Help! I Still Don't Know What Course To Do
Updated 14th September 2022
It’s been a big couple of months. VTAC applications opened up, you’ve done your best to try and do some research by going. to a few Open Days, but the reality is that September 29th (the due date for timely VTAC applications) is closing in and you still don’t know what you want to do! Let’s look at what you can do now to get it all sorted.
Step One: Get your application in
If you’ve been waiting until you had your preferences sorted out before you created a VTAC account and put in an application, stop what you’re doing, head to the VTAC website and get onto that now. By 29th September all you need to have done is put one course on your preference list, and doing this locks in the lower price (you don’t have to pay until December if you can’t right now, but creating your application now means you don’t end up paying more than double by leaving it until later).
You can still change your preferences any time from now until December 14th when they close for the first round of offers (and there are more change of preference periods after that but you want to get it right by then as most offers are made in the first round). So even if you have no idea what you want to do, create your account and put any course in for now to get the ball rolling.
Step Two: Decide when you’re going to do it
Next you need to work out when you’re going to actually sit down and focus on working what you want to do. You do have until 14th December, so if you want to you could leave it until after the exams. BUT...I really suggest you pick an afternoon and have a go now for a few reasons:
Having a plan will give you motivation to study for exams because you have an idea of what you’re working towards.
Making a plan now gives you a chance to sit on it for a couple of weeks and see how you feel about it.
December is not the best time to be trying to contact unis if you have questions about courses.
After exams you’re going to be looking forward to a well deserved rest!
So pick a day and get onto it.
Step Three: Take the pressure off by focusing on next year only
It’s easy to get overwhelmed if you think that the decision you make now is going to affect the whole rest of your life. The reality is that you will work in many different areas throughout your career, so the decision you make now is more short term than you think. As well as that, if you find that you haven’t made the right decision and you hate your course once you’re in there, there are so many ways to change into something that suits you better.
If you’re feeling stressed, take a deep breath and think about next year. What do you like studying now that you want to continue? What do you hate studying now that you never want to look at again? Get excited about the prospect of being able to have more choice around what you’ll be studying.
Step Four: Pick a category
On most of the uni websites, you can either search for courses by name or by choosing a broader category and then looking at what courses fall into that category. The categories are slightly different for each uni, but in general they look something like this:
Arts
Business and Commerce
Design
Education
Engineering
Health
IT and Computer Science
Law
Music, Visual and Performing Arts
Science
Now, I’m guessing that you could look at that list and cross off three or four that you definitely are not interested in without even thinking about it. Now choose one or two that sound more fun to you, choose a uni and head to their website, and look at what courses fit into those categories. Read about the ones that look interesting, make a note of them and then choose another university website and do the same thing. As you look at the courses, it’s very likely that you’ll start to get inspired by some of the options. Check that you have the prerequisites and make a list as you go.
Step Five: Make your preference list and then leave it for a while
Now that you have some ideas go back and read about them in more detail, then put them in descending order from the one you want to do the most. Ideally you want to have a range in terms of the lowest selection rank from last year, but if necessary you can go back and work out some pathways and back up options in a couple of weeks when you’ve had a chance to let it all sit and see how you feel about what you’ve put down.
So what are you waiting for?! Go and get started...you’ll feel so much better once you’ve got a plan in place.
AUTHOR: KIM WHITTY
Ready to create a plan for your future, no matter what ATAR you get? That’s what I’m here for! Grab these digital resources to get clear on what you want and what course and career options you have, or learn more about the personalised career counselling packages I offer. I spent 13 years working in schools as a VCE teacher and qualified careers counsellor before starting Roadmap Education. Learn more about me.
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