Didn’t Get A High Enough ATAR? Here Are Your Options

In fact, fewer and fewer students are getting admitted into their chosen course based purely on the ATAR cut-off specifications listed on university admissions centres. The Mitchell Institute, a Victorian think tank, reported that in 2018, “131,555 people did not go through the typical ATAR application process, up 9.1 per cent since 2016.”

Universities from all across Australia including in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are increasingly looking towards alternative measures to rank school leavers. These include portfolios, interviews, aptitude tests specific to the university course, as well as comprehensive bonus point schemes designed to help first-year students find their ideal career path. Student interviews for in-demand courses such as graduate medicine have long been accepted as a crucial part of the application and acceptance process, as it allows universities to fully understand the knowledge and background of the applicant. 

Another alternative to undergraduate university admission is through special entry access schemes such as The University of Melbourne’s “Access Melbourne” scheme. This assists students who are applying for an undergraduate degree but have suffered from financial hardship, or who are not typical school leavers such as mature aged students. This scheme is one of many that can be found throughout universities in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, and beyond. Tertiary institutions are recognising more and more that cut-off scores don’t always tell the full story, and there is often more to a prospective student’s ability than their ATAR score.

Switching courses is another opportunity that many students take advantage of. If they do not make it into their preferred university degree, they are able to take their first year academic performance and use that as a basis to move into a related degree or one of many pathway courses offered at their chosen university. Often good academic performance in the first year can land students a place in the second year of a related degree – one that they were after all along. For example, if a student was unable to achieve the required ATAR cut-off for a Bachelor of Marketing at RMIT University, they could apply through VTAC (the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre) to the university’s Bachelor of International Business. Then, after completing the first year of the course, the university will accept applications based on the applicant’s previous year of academic performance and assess if they can be moved into a similar course – in this case, the Bachelor of Marketing.

Smaller institutions and private colleges have also been on the rise in recent years. Whilst private universities such as Bond University might not be as established as the University of Sydney or Deakin University, this can work to the advantage of a prospective student. Many Bachelor degrees can be achieved at smaller institutions or private colleges with smaller class sizes and greater flexibility often possible.

Finally, TAFE is a great alternative to tertiary study. A TAFE course can provide you with further practical knowledge in your chosen field. There are plenty of reasons why TAFE is better than university for career success,  including higher employment rates and graduate salaries. Graduates of TAFE courses often have higher starting graduate salaries than those of university courses, and often can complete their courses in a much shorter time. 

For example, according to Ben Phillips, “six months after completing a Certificate IV, those who find full-time employment earn an average of $63,000”. This is in contrast to “$52,450 for under-25 graduates with bachelor’s degrees”.