Applying for university can be a daunting process for some students. However, as one of Edinburgh’s leading private schools, we have plenty of experience in this field, with an arsenal of resources, support, and expertise available to help students approach the university application process with confidence.

Dr Mechie, our Deputy Head (Academic), is one of the staff members who oversees student UCAS applications. We sat down with him over a cuppa to ask his advice on creating a standout university application

Q. Can you offer us a brief overview of the University application process and any big deadlines during this time?

We have two UCAS deadlines: one at the end of September for our early applicants (Medicine, Vet Med, and Dentistry at Oxbridge and some prominent London universities), and the second at the end of November. This allows us to broadly split the academic year into three neat parts along the lines of the UCAS process.

–       Term 1 is focused on the application and working to ensure that they are completed to the highest quality and standard.

–       Term 2 is when the offers start to arrive, and pupils’ hopes for their next steps after school come together.

–       Term 3 is about doing everything we can to help the pupils achieve the grades they need to access their chosen destinations.

Q. What advice would you give to pupils during the application process?

Do your research. There are over 50,000 degree courses in the United Kingdom. There are bound to be five that excite you!

At the same time, don’t apply for a course that you don’t want to study or a university you don’t want to attend. Narrowing 50,000 options into five choices is difficult enough: don’t make it even harder for yourself by wasting the choices you get to make.

Q. Do you have any advice on how to prepare for an interview?

You can spend hours in preparation for an interview reading books you won’t be asked about or trying to figure out your interviewer’s favourite colour. Don’t do that. Focus on yourself instead.

Ask yourself – what it is about the subject that you love? When did that love start, and what do you do each day because of it?

Practice: Practice reading, drawing, or calculating – whatever the primary skill needed to excel in your subject is. You will likely be asked to showcase this skill somehow, and you will definitely be asked to discuss it.

Ultimately, we can’t know what each individual interviewer will be looking for, so it is a much better plan to focus on being the best version of yourself. 

Q. What happens if the students’ subjects aren’t suitable for the course they want to do?

As one of Edinburgh’s top private schools, we have a strong understanding of what sits behind the published entry requirements for different universities and courses. I believe we can guide students successfully towards options suitable for their current academic programmes and aspirations for the future.

Making subject choices that align with skills and interests – at GCSE and, especially, at Sixth Form – is the best thing pupils can do to help us with this.

Q. What support is available at Merchiston for pupils who are going through a university application?

The Sixth Form tutor team is the primary support. Each of our tutors is hugely experienced in the UCAS process and looks after the applications of their small numbers of tutees – with the input of subject specialists as needed.

We have a UCAS Coordinator and Assistant who are around to offer guidance and check – with the Head and Deputy Head – the minute details of each individual application to ensure that it is of the highest quality.

Q. How should you handle bad news or negative outcomes? What options are available?

Again, our tutor team – ably supported by the house parents – is there to assist pupils whose outcomes don’t end up being what they wanted. Our advice, focused on our knowledge of each individual in our care, ensures that we don’t often have pupils disappointed during the offer-making process.

Exams and results days, being what they are, and across all schools, have pupils who are disappointed on results day, just as we have some with more positive surprises.

For both groups, we are there on results day to guide them through the Clearing process, and we have had some excellent outcomes with many admissions into Russell Group universities.

Q. Any advice on tackling scenarios such as ‘What if I don’t know what I want to do?’

I would say not to think about it like that. Far fewer teenagers know what they want to do than don’t. I am nearly 40, and I’m still not sure ‘what I want to do’. I think it’s more helpful to think in chunks of time: what do I want to do next year? Or, what do I want to do for the next four years?

Keep in mind that university is about many things, not just academic study, and academic research is about learning many things and not just the details of your chosen subject.

It is important to remember that many degree programmes are hugely flexible and that this generation will create the most flexible workforce there’s ever been, which should take some of the pressure out of not knowing.

Just think about what you enjoy and go from there!