Accepting Tertiary Course Offers
Updated 7th December 2021
Very soon you will get your VCE results and the first round of offers will be released (and hopefully you’ll receive an offer for your first preference!) Let’s look at how it all works so that you know what to expect.
Step One: Finalise Your Preference List
You can change your preferences as much as you like right up until December 20th, however I encourage you to really think about what you want to do and find different options and pathways to get there before your results come out.
I have two main reasons for this piece of advice. Firstly, if you make a decision now you’re more likely to be working from a place where you’re thinking about what you actually want to do, as opposed to being influenced by the ATAR you get. In my experience, most of the time when students change their preferences after they get their results, it’s because they decide to try to get into a course that requires a higher ATAR to be accepted. While you gain short-term bragging rights for doing this, if it wasn’t what you were considering doing before, then you’re unlikely to really enjoy it and may end up having to backtrack and follow your initial thoughts later anyway.
Secondly, if you do the research now, then there is so much less pressure on you come results day. If you are clear about what you want to do, choose courses you would be really happy to do and have lots of pathways and options to get there, then once you get your results you can just leave your preference list as is and see what offer you get in the first round. It makes things so much simpler for you to do it this way.
Don’t settle.
You deserve to have an amazing career.
Let’s work out what it looks like and how you’re going to get there, no matter what results you get.
Together we’ll discuss your interests, strengths and options, get clear on what you’d like to pursue, and research tertiary courses and pathways so that when results are released you know exactly which pathway you can take to get where you want to go.
And you’ll have everything you need to figure it out in less than 2 weeks.
Step Two: Round one offers
Round One offers will be released on January 14th 2022. It’s important to understand that you will only receive one offer. VTAC manages the process so that the tertiary institutions get lists of students who have applied for their courses, then they let VTAC know which students they would offer a place, and then VTAC passes on whichever offer is for the course listed highest on your preference list. This is why it’s so important for you to list your courses with the one you most want to do at the top.
Once you receive an offer, you should accept it. In later rounds, you can still receive an offer for a course that is listed higher on your preference list, and if that happens you can accept the new offer and go back and reject the initial offer you received.
Step Three: Change of preference
If you don’t receive an offer in the first round, you might want to think about whether you need to change the courses in your preference list before the next round to give you more of a chance to receive an offer.
If you do receive an offer in the first round, and you want to see what other offers you might get, you can choose to move the course you were offered into 8th position and see if you get an offer for anything else on your preference list. However, if you’ve really thought through your preferences before results and offers come out, then you’re likely to be happy with the offer and only be interested in an offer for a course you listed higher anyway. In this case, there’s no need to change anything - you can just sit tight and see what happens in later rounds.
Step Four: Later Offer Rounds
The first and second rounds are open to everyone, and then throughout February there are supplementary offers, where tertiary institutions who have places left in their courses can contact students who haven’t received an offer yet to see if they are interested in the courses they have available. You will only be eligible for supplementary offers if you have ticked the box in your VTAC application, so if you’re interested make sure you’ve let VTAC know you want to be considered.
Make sure you’re aware about dates and events relating to VTAC and offers. If you need help with any of this, contact me and I’ll let you know how I can best help you get it all sorted.
