Head of Higher Education : MRS NICOLA HUNTER,
huntern@stedwards.oxon.sch.uk
(Office to be found inside the entrance to Tilly’s
and Macnamara’s Houses, on the right )
- Click the link on the left for more information
about Careers
-
Click
the link for a PowerPoint presentation of all
the information given at 2010 Higher Education parents'
Meetings.
- Click
the link for the "Careers and Higher Education"
booklet (as a pdf file)
- The following are material provided by
Birmingham University as referred to in their 2010
talk to the L6th:
(i) LAW at Birmingham PowerPoint
Presentation -
here
(ii) Birmingham Apply web
page -
here
(iii) Birmingham You Tube site -
here
(iv) Birmingham Facebook site -
here
WHAT DO WE OFFER & HOW DO WE HELP?
- Advice, starting officially in the Spring Term
of the L6 and building on the ISCO advice given and
work experience done previously.
- We ask if your son or daughter wants to:
- Go to university directly
- Take a gap year having applied to university
at School - a deferred place
- Go to work right away
- Do a non-university course such as a
foundation art year
We believe it is good to have a goal while at School if
at all possible.
- Most of our pupils decide to go to university,
but some are undecided about the course or university
that would suit them, or even if they want to go. Any pupil can email Mrs Hunter to make an appointment
to discuss their future at any time.
- What about those who have to make special preparations
and start early (Medical/Veterinary/ Dentistry candidates,
Architectural candidates & Oxbridge candidates)?
We identify them and start to help them towards
their goal as early as
possible, sometimes from the fifth form, if appropriate.
- All universities value IB and A Level but pupils
might want advice about options in either case that
will be relevant to their chosen HE subject and this
will be given.
RESEARCH
We stress to parents and pupils alike that research done
by pupils is the most important part of preparation for
Higher Education. No one can do this for a pupil and ultimately
a pupil is responsible for his or her own application,
choices of university and, very importantly, Personal Statement. We are here
to provide a time framework and give sound advice via
tutors, subject specialists, Mr Hunt (Head of Careers) and Mrs Hunter.
THE HIGHER EDUCATION YEAR AT ST EDWARD’S
SPRING TERM (L6th)
- In January of the L6 discussion starts about whether
university is the right option for your son or daughter;
if it is then he or she will start thinking about
institutions and courses in their tutor group. In
February a representative of a competitive university
comes to address the L6.
- All the L6 have a training session showing them
how to look up courses and prospectuses online and are
shown the HE reference material we stock in the
Library .
SUMMER TERM (L6th)
- Provisional choices for courses and institutions
(of all kinds) are made.
- The Personal Statement Workshop at the end of term
gives everyone a chance to begin the process of writing
about themselves successfully, having been addressed
by a representative of a competitive university. This
exercise is equally useful for those not going to
university.
- There is a Q & A session and dinner for the
L6 attended by OSEs who left 5 years before, and
this is a very lively occasion.
- A Higher Education Parents’ Evening is held for
all L6th parents.
- Oxbridge candidates are given advice about preparation
to be done over the summer
- UCAS applicants should come
back next term with their application practically
finished, particularly the Personal Statement.
AUNTUM TERM (U6th)
- Applications have to be finished towards the end
of September for Oxbridge candidates and Medical/Veterinary/Dentistry
candidates so that applications
are ready to send by 15 October.
- We like anyone applying to
competitive universities to get their application
ready to send by mid October. We believe that to be
prepared early has many advantages and frees the pupil
to get on with their work and achieving necessary
results. Competition for university places is greater
than it has ever been and we aim to get as many as
possible of our pupils into Russell Group or 1994
Group (ie research) universities (over 82% of those
placed in Apply 2010).
- For those who take longer to
make up their minds all UCAS applications must be
finished two weeks before the end of term.
- Once the pupils have finished their part of the
application we have to make
checks and attach a reference,
and this takes at least a week - the application
cannot be sent directly after the pupil has finished
their part of the process.
- Once all universities applied to (a maximum of
5) have responded applicants have a month to choose
a firm and an
insurance offer. They
should decide carefully on what
they are likely to achieve and make wise choices
having taken advice.
APPLYING FOR STUDENT GRANTS/LOANS
This is the responsibility of parents, not the school.
The new body organising student loans
is very keen to get you to apply for a loan as early as
possible. Go to
www.studentfinanceengland.co.uk for more information
and you can do this easily via UCAS as soon as your son
or daughter has started their application.
OPEN DAYS
When do we suggest pupils go to Open Days?
We allow pupils one Open Day visit in
the Lower Sixth. We make this
limit because such visits interfere with their
work and missed lessons are missed
forever. Pupils can often learn more about a university
by a visit at another time: leave weekends, half term
and the holidays provide good opportunities, and sometimes
Open Days are held out of term time. Oxbridge candidates
are an exception since they have to apply to a particular
college.
During the U6 pupils can visit two universities
during the year.
Again we suggest holiday visits where possible.
Pupils can
go and explore a town or city and see if they would like
to live there for three years, and perhaps seek out an
Admissions Tutor and ask questions rather than attending
a glossy event designed to beguile. Information about
Open Days at particular universities can easily be found
in online prospectuses.
INTERVIEWS
Most universities do not interview at present. Some do,
such as Oxbridge and UCL, and some
departments in some universities interview while other
departments in the same institution do not. If
there is no interview the
Personal Statement and predicted grades are particularly
important ways of persuading an Admissions Tutor
of an applicants
value, as is the completion of an
Extended Project Qualification.
THE PERSONAL STATEMENT
We make a lot of fuss about this. Our
advice is never to send one off that
is not as good as it could be. We advise at least SEVEN
serious drafts of this important document, which is difficult
to write but it is important on many
levels that it is the applicant's own ideas and words
that are used. On the most basic level all Personal
Statements are put through plagiarism software and
checked against every Personal Statement sent to UCAS in
the previous five years. Ultimately however, the
Personal Statement is personal and the responsibility of
the pupil.
WHAT SHOULD THE PS CONTAIN?
- For a competitive university
at least two thirds to three quarters should be about
the subject(s) applied for.
- It should be a pupil’s own work and reflect
their interests and personality.
- In it the pupil must be clear about what they want
to study and why.
- In it should be reference to a pupil’s reading
and relevant work experience—to strengthen their
case.
- The writer should remember who they are writing
it for— an objective (and
probably ruthless) Admissions Tutor looking for the best
candidate.
- If the writer is likely to be interviewed by any
of the institutions the content should be about what
they want to talk about at such an interview—their
own agenda.
- It should never be a list of things done, but informative
about what the pupil has learnt -
their reflection.
HE ADVICE AFTER LEAVING
We offer the same level of advice after pupils have left.
Please apply through the school rather than as an individual,
and firstly come in to see Mrs Hunter
- as early as possible - as well as asking for
advice from your subject specialist on the staff. It is
better not to try and do this in a hurry or from abroad.
Any references from the previous year
need to be updated and the applicant needs to contact
all those who taught him or her, tell them the subject
they are applying for and ask them if they would kindly
update their references from last year. The Personal
Statement will need to be re-written, painful as that
might be, as the applicant will have done a great deal
in the previous year and, of course, matured. If an
applicant has made a previous application this will have
been filed for their use. |
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