By Patricia Obawole
2nd year BU Student, LLB (Hons) Law
This is probably just the inner animal lover in me, but has anyone ever watched one of the nature shows when the Lion is about to catch a deer? Well, tracking UCAS is similar to this.
Imagine you have become your inner lion and you are prowling on the hot African earth, in the distance shimmering in between the heat-wave is your prey, you cannot leap out or pounce at once, you have to slowly stalk, wait and track. That is the same feeling you have once you let go of your precious application for UCAS, when you have to basically let strangers decide your future. Okay, I admit, that sounds really ominous, and why wouldn’t it, after literally spending months going to different universities, perfecting your application, tweaking your personal statement, something you have been doing for the last couple of months, of course you will feel slightly attached to it (some more than others).
Some say the worst part is the wait. In all honesty this is the hardest period simply because it’s the unknown. I remember when I finally sent my application (probably a week before the deadline and kicking and screaming that’s how attached I was to my application) I was anxious all the time, checking my email every couple of minutes and making sure my phone was fully charged (I’m not too sure why). After barely sleeping the night before, I drag myself into sixth form the next day and obviously the first thing I do is check my student email and lo and behold,
“Something has changed on your UCAS application”
My heart was thumping. First of all I had no idea what this meant, conspiracies were already starting to run through my mind, someone has logged onto my tracking and changed all my grades and choices? Changed my name? My address? Nope, it meant that I had a response from a university. This was the hardest part, all of my friends know that I am not that good at getting back anything as I never want to know, so opening the email was the most difficult part. When I finally plucked up the courage (literally had to drink some liquid luck – the Harry Potter kind that is) I looked at the decision and luckily for me, it was a university accepting me conditionally so I was very relieved.
So what am I trying to say…basically tracking UCAS is not what you would call the best part of the university stage but I guess it’s one of the most important. Some advice would be to track UCAS like a hawk and don’t let that prey run too far away from you, but try not to get obsessed about it, it’s not the be all and end all. I suppose that the best part of the process is knowing that a university wants you to study with them, it’s kind of like an auction and you’re the next item on bid.
