We hope that everyone has been staying well and healthy.
To our HSC students that have now completed exams, we trust your hard work and preparation has paid off and you have been able to use each exam opportunity to showcase your skills in an effort to solidify your final marks.
We know that some of the stress has been alleviated with early entrance offers but what does that even mean? How does that affect what happens after HSC? And for the Year 12’s who have just commenced their journey, should they also be looking down this pathway?
So let’s break it down so that we understand what it is, how it works and what it means for you.
What is it?
Some courses at particular universities offer early entry places. This means that when UAC opens and you have your preferences, you may receive an offer for your uni course before you sit your HSC and receive your ATAR. This is because unis will look at your year 11 marks and year 12 marks to date in order to determine how you are likely to perform in your HSC. Some unis may also require you to upload some additional documents or portfolio to demonstrate your skills and abilities.
They might also look at you holistically as a candidate by considering your extracurricular activities, external achievements and sporting abilities. So, if early entry is something that you wish to make the most of, you might want to consider how you present as a candidate to the uni, if you think you might just miss out on academic marks.
How come some offer and others don’t?
Usually unis offer early entry places to courses that are not overly popular or don’t usually receive a large number of applicants. Let’s give an example – studying Law or Medicine is a very popular course and there are often more applicants than positions available. This means that early offers won’t be issued for this course as the unis knows that it will be able to fill spots whilst still enticing a competitive edge and accepting top performing students.
However, if we consider a different degree at a different uni – perhaps a teaching degree, because there are an abundant amount of positions available across various unis, each uni will be fighting to have students enrol at their uni. This means that unis will offer early entry as they want to make sure that students enrol with them before they receive an offer at another uni.
At the end of the day students must remember that unis are businesses just as much as they are educational institutions. This means that they want as many students as possible enrolled as this equals fees and income.
How as COVID impacted Uni in 2020?
COVID has impacted all elements of life and it has most certainly impacted the way that unis have been operating. Lectures and tutorials have now taken online formats and exams have even been adapted so that they can be completed online.
As there are also a reduced amount of overseas students, the number of spaces open to domestic students have increased. In saying that, the unis have had to let go of teaching staff for economic reasons during COVID meaning that not as many spots are available for students.
But just like everything else, once COVID ends things will return to normal and so will your uni degrees. So just stay focused, be open all to all the options available and know that all roads lead to Rome so if you need to move around to get to your goal, it is possible.