UCA: Overview

Thank you for considering the Universal College Application® for first year and transfer admissions!

Before you begin the online admissions process, please read the instructions below.

Applicant Profile:

The first step in the application process after registration is completing an applicant profile . Your applicant profile contains basic information about you and your background. Any forms you start that require this information will automatically pre-fill with the answers from your applicant profile . Completing your profile saves you the time it would take to fill out basic information for each form.

Checklist:

The Checklist allows you to quickly check the status of all your forms at a glance. It provides the real time submission status of your applications, supplements, additional forms, and payment (if the college accepts online payment through the UCA℠).

Click show more for a specific college to view the detailed progress for that college.

My Colleges:

The My Colleges page allows you to browse through all the UCA member colleges by term, application type, and decision plan. Here you will be able to add and remove colleges that you are applying to. Be sure that you select the appropriate application type (First-Year or Transfer) for your academic status, as you cannot change these after the college is added.

You can learn more about each college by clicking on the ( ) next to their name. Additional information includes:

Contact Information
Privacy Policy
Additional Requirements
Required Tests

Application:

The Application page contains the application forms required by the colleges you have added on your My Colleges page. Clicking Start New will start a version of the application form for every college you have added. If you wish to submit a different version of the form to a particular college, you can separate that application copy by clicking the Unlink button.

First Year Applicants will complete the First Year Admissions Application. Transfer Applicants will complete the Transfer Admissions Application. Please note that progress made on a First Year Admissions Application cannot be transferred to or from a Transfer Admissions Application because they have separate requirements.

Some colleges require the Personal Statement or essay portion of these forms. To see if a college requires the essay, click the ( ) next to their name on the My Colleges page.

Supplements:

The Supplements page contains all the supplemental forms required by the colleges that you have added on your My Colleges page. Please note that each college’s Part 2 forms are specific to that college so they cannot be linked to other colleges, and not every college will require a supplement.

School Forms:

The School Forms page contains all the recommendation and report forms required by the colleges that you have added on your My Colleges page. You cannot complete your own recommendation and you can only send the recommendation requests through the system. Please note that each college may require different Part 3 forms and some may not require any at all.

First Year Applicants will be able to request the Instructor Recommendation, School Report, Midyear Report, and the Final Report as well as the Early Decision Agreement or First Marking Period Report when applicable. Transfer Applicants will be able to request to the College Report and Professor Recommendation.

To request your teacher, professor, counselor, or college official to complete these forms, use the Request button and enter their name and email. This page and the Checklist will update automatically as the forms are completed.

Payment:

The Payment page provides access to online payment links and fee waiver forms for those colleges that require an application fee. If a college accepts online payment through the UCA, this is the simplest and most secure method of paying your application fee.

My Advisers:

The My Advisers page allows you to invite one or more advisers to help monitor progress on your applications. Inviting an adviser to access your checklists will give them the ability to view the status of all your forms; they will not be able to read or edit the forms. You may invite an adviser or revoke access from an adviser at any time during the application process.

Thank you for considering the Universal College Application and best wishes applying! If you have any questions, please visit the Help page after registration.

Before you begin the online recommendation process, please read the instructions below.

Invitation:

The recommendation process starts with the applicant sending a recommendation request. Supply the applicant with your email address and they are to submit a separate request for each recommendation and institution.

We suggest that you check your spam folder and add applywithus@universalcollegeapp.com to your contact list if you are having trouble finding the recommendation request email.

The invitation email will contain two links; one to register a new recommender account and one to link a recommendation to an existing recommender account. Be sure to click the appropriate link.

Profile:

After registering your account it is required that you fill out a basic recommender profile before you can view any recommendation requests. You can also opt-in before finishing the profile to automatically send any submitted forms to the colleges that the same student requests in the future. You can always change this setting by clicking the Profile button to the top right of the page and then go to the Finished? section.

If you are a member of multiple institutions and have received requests for more than one, we ask that you create a separate recommender account for each institution.

Managing a Recommendation:

After completing a recommender profile the first step is to approve the requests so they are linked to your account. Once you approve the request the recommendation will become available on your Dashboard . Click on the recommendation to begin completing it. If you link all your requests to this account you can manage all your recommendations from multiple candidates in one place.

Starting a Recommendation:

To begin a form from scratch, click Start New beneath that form. If the candidate has requested this form be sent to multiple colleges, your response will automatically be added for each of them and will appear this way in your Recommendation Checklist . If you wish to tailor your response to any of the colleges, you can click the Unlink button to separate that recommendation copy.

If a subsequent recommendation request is received, you can click the Link to existing button to use the same response for multiple colleges, click the Start As Copy button to transfer progress but customize a response, or start from scratch by selecting the Start New button.

Completing a Recommendation

After you start a recommendation the status will be labeled as in progress until it is submitted. To submit the form first click the Continue Form button from the dashboard and then select the Finished? section. If you have any incomplete required fields they will be listed. Once they are complete the Finished? section will display the final instructions and allow you to perform a final review of your recommendation and submit. Once submitted the dashboard page will show your recommendation as submitted .

Before you register as an adviser please read the instructions below.

Invitation:

The adviser process starts with the candidate sending an advisership request. Supply the candidate with your email address.

We suggest that you check your spam folder and add applywithus@universalcollegeapp.com to your contact list if you are having trouble finding the advisership request email.

The invitation email will contain two links; one to register a new adviser account and one to link an advisee to an existing adviser account. Be sure to click the appropriate link.

Managing an Advisership:

After you have followed the email link to either log in or create a new account, the advisee that has granted you access should be visible on the Dashboard page. You will now able to view the status of that applicant's forms. If multiple candidates grant you access to their checklists you may monitor progress for all of them in one place.

Monitoring an Advisee:

After accepting an advisership your dashboard will show a list of Advisees. Each candidate you are advising will have displayed a full name, email address, total interests , and an applicant checklist.

To contact an advisee please use any personal contact information you may have or the email address supplied.

An interest is the relationship between the candidate and a college of which they are interested in applying. Each interest will be presented as an item on the advisee's checklist.

The applicant checklist is only available if the applicant has at least one interest. Select view applicant checklist to access the checklist view.

Using the Checklist:

The Checklist provides the real time submission status of the advisee's applications, supplements, additional forms, and payment if the selected college accepts online payment through the Universal College Application®. Here you will see a list of interests that your advisee has created. Outlined below each interest are the requirements and status of the application. For more detailed information including a breakdown of each requirement and deadlines click the show more button located at the top right of each interest.