Track your progress on UCAS

Track
Once you have successfully submitted your application in UCAS, you have to wait for up to 2 weeks, until you will receive a "Welcome Letter". This letter will contain your personal ID for using "Track". Track is the online system which enables prospective students to follow the progress of their application and reply to the offers, Universities hopefully make.

http://www.ucas.com/students/track/




Next Steps

1) Offers
The Universities for which you applied may make you an offer. There are different types of offers they will eventually make:
- Invitation for an Interview: The University will choose if they will admit you or not afterwards
- Conditional Offer: The University will offer you a place if you will meet certain criteria's, such as a certain score in your final exams
- Unconditional Offer: The University will take you as a future student
- Unsuccessful application: The University won't take you
- Offer for a Different course: It is also possible, that the University offers you a place in a course, for which you haven't applied, because there is a free place or you meet the Entry Requirements for this course


2) Replying to your offers
If you have received one or more offers, you will receive an e-mail that you should check Track. In this system you will be able to reply to this offer(s).

If you accept an "Unconditional offer", you firmly accept the conditions the University offers you and you tell them that you will study at this University. This way you can't have an "insurance choice". An "Insurance Choice" can only be made if you accept a "Conditional Offer", as back up in case you wont meet the requirements the University demands of you.
That means all your possible replies are:

Unconditional firm only - you've firmly accepted an unconditional offer. You cannot have an insurance choice.

Conditional firm only - you've firmly accepted a conditional offer.

Conditional firm + conditional insurance - you've firmly accepted one conditional offer and accepted another conditional offer as an insurance.

Conditional firm + unconditional insurance - you've firmly accepted a conditional offer and accepted an unconditional offer as an insurance.

Afterwards you will have to decline all offers, which you wont accept.

2) After you accepted an Offer

What your next steps will be after you accepted an offer depends if you already got an Unconditional offer, or if you received a Conditional one, because in this case you will have to meet certain criteria's before the University will accept you. Usually they give you time until the end of August, to meet this entry requirements.
If you haven't yet received your final exam scores, it is likely that the University will only make you a Conditional Offer, because they want to see if you reach the predicted grades you stated in your application.
UCAS has a section in which they describe the possible options for you and the University, if your exam results are not as expected: http://www.ucas.com/students/nextsteps/

If you received an Unconditional offer, or finally met the additional Entry Requirements the University stated in your Unconditional offer, you can start preparing everything for your living and studying in the UK.
UCAS also gives you some support in this area: http://www.ucas.com/students/startinguni/



Now I wish everyone good luck with the application... :) Hopefully everyone will be able to study what they applied for ...

r.s.