像英国食物一样令人头痛的UCAS

　　What words scare you? Homework? Dentist? Spiders? For any student, parent and even teacher that is involved in applying to a British university there is a word that looms large over their psyche - UCAS. In my experience this words scares more young people than even exams. UCAS is an example of an acronym, a word created using the initial letters of a string of words; like NASA. UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

　　As you are probably aware UCAS handle all applications to British universities. I don't care who you are, whether you are the child of Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant or Jay Z you've got to go through this site. No matter how clever, rich or powerful you are it is the same process for everyone. That means the site handles nearly one million unique registrations each academic year. Registration for British universities runs from now until January 15th so in this column I'll hold your hand through the weeks as January rolls towards us. Try and laugh away the fear that comes our way.

　　People are scared of UCAS because it is complicated, it is hard work to complete and it brings news about your future that can be exciting or disappointing depending on your results. It is the site that informs you to which British university you have been accepted and as such forms a major part of a young person's future. Because it is important what do most British young people do? Work hard and sensibly each week to support their application? Of course not! Let me tell you a story...

　　The United Kingdom is a beautiful place with great history, culture and universities. It's people are nice and intelligent - look at me for instance - but they do not like to plan ahead. Not like you organised and patient Chinese people. It all comes from our food. In China the staple food is rice and rice is grown using diligence, mathematics and hard work. I think you have the saying that every grain of rice means hard work, yes. A good saying! In England the staple food for centuries was the potato. It grows according not to the effort of the farmer but to the vagaries of weather - ultimately the yield is more luck than judgment. As such the British are fatalistic people that believe in fate more than justice, rolling the dice more than steady preparation.

　　So with UCAS, every year their web traffic is steady with each day a few thousand people registering in the early weeks. These sensible students (like the Chinese!) get working on their applications each day for maybe two or three months before sending it off. The deadline for sending applications is the 15th January. So every day in October and November the site usage is like a small hill, undulating but quite flat. Then imagine the 14th January - the night before the final day. There is a high spike, like a vertical mountain on the web traffic. These are the English students that have been avoiding UCAS all winter that have had to register at the last moment. Anyone that can register and complete all the details in one day is either crazy or a genius! While you read this column each week I will help you avoid this late rush and give you lots of examples, stories and advice so that you won't be in a panic like the crazy English sometimes are. Thank you