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.

The 2012 Golden Globe Award Winners

On January 15, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills the Golden Globe Awards 2012 took place.  The Golden Globe Awards have been held there annually since 1961. The 1st Golden Globe Awards were held in January 1944 at the 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles.
Here are winners:


Best Motion Picture - Drama

The Descendants
Ad Hominem Enterprises; Fox Searchlight Pictures


Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama


Meryl Streep – Iron Lady


Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama


George Clooney – The Descendants


Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical

The Artist

a La Petite Reine - Studio 37 - La Classe Americaine - JD Prod- France3 Cinema - Jouror Production-uFilms coproduction; The Weinstein Company

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical

Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical

Jean Dujardin – The Artist

Best Animated Feature Film

The Adventures Of Tintin
Paramount Pictures/Columbia Pictures/ Hemisphere Capital/Amblin Entertainment/Wingnut Films Production/ Kennedy/Marshall Production A Steven Spielberg Film; Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures

Best Foreign Language Film

A Separation (Iran)
The Country of Iran
(Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) Asghar Farhadi; Sony Pictures Classics

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Octavia Spencer – The Help

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Christopher Plummer – Beginners

Best Director - Motion Picture

Martin Scorsese – Hugo

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Woody Allen - Midnight In Paris

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

Ludovic Bource - The Artist

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

Masterpiece" – W.E.
Music & Lyrics By: Madonna, Julie Frost and Jimmy Harry

Best Television Series - Drama

Homeland (SHOWTIME)
SHOWTIME Presents, Teakwood Lane Productions, Cherry Pie Productions, Keshet, Fox 21

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama

Claire Danes – Homeland (SHOWTIME)

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama

Kelsey Grammer – Boss (STARZ)

Best Television Series - Comedy Or Musical

Modern Family (ABC)
Twentieth Century Fox Television

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Comedy Or Musical

Laura Dern – Enlightened (HBO

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Comedy Or Musica

Matt LeBlanc – Episodes (SHOWTIME)

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television

Downton Abbey (Masterpiece) (PBS)
A Carnival/Masterpiece Co-production

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Kate Winslet – Mildred Pierce (HBO

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Idris Elba – Luther

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Jessica Lange – American Horror Story (FX)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Peter Dinklage – Game Of Thrones (HBO)

You can find more information on the official website of  The Hollywood Foreign Press Association 

About deadlines and "innovative online tools"

Everyone who is thinking of studying in the United Kingdom next fall should have noticed, that one of 3 deadlines for applying has passed yesterday. Exactly until 23:59 (UK time) prospective students were able to submit there application, if they want to make sure that their chosen Universities will receive it on time. For some courses, such as medicine, applicants had to submit their application even earlier, namely in October.
The lucky one's are those, who are thinking of applying for a major related to arts and design, because this deadline is still about to come, in March 2012. The system which handles all the applications for Universities in the UK, is UCAS.

As I myself submitted an application there (one Friday the 13th :) ), I have spent some time dealing with this "innovative online tools which make it easier for students and higher education institutions (HEIs) to manage applications and offers." (quote UCAS).
Maybe it was the fault of this "innovative online tools" that their server broke down several times while I was completing my application. :)
Though, all in all this online admission system seems to work quite properly. Without doubt it takes some time, until you understand how to use it, where to enter which information, and how to get a letter of reference into the provided section. But, if you know what to study one year before the course will start, decided that you want to apply in the UK also in September, and inform yourself about deadlines and the procedure for like a month, ask a referee to write a letter of recommendation for you as soon as you figured out that you need one, and write a perfect personal statement in fall, then you can even manage to meet the October's deadline and of course the January one without much trouble. :)  Well, the problem is, usually prospective students don't know that early, what and where they want to study and the great majority certainly doesn't start dealing with this application mess before they really have to - because deadline is coming soon. Then a good time management is of crucial importance, or a lot of coffee and coca cola in order to be able to make some late night working sessions.

Although I somehow cant see this "UCAS" sign anymore and don't want to hear anything about "deadlines" and "entry requirements" anymore after yesterday, I decided to at least inform myself and everyone who will read this article, about how it will go on for everyone, who submitted an application.
Therefor I will write about the next steps after you submitted the application in my next article ... .

r.s.

Social network site's privacy policies

Social networks are very popular on internet nowadays. Websites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Google Buzz, Linked In, Twitter have millions of users. In fact they provide a space were people can communicate with each other, share personal information, exchange ideas and keep in contact with old acquaintances or to meet new ones. It's also a great place to network with people sharing similar business interests. But on the other hand people or companies which are using social networks for communication might face serious security threats. Of course most of the social networks have privacy policies which keep personal data more or less private. But this issue still remains as somehow one of the most unclear topic  for users of these web-sites. However, when users share their information with their friends it can also find its way into the hands of the strangers, the press, the authorities or the public at large. Sometimes even job recruiters are looking to these sites in order to get more background information about their potential employees. Last years these sites tried to improve their privacy policies by giving to users more options how to control information on their personal accounts. It seemed to be an effective solution but I think in fact it led us to the dilemma safety vs personal freedom. What does that mean?

While social network websites were dealing with privacy issues one more problem occurred. Apparently a group of pedophiles are using social networks to disseminate child pornography or to discuss child abuse openly. For example, this week the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) has urged Twitter to address its fears that some pedophiles use the site to discuss abuse and link to pornographic images. Twitter said safety was a high priority and it acted immediately on complaints of inappropriate behavior. Twitter users can report accounts in breach of its child protection policy. As this social network allows users to share news or links with certain group of people it helps these groups to hide information from public but still publish child pornography links or just discuss child abuse. Here comes the question if these sites should warn the police about such facts and give this information to authorities? Should they control our private conversations on these sites? Moreover, where is the balance between personal freedoms and safety?

As we see there are two main problems regarding privacy on social network websites which somehow are connected to each other. First the fact that while using social network sites your personal data might be used by others without warning you. And second, by providing users with increased security options these sites also provide them with an opportunity to publish illegal information.

What is the solution? I think that the first problem has at least two sides. Users of these sites should also   understand that social networks are more public than private space. For me it's not a place where I would share or discuss very intimate topics. If you decide to post something very personal you should be aware of the fact that you share it with public. It also concerns the contact information we indicate on our accounts such as e-mail address, mobile number or home address. Until one decides to indicate them he/she should be sure he/she wants to share with this information with public. Also it's important to read privacy policies which these sites suggest. How many of you have read these policies? I guess not that much. But on the other hand social network sites should make this process more transparent and maybe even more comfortable as well.

As regards the problem of spreading illegal information, it's more complicated issue. But these sites could react on it faster and more effectively. As users we could also contribute to this process by reporting photos or links which we find inappropriate.

There are some other options how to deal with these problems, for example we could just delete our accounts if we've got one:))) But that's not an option for me :) I don't know how it is for you...

Twitter 'failing' on child abuse, Ceop watchdog warns

Manana

Seconds

Short film created for the 2009 Nikon Film Festival.

A glimpse into the Amish life

The Amish are very devout and take seriously the biblical commands to separate themselves from the things of the world including electricity. Power comes from propane, kerosene, wood, coal, or natural gas.

As the world around the peaceful farmland changes, so have some of the traditions of the Amish. Transportation is no longer limited to horse-drawn buggies. "There is a division among the Amish over the automobile. One group got automobiles, another group kept the horse and buggy. we just simply name them old order -- drive the horse and buggy, and the new order -- drive the automobiles. They have electric, they have meeting houses and they don't have green shades."

But many traditions remain. Amish children attend one-room schoolhouses through grade eight and farming is the mainstay of Amish life. There are normally two horses on a farm for buggies. Several mules are kept for farming. Milking is one of the most important sources of income on the farm. 

Many Amish leaders believe their separation from the outside world strengthens their community. And that community is thriving. Despite what many on the outside would describe as a backwards lifestyle, the Amish population in Lancaster County has almost tripled over the past half century.
Amish teenagers go through a period of their lives in which they have to decide whether they are going to stay in the community, or not. 
Many children of Amish parents decide, that this life style is not what they want from life. Some of them decide to lead a more modern life, educate at University, find a job in a company or marry someone with another cultural background.

Another Video called "A rare glimpse into Amish life" can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8153131.stm

r.s.

"A Train in Winter"

Caroline Moorehead's book, A Train in Winter, takes a different approach to the Nazi occupation of France during the Second World War.

In it she tells the story of a group of 230 French women deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau together in January 1943.

Only 49 of the women survived the infamous brutality of the concentration camp, but A Train in Winter is not a story about victims. Instead the book celebrates the spirit of resistance and friendship that persisted, despite the hardship, among these heroines of World War II.

click on this link to see a video about the book: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16523432

source: bbc world news

r.s.