During the first few months (September to December) of the final year of school or sixth form college (age 17/18) or after having left school, applicants register on the UCAS website and select five courses at higher education institutes (fewer choices are permitted for the more competitive subjects such as medicine and veterinary medicine). If the applicant is still at school, his or her teachers will give him or her predicted grades for their A-level, Highers or IB subjects, which are then used for the application. If the applicant has already left school, he or she applies with results already obtained. The applicant must provide a personal statement describing in their own words why they want to study that particular subject and why they would be a committed student, and their school must provide an academic reference. Some universities (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Imperial College, King's College London or University College London) and some disciplines (e.g. medicine) routinely require shortlisted candidates to attend an interview and/or complete special admissions tests before deciding whether to make an offer. In the absence of tests and interviews, the personal statement and reference can be decisive, as many students are likely to apply to competitive courses with similar predicted and actual grades.