After you apply
All applications come through UCAS.
Applications are scrutinised and reviewed by the admissions panel (consisting: Chief Admissions Officer, Deputy Chief Admissions Officer, Student Recruitment Manager and other Admissions staff).
Factors contributing to a successful application:
- Past academic performance
- Predicted academic performance
- Enthusiasm for, and realistic grasp of, chosen degree programme
- Evidence of interpersonal skills and non-academic interests / achievements
- Appreciation of the benefits of student life in Manchester
All short-listed candidates (home and EU) will be invited to an interview during a Visit Day. International students will be interviewed by phone, video conferencing, in their own country or may be made an offer based on the information on their UCAS form.
Subject to successful performance at interview, UCAS will inform the applicant of the decision within 2 weeks.
There is no standard offer, the basis of the offer made will be a combination of performance at interview, information on the UCAS form and predicted academic performance (where applicable).
Recommended reading
Doing some general scientific reading will help you with your UCAS application and interview and will be useful preparation for the start of your course.
You may wish to consider the following:
Magazines
- The Biological Sciences Review
- Nature
- Science
- New Scientist
- The Scientific American
Popular science books by the following authors
- Richard Dawkins
- Ben Goldacre
- Nick Lane
- Stephen Jay Gould
- Matt Ridley
- Jared Diamond
- Bill Bryson
Textbooks
We don’t recommend that you buy any textbooks before arriving at university as you won’t know which books you need until you have signed up for all your course units. Many of the books you need will be available in our library.