Your UCAS Application - Things you need to know (Part Two)

Once you've registered with UCAS and entered through the school system you can then go on to fill in the different parts of the form.

Things to note

Personal Info Page

1. When you fill in your address make sure that you don't include 'DARUSSALAM'. Brunei will suffice.
2. Tel. No: Begin with +6732.. or +6738....
3. Nominated Access: YOUR COUNSELLORS FULL NAME
Relationship: HIGHER EDUCATION COUNSELLOR
4. Residential Category: Other
5. Fee Code: Overseas Agency (if you're applying for a scholarship)

Make sure you click SAVE before proceeding to the next page!

Education Page
1. Date of Attendance in school:
For your secondary school - January 2001 - January 2006
For Maktab Duli - February 2006- January 2008

The dates above are in accordance to your leaving certificate.

2. Entering 'O' level qualifications: Subject name/ Grade/ Date/ Awarding Body
e.g. GEOGRAPHY B 01/06 CAM

The date that you put down is the date of when you obtained your result, NOT when you sat for the exam.

The same rule above applies for your A level qualifications.

3. Entering AS level qualifications : You only enter your language support modules
e.g. General Paper, English AS, English Language and Lit, Literature AS, Thinking Skills.

Please note General STUDIES is NOT the same as General Paper!

Personal Statement Page
Enter your personal statement only AFTER is has been checked by your counsellor!
Please note that this is the most crucial part of the application so be prepared to revise your personal statement over and over again! If you choose to put in your personal statement without having it checked by your counsellor that we will take NO responsibility of any mistakes in style, technicality and accuracy of your statement resulting in the rejection of your application.

Once everything is all checked and ready, make the payment using a credit card and then send to referee (MD HEU).

Applications sent to referee will be sent to UCAS 2-3 weeks from date sent to referee. You should receive a Welcome Letter from UCAS 1-2 weeks later.

Your UCAS Application - Things you need to know (Part One)

What is UCAS exactly?

Well to put it simply, it's an application form that enables you to apply to a maximum of 5 universities for the price of 15 pounds sterling. One application form - 5 universities max. As opposed to the system here in Brunei where you have to fill out different forms for each institution.

Those who do not want to use UCAS are those who definitely know which university they want to go to and have no intention at all for any other Universities. In this case, going to an education consultant or agent would definitely suit you. However it is important to keep in mind though, we offer our services for free and we get no profit from your admission to University hence we can ensure you that our advice would be totally unbiased.

So now that you know what exactly is UCAS and want to apply using this service what do you do now?

First, you have to REGISTER WITH HEU - Only!

Registering with us means that we would be able to keep track of your application, write your reference, and give you advice on how to write your personal statement.

In order to register with HEU, make sure that you have prepared the following for you HEU counsellor
- Form A and B (this was done during VISION last year!)
- a draft of your personal statement

We will only give you the BUZZWORD (which is the password you need to register with UCAS under us) once you've done the above.

Once you've obtained the buzzword, you can then log on to http://www.ucas.com/ and click on APPLY.

It is important to note that those who enter MD UCAS database without prior registration with MD HEU shall be deleted from the system so please, come and see your counsellor first!

Useful links to visit

One of the most important sections in the UCAS application form is the PERSONAL STATEMENT section. Here are a few links to help you get started,

- http://www.ucas.com/students/startapplication/apply/personalstatement
Official advice from UCAS

- http://www.studential.com/guide/write_personal_statement.htm
Quite comprehensive and useful, with a section on how to organise your personal statements into manageable paragraphs.

- http://www.ucas.co.uk/ucascard/student5/content/ucasapplication/statement.html
Some do's and don'ts to keep in mind. Excellent advice from the people at UCAS

- http://www.ucas.co.uk/ucascard/student5/content/ucasapplication/statement/example.html
An example of a stduent's personal statement with commentary.

Please bear in mind that your personal statement has to be PERSONAL i.e. YOURS!! This year UCAS have already installed a software to detect plagiarism (stealing other people's ideas and work) so please make sure that your statement is yours and yours alone!

Before you put in your PS in your UCAS application please make sure that you have it checked first by your HEU counsellors. Things to remember,

- Have it TYPED! Maximum 4000 characters.
- Include your Name, AE, Grades, Phone No. at the bottoms so we can track you down.

As you know all the counsellors have teaching responsibilities as well so please be patient and bear with us. Take note of your counsellors duty blocks so you know when we'll be around to serve you! :)

BE/AE 1 - 4 : Pg Hjh Mashayu Pg Hj Yusof (English Dept) BLOCK 1
BE/AE 5 - 8 : Ong Hui Lan (Physics Dept) BLOCK 3
BE/AE 9 - 12: Jenny Toh (Mathematics Dept) BLOCK 2
BE/AE 13-16: Pg Siti Mu'izzah Pg Hj Suhaimi (English Dept) BLOCK 5
BE/AE 17-20: Siti Fatimahwati PD Hj Musa (Biology Dept) BLOCK 3
BE/AE 21-24: Nur Adyani Hj Yusop (English Dept) BLOCK 4

Engineering at Loughborough University

Representatives from Loughborough University, namely Mr Charlie Carter (International Office), Prof Steve Rothberg (Dean, Engineering Faculty) and Dr Andy Stapley (Chemical Engineering) will give a presentation on general study in the UK and at Loughborough University in particular.

Those interested in coming to one of the best universities for Sports Science and Engineering should come check it out...

They will also be available afterwards for individual student counselling.

Date: WEDNESDAY, 6 February 2008
Venue: Sheraton Utama Hotel
Time: 7.30 p.m.

HRD Study in UK Exhibition

Calling all students!

Date: TUESDAY, 5th February
Time: 1pm-6pm
Venue: Empire Hotel and Country Club

Check out the poster outside HEU and this link for more details. Please note though that transport will not be provided so it's best you try to find your own way there. Make sure you prepare what questions you want to ask!

/editted/

Here's the poster that's outside HEU

(source)

Study in UK Education Exhibition (before and after)

Mark your calendars!

Date: Friday, February 8th 2008
Time: 11am - 7pm
Venue: Songket Ballroom, Level 4, Rizqun International Hotel, The Mall, Gadong

There will be several representatives from different universities there so if you have the chance, do come by to visit. What questions to ask and details of participating universities are available on the poster outside HEU!

At the Exhibition

Pg Hjh Mashayu was there to attend the exhibition with our students. Students took the opportunity to enquire with their counsellor on the status of their UCAS application.

With Mdm Cecile Dasal, The British Council Academic Representative

HEU at Admissions Week

Starting on Tuesday 29th January with the last day being on Monday 4th February, all the counsellors at HEU have been hard at work doing admissions consultations at the auditorium for prospective L6th students. This is one of the biggest activities of the college so each department had to work hand in hand in ensuring that everything runs smoothly.


Counsellors at HEU area hard at work doing one-on-one counselling


Our clients waiting to get education consultation and advice



The main job of the HEU during admissions is to help students to explore their options and opportunities for further education and to make sure that the combination of subjects that they intend to pursue would be suitable for higher education. More importantly it was important to establish what they were going to do AFTER leaving Maktab Duli rather than just thinking short term.



For students who did not have any idea what to do, the counsellors helped to find their personality and interests using Holland's personality theory where students were to identify which of these characteristics best described them


source


Click HERE to check out the Career Interests Game. Once you've identify which personality trait you are, click on the headings and explore further types of careers that suits your personality (tip: click on the career profession that interests you to find out more about the job description!)


We also tried to make sure that the students know that pursuing 'A' level is not the only option, as there are other ways to get into further education as can be seen here



Thus it was important to point out that 'A' level was not the only option after 'O'levels. For details of entry requirements for Technical College click here and for Nursing College, here.


We are available from 8.00-12.00pm and 1.30pm-4.30 pm at the AUDITORIUM on Saturday and on Monday (last day of admissions) so please do come by and see us and we'll try to help to the best of our capabilities :)