Only once you reach the age of 17 and you're in the process of applying to universities you realise that perhaps this intense competition isn't the right place for you and you begin considering other options, except it's too late because all your life you've planned for this. 

Why is the UCAS application process so alienating? Shouldn't we be encouraging young people from all social backgrounds to be completing higher education? That is not really the vibe many applicants get from this process.

It almost seems as though the first process of eliminating applicants isn't when admission tutors read your personal statement but it begins soon as you start your application.  So many students decide  to drop off their application before even fully completing it. A university application should not be more difficult than enrolling to the army. We need more young politicians who are aware of this society's relevant issues, and young teachers who understand their students, and young business entrepreneurs who are eager to make a change in society but university applications seems to be a barrier for such people.

It feels like getting a well paid job without a university degree is almost impossible.  However, it doesn't make much of a difference. The over qualified, educated population is left unemployed due to high rates of competition for jobs and a reserve army of labour is created for exploitation.  This put people off from wanting to go to university. Especially working class, ethnic minorities.  The UCAS application tells them it is unrealistic, impractical to even apply - that it is not their place.

Those highly praised gap years aren't for students who will have no choice but to spend it working at a mediocre job so they're not an economic burden on their family and therefore have no time to do volunteer work or internships.

The gap between richest and poorest in the UK is the widest in Europe. This means that whilst the private school children of upper/middle class families compete with each other for the highest ranking universities, the lower/working middle class are left to feel like they aren't even being considered.

Social inequality in the UK is continuing to grow. Such inequalities in a supposedly developed nation is unacceptable and needs to be addressed.