
on this course?
2. Do we want this student at
this university?

10. • Is the student suited to the course that they are applying
for?
• Does the student have the necessary qualifications and
qualities for the course?
• Is the student conscientious, hardworking and unlikely to
drop out?
• Will the student do their best and cope with the demands of
the course?
• Can the student work under pressure?
• Will the student be able to adjust to their new environment at
university?
• What are their communication skills like?
• Are they dedicated to this course and have researched it
well?
• Do they have a genuine interest in the subject and a desire to
learn more about it?
These are the questions you will need to address in your personal
statement.
Admission Tutors

11. • What do you want to
study at university?
• Why?
• What specific aspects of
the course interests you?
• What school work have
you completed that is
relevant?
• What practical work have
you completed that is
relevant?
• What have you read
related to the subject
area that has inspired
you?
• What personal
experiences which lead to
the decision to take this
subject?
• Where you hope a degree
in this subject will lead?

12. What experiences show
you are a reliable and
responsible person?
• Part-time jobs?
• Business enterprise?
• Community and
charity work?
• Sixth Form
committee?
• Extracurricular
activities? (Young
Enterprise, Duke of
Edinburgh Award,
Debating, Sport, etc)
• What have you gained
from these
experiences?

13. Your interests and
skills
• What do you do in
your free time?
• Any sport and
leisure activities?
• Any subjects you
study which are
not examined?
• Do you play a
musical
instrument?
• Do you speak any
languages?
• Have you won any
prizes?
• Do you have any
role or
responsibility in
any of your
interests?

14. Gap Years/The
Summer
• Why are you
taking a Gap
year? (if you are)
• Why do you want
to take a gap
year?
• What do you plan
to do?
• How does this
relate to your
course?

15. Now, for each point you have made,
comment on:
• What it says about your character;
• What skills/knowledge has it given you;
• Why it makes you a suitable candidate
for the course and the university.

16. If you need help, do ask your parent/carer or Tutor for assistance.
or phone the UCAS Student Helpline on 0871 468 0468

17. Personal Statement
Medicine Personal Statement
Medicine for me is a unique profession in that it
does not discriminate in its universality of
application. It has therefore captivated me as a
challenging field of continuous learning that allows
me to explore my love of science in a way that is
beneficial to humanity.
Medicine Personal Statement
Given that over ninety nine percent of the body
consists of just six elements, it is hard to imagine the
human body as an intricately synchronised and
immensely complex machine. Yet, it has done well
to puzzle even the brightest minds in history-but I
am drawn to a challenge; I cannot think of anything
else more fascinating to work with.

18. Personal Statement
English Language
English has long since endured an inappropriate
reputation of being boring, lack-lustre. However, it is
not until you've become engrossed in the language
that the true power is revealed, how a single word
can bend someone's mind to a cause, take them to
a world they can only dream off, or create an
atmosphere so tense you can not stop reading.
English Personal Statement
Emily Bronte had the Yorkshire moors, Austen and
Shakespeare had Chawton and London
respectively, and I have my bed. This is where their
sleeping words are shaken awake by my
subjectivity. This is where I become a man.

19. Maths Personal Statement
“It has become a very strange and perhaps frightening
subject from the ordinary point of view,but anyone who
penetrates into it will find a veritable fairyland"(Kasner E
and Newman J).This saying is perhaps the most fitted to
describe my enthusiasm for Maths.
Law Personal Statement
I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth. My father had always told me my career
destined in the profession of Law; I had of course been
ignorant to this. Thinking the only reason he had told me
so was to carry the family tradition, as he was one himself.
Journalism Personal Statement
The amplification of the inexplicable joy as I finished
producing my first piece was too palpable to ignore. It
perpetually hung in the surrounding air as waves of
electrifying impetus to the growth of the infantile writer
residing in every fibre that constitutes my body and whom
I gradually nourished with a lucid thought-process and
dexterity at juxtaposition of words.

20. Timetable for
Applications/Special
Deadlines
Dave Waistnidge

21. YR12 Spring Term
June 2013  Higher Education programme begins.
o HE Evening with parents.
o Student completes and returns a Student Reference request Form to
their Tutor (forms available from the Kennicott Office or attached) by
28 June 2013.
July 2013  Register and commence UCAS application on-line, visit
www.ucas.com/students/apply.
 Apply for ‘UCAS Card’ to receive free monthly newsletters providing advice
on the application process, advance information on universities, and
discounts on goods and services www.ucas.com/ucascard.
 Please note that, if a student is applying for Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary
Medicine, Veterinary Science courses and all courses at the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge (Oxbridge) and courses at UK Conservatoires
(CUKAS), that this has an earlier deadline for UCAS application receipt of 15
October 2013. If applying for a course with a 15 October deadline, please
advise Tutor and UCAS Co-ordinator.
 Student researches into courses and universities -
www.ucas.com/students/choosingcourses.
 Draft Personal Statement – use feedback from HE Evening, seek advice from
Tutors or visit
www.ucas.com/students/applying/howtoapply/personalstatement.
 Subject staff prepare subject references which form part of the reference
which has to accompany your UCAS application.

22. YR12 Spring Term
August 2013  Continue researching into courses and universities. Find out about
College/University Open Days. You can find dates and times from
www.opendays.com. Record findings/ideas on page 5.
 Check whether an admissions test is required. This is the responsibility of
the student to organise.
 Further complete application on-line.
 Further draft Personal Statement.
YR13 Autumn Term
September
2013
 Complete UCAS Application on-line.
 Print and submit hard copy of UCAS Application to include draft Personal
Statement to Tutor by Monday, 23 September 2013.
 Liaise with Form Tutor, and if changes have been made to application,
amend UCAS application on-line. Once completed, select PAY and SEND. Pay
using a credit card. Once paid, the UCAS application will be sent
automatically to the UCAS Co-ordinator who will process application further.
 If the student’s course requirement is to undertake an Admission Test,
student to advise both the UCAS Coordinator and Examinations Officer.

23. YR13 Autumn Term
October 2013 –
January 2014
 UCAS applications are processed further by UCAS Co-ordinators to meet the
necessary deadlines of 1 October (CUKAS), 15 October 2013 and 15 January
2014.
 Tutor reports are added to the application by UCAS Co-ordinator.
 Final check by Tutor. (At this stage, amendments may still be made.
Students to check status on-line regularly. The requested changes to be
made as soon as student has been advised to. Once completed, student to
select PAY and SEND again to return the application to the UCAS
Administrator).
 Final version of UCAS application is approved by the Senior Management
team (Students to continue checking status on-line in case further
improvements and final amendments need to be made to the application.
Once completed, student needs to return the application to the UCAS
Coordinator by selecting the PAY and SEND option (you will not be charged
again!). Application is sent to UCAS.
From October
2013
 Track your progress via ‘Apply’.
 Offers (usually conditional, based on ‘A’ Level results) are made.
 Some institutions require interviews but an increasing number do not.
 If you a student is called for interview, the Attendance Officer at Kennicott
needs to be advised of this. It is possible to organise a practice interview
with Mr Waistnidge if a student feels this of use.

24. Student Finance
Laura Kendrick

25. The
Mary Lidstone
Trust
Kate Mason

26. The Mary Lidstone Trust
Who is eligible to apply?
Priority 1
• Child in Care
• Care Leaver
• Young Person in receipt of income support
• Young person in receipt of Employment Support and
Disability Living Allowance
Priority 2
• Receiving Free School Meals

27. The Mary Lidstone Trust
Who is eligible to apply?
Priority 3
Family in receipt of at least one of the following
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseekers’ Allowance
• Employment Support Allowance (Income Related)Support
under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Guaranteed Element of Pension Credit
• The maximum level of Working Tax Credit (WTC)
• Child Tax Credit (if it is the only benefit received and
where annual income, as assessed by the Inland Revenue,
does not exceed £16,190)

28. What happens next?
Jane Richardson

29. Opportunity for
Q&As
Jane Richardson

30. Close
Jane Richardson