Looking Past What's "Practical" To Find Your Dream Uni Course
Whenever I have a session with a student who doesn’t know what they want to do when they finish school, I talk to them about lots of things to help them see what their skills and interests are - for example, what subjects they like, what they enjoy about their part time work or extracurricular activities, and what other people ask them for help with. Over the years I’ve often left out a question, because it seemed really simple. I thought that if someone could answer this question, then they really did know what they wanted to do and wouldn’t be confused about it. The question? “What would you do if you could do anything in the world?”
What I’ve come to realise, is that so many students never consider this question, because they’ve already ruled out so many options. They’ve put themselves in a box, given themselves an upper limit and decided not to consider all of the different careers out there because, in their words, they’re not smart enough, and they’ll never get into the course.
Now I’m not saying that everyone should aspire to study medicine or law. I understand the reality that there are limited spaces in courses and that some people will miss out. But by limiting yourself before you’ve even really started researching the options, you’re potentially missing out on other courses that are similar to some of the popular ones that you would actually really be suited to.
Let’s start with an open mind - there’s plenty of room to be practical later.
It’s almost impossible to know what ATAR you’re going to get
I’ve already written about how ATARs are calculated, but the short version is that an ATAR is a ranking of all the students in a particular year level, calculated from their study scores (which are a ranking of all students doing a particular subject) adjusted based on how the group of students in each subject do in their other subjects. It’s not the same as getting 90% on a test. Because of this, it’s actually really difficult to work out what ATAR you will end up with at the end of the year. Don’t get me started on ATAR calculators - they depend on you guessing all of your study scores and then put them together to guess your ATAR. You might as well use a crystal ball to see what ATAR you will get (and in the meantime, you could have been studying to actually get better results instead of wasting your time procrastinating!).
When I was in Year 12 I was in a very privileged position. My older brother and I had always achieved almost identical results, and I was doing the same subjects as him plus a language. He had done very well in Year 12, and I knew that English was his worst subject, so I figured it was likely that if I did better than him in English (because my result in English would definitely be used to calculate my ENTER (the old ATAR!)) plus used the fact that German was one of my stronger subjects, I would probably get a better overall result than he did, so I had a ballpark figure to work with.
Most students don’t have this level of clarity when they’re forecasting their results. So my advice to you when you start your research is to forget about the ATAR and look at anything that seems interesting.
There’s 8 preferences for a reason
My second point is that you are allowed to have 8 courses on the preference list that you submit to VTAC. On top of that, there are change of preference periods where you can move things around and change the courses you have in your list after you get your results.
When offers come out, the way it works is that the universities let VTAC know whether or not they will offer you a place in the courses you listed. You will receive one offer per round, for the course that is highest on your preference list for which you’ve been given the all clear by the university. So what’s the harm in using one spot, the top one, for the course that you absolutely have your heart set on? If you don’t get an offer for that one, there are 7 other courses on your preference list that you might get an offer for instead.
To be clear, I’m not saying that you should have only courses on your preference list that require an ATAR above 95. Pathways are absolutely important and I suggest you have a few up your sleeve, either on your preference list or ready to add to it if you need to in the change of preference period. But don’t completely dismiss courses because they require a high ATAR.
Like all popularity contests, this one is not always logical
The other thing to remember is that the ATAR that you require to get into a course is quite simply a popularity contest, and like all popularity contests, just because something wins (or loses) doesn’t necessarily make it the best (or not as good). Also, just because the ATAR you require to get into your dream course is high, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the course is more difficult than others or that you need to be super smart to do well in it.
When you’re looking at courses and you see one that you’re really interested in that seems out of reach, firstly, consider putting it on your preference list anyway, but also keep it in mind because there may be similar courses (or the same course at a different uni) that you would also be interested in. If you throw it out too early, you might miss these other amazing courses that you would be really happy studying.
The moral of the story? Don’t settle - look at all of the courses that interest you because they can all help you find something you would really love to do.
