University applications: 'The most stressful experience'

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers have been worrying about their applications

As the deadline for submitting university applications approaches (Thursday, 18:00), an 18-year-old writes about what it's like to go through the Ucas admissions system.

Applying for university has been one of the most stressful experiences I have been through in my 18 years of life.

From choosing the right courses, to editing the fourth copy of my application, to the stress of waiting in anticipation to find out if I get accepted anywhere - it's all been harder than I imagined and I think it might have even given me a few grey hairs as well as using up many grey cells. In teen speak, it's been long.

At the beginning of Year 12 I had no idea what I wanted to do, if I managed to get through the rigours of sixth form at all. GCSEs seemed like a walk in the park compared with A-levels - and university seemed so far away that I felt there was no point in thinking about it, which I have lived to regret.

Come Year 13 it really hit home that I needed to start looking at different universities and courses that I would like to study for the next few years of my life in a new place - which still does seem a little daunting for me.

Burger ranks

I went on a tour of the country with my parents, going from north to south and east to west, seeing a range of different universities, accommodations and cities and lots of motorways - and still wondering how to make what seemed like enormous decisions based on a quick visit somewhere. I even ranked the universities in terms of their burger vans at one point.

Families have spent long hours on the motorway on university visits

In the end I decided I would be happiest studying a course in the music field and went about choosing the courses. I admit that the fifth course I chose I picked at random without any research, but it sounded great on the website... If that wasn't hard enough, then came the tricky part. Applying.

The majority of the Ucas application was fairly straightforward, just entering your personal information, your grades and the courses you're applying for, but for me and many others the most difficult part of the statement was the dreaded personal statement.

If you haven't come across the personal statement before then let me explain. This is the part of the Ucas application where you must absolutely sell yourself to the uni you're applying for, you have to make yourself sound like you're the second coming. And you have to do this in 4,000 characters or 47 lines of text. Which is actually quite hard.

Everyone tells you that your personal statement is what universities will look at when they're deciding whether to offer you a place or not. Crack it and you get an offer, leave in a couple of typos or fail to make yourself sound exceptional - a hard-working academic team-player who volunteers in their spare time - and you're on dodgy ground.

Trying to get an idea of how to write a good personal statement I began looking online at the "ideal perfect statements" which all consisted of geniuses applying for scholarships, who it appeared had all been studying their subject intensely before they got out the womb, so there was no real help there.

Offer envy

I then came up with a cunning plan to copy someone else's personal statement, as it's always a time-saver to cut the odd corner, but Ucas had me there as well - they use anti-plagiarism software, which detects if you have copied large parts of another personal statement.

At this point I wished I had started my application earlier. Lots of friends were getting offers and I hadn't even submitted my form. I'm doing A-level maths but I have no idea how the universities are able to make offers when some people haven't even applied. How they manage to juggle the number of places they give out to the number of applicants is beyond my probability skills.

There were more than 500,000 students allocated places this autumn

So I began my first draft of a personal statement with a few modest achievements. It's so hard to write about yourself and find ways to get over your enthusiasm for your subject authentically.

After much deliberation I managed a second draft and after showing several teachers I wrote a third draft, and then, painstakingly trying to keep to the 4,000 character limit, I came up with a final version which I considered to be quite alright - and an honest reflection of my abilities. Then my head of sixth form sent off the form a few weeks before the Christmas holidays - and the anticipation really began.

You keep tabs on your application through Ucas Track. At first I was logging on and refreshing every few hours to see if any offers or news had come. I didn't like to be without my phone at any time. I even checked on Christmas Day.

First came the teasing round of emails from each university saying that they had received my application, and were considering me. So I then continued to wait in a somewhat more cautious anticipation.

Soon afterwards I was delighted one morning to find that I had been offered interviews from two universities - one that I hope will be my first choice.

Going for interview will also give me the chance to have a closer look at the universities (and their burger vans). They are in the next few weeks so that gives me time to have some debate with my mum as to the exact definition of "smart casual" clothes. Jeans and a T-shirt are fine, right?

I still have yet to hear from two places - they have until 9 May to get back with an offer or a polite no thanks.

But during the writing of this article, I was actually emailed from one of the universities with a conditional offer, which I am very happy with.

I hope my emotive language portrays my absolute exhilaration which I am feeling at this point in time, because I am really, really, really, pleased! All - well, I say all - I have to do now is probably the hardest part of all the application - get my head down and do the studying to get the grades.