A lot of people think that students should choose a university course that matches their ATAR.
That’s not a great idea.
You’re making a much bigger choice when you choose a degree
When you’re choosing a degree, you’re choosing to study something in-depth and for a pretty long time.
So you want to make sure you’re making a choice based on what you’re interested in, what you’re good at, and where you could see yourself working.
Don’t choose based on what sounds good or what’s hard to get in to.
I think a lot of people fall in to the trap of choosing a degree that sounds really impressive when they’re asked what they’re going to do after they finish Year 12. This is especially true if they’re doing really well in school and think they’ll get a high ATAR. They might feel there’s more pressure and expectation for them to choose something that’s hard to get in to.
And lots of degrees do sound really impressive and are hard to get in to. That’s not a problem if they’re something you really want to do. But if a big part of why you’re choosing the degree is the impressiveness/competitiveness of it, it might be worth having another think about your choice. You’ve got to make a choice about what’s going to be good for you in the long run, not what’s going to sound good to other people in the short-term.
ATAR cutoffs are only a measure of popularity…
But sometimes people think a course with a high ATAR cutoff is just better.
Health courses like physiotherapy, midwifery and occupational therapy have become super hard to get in to. The number of students who can be admitted into these degrees is very small because there are limited numbers of student placements available in these areas, and placements are an important part of these degrees. The placement shortage creates “quotas” on these courses, so that it doesn’t take many interested applicants to drive the ATAR cutoff waaaaay up.
Other courses like IT and engineering can admit much larger numbers of students each year. For this reason, even though more people may apply to these courses overall, the ATAR cutoffs for these courses are nowhere near as high as for allied health courses. But they are still fantastic degrees to study and have fabulous job prospects as well. They are certainly not worse than allied health degrees, just because their ATAR cutoffs are lower.
Consider other things
The ATAR cutoff doesn’t tell you if you’ll enjoy a degree or what your job prospects will be like after you finish. It just tells something about supply and demand.
There are a lot of other things to think about when choosing a university course, like the things you find out when you research a university in more depth and go to Open Days. You want to make an informed decision!
If you think you’ll get a high ATAR
If you think you’ll get a high ATAR, fabulous – you’ll probably have a lot of choices. Don’t let your high ATAR blind you though. Talk your options through with people you trust. Have a good chat to your careers counsellor/guidance officer. Try and make an informed decision about what you’ll enjoying doing next, not what will sound impressive to your family and friends.
If you think your ATAR won’t be as high
If you think your ATAR won’t be as high, that’s okay. Don’t rule yourself out of chasing courses that have high ATAR cutoffs, if you think they’re really what you want to do. Aim high with your preference list, but also think about your pathway options. Have a good chat to your careers counsellor/guidance officer and other people you trust. There are other ways to get into competitive courses and not everyone hits their stride in high school.
The ATAR only matters briefly
When you’re in Year 12, the ATAR feels like a huge, important thing. And it is important. But in the grand scheme of things, it only matters for a short period of time – until you’ve made a choice about what to do after school and you start doing this.
Good luck!
