What Happens Next
What Happens Next
Catherine Baldwin (Head of Recruitment and Admissions) gives expert video advice on: What happens to make my application once I have completed it?; When will I hear back from universities?; Will I be called for an interview? and more...
When will I hear back from universities?
Once a student has submitted an application and the application is received at the university, it will take different universities different lengths of time to consider that application because some universities obviously will receive more applications than other universities. And there is a schedule that is put together by UCAS which really dictates how much time the university can spend looking at the application form, and there is a deadline that UCAS gives the universities to say you must inform the applicant, by a given date. If a university applicant applies quite early in the cycle, say in October or November, it is possible that they'll be waiting until the end of the cycle, say March, before they hear. But that very much depends on the volume of applications that are received at each university to which they've applied.
When will I have to do an admissions test?
Some applicants to some courses may be required to do an admissions test, whereas others may not be. Oxford and Cambridge for example, have a range of different admissions tests for different subjects they offer. Also, the law program, the NLB, at a number of universities require students to sit a test called the LMAT and medical courses also require some applicants to sit a test for medicine as well. Again, the policies change or the policies vary from university to university. LSE, for example, offers an undergraduate law program but we don't require our applicants to sit the LMAT.
What is an unconditional offer?
An unconditional offer is an offer that is made to a student when the student has no further conditions to meet. So, for example, they have perhaps all of the 'A' level requirements already under their belt, or, if they are overseas student, they have their IB score ready and they have passed their English language score test. So, an unconditional offer, it means basically that the student can come to the University, they have no more conditions of offer to meet and the only thing the University needs to know is whether the student wants to accept that unconditional offer or not.
