No place offered
Not their first preference
Many students fear that they will 'lose momentum" if they don’t start uni straight after school. If your son or daughter is keen to start uni straight away, they can take the place they have been offered. They may choose either to continue in that course, or to re-apply for their first choice (through UAC) after completing first year.
No uni place
If your son or daughter doesn't get offered a place at uni, your support and encouragement will help them get through this disappointment. It could be useful to sit down together and go through all their options:
- Will they go out to work?
- Will they try to enrol in TAFE or a different university course?
- Will they apply for university again next year?
Applying again next year
If your son or daughter applies to uni next year they will be classed as a non-current school leaver, and their UAC application will take into account any work experience and further study they may have done since leaving school, as well as taking into account their HSC results from the previous year. Universities provide information about what kind of qualifications should be included in the UAC application.
If your son or daughter doesn’t work or gain other qualifications before applying to university again, they will still be considered on the basis of their HSC results.
Since the ATAR cut-off for some courses may be lower the following year, your son or daughter might even be offered a place in a course that they didn’t get into the first time they applied.
Universities don’t have age limits – your son or daughter can apply or re-apply at any age. Years of work experience may increase their chances of being offered a place.
