Welcome to where Push gets local

Faced with a fashion crisis, jeans are always a safe bet. Those much-loved denims will see you through every scenario from a first date to a family gathering. But there's one environment where your Diesels are a definite no-no - the interview.

The Clearing system intends to cure two headaches hung-over from the applications party. Headache one is the candidate without a place at university. Headache two is the university with too many places and not enough students. The idea is that these two aching barnets are somehow mutually soothable. Clearing is supposed to be Anadin.

It’s good strategy to spread the stakes: choose one university that’s a long-shot, at least one that’s a sure-fire bet and ensure that the others are universities who want grades round about what you (and your teachers) reckon you’ll actually get.

There's a reason shops have windows and it's not that they're scared of the dark. Your UCAS application is your own shop window. Dress it up right and the unis will be your customers.

If you’ll be putting yourself at the mercy of public transport, book your tickets well in advance (not least for the cheap fares). Also, there’s no harm in asking if the university will cough up anything towards travel expenses, though anything going might be reserved for the most hard-up students.

Even if you’ve applied in plenty of time, until you see the magical digits on a bank statement, it’s best to be sceptical about it turning up promptly. Read on to learn more about applying for student loan.

Here's the thing, from 2009/10 UCAS are introducing the process of adjustment. This means if you've exceeded your predicted grades you can contact another uni (one with higher entry requirements) and try to get yourself in there, all while still keeping hold of your original firm choice.

There’s space for five choices, but you don’t have to use them all, and if you are applying for art & design, you can only list three of those courses (plus up to three other non-art & design courses).

In the education section, list only the last three secondary schools, colleges or universities you went to. Do it backwards through time, with your current or most recent one first and say if the study was full time (FT), part time (PT) or a sandwich course (SW). The same applies to mature students making an application.

Universities not only expect you to get the points, they’ll expect them to be the right points — points that are relevant to whatever you want to study. If you want to study Spanish, for example, it doesn’t really matter how many points you have if your Español only extends to knowing the chorus to ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’. The same is true for most courses — especially sciences, languages and, to a lesser extent, social sciences and arts.

Matching your predicted points to universities’ entry requirements is only a first stage in the choosing process — well, it is if you’re doing it right. So far the process goes something like the following.

By May at the latest each university should have made its decision one way or another. Once the last one has decided, UCAS sends you a summary of the responses from all of your choices.