How UAC preferences work
Your son or daughter can list up to nine courses on their UAC application. They can change their preferences anytime until the last change of preferences date, which is usually in early January – after they have received their HSC results and ATAR.
Preference order
Applicants should enter the courses in order of preference, starting with the course they would most like to do as their first preference. They should not order their preferences based on the ATAR they think they will get.
During the selection process, applicants are considered for each course in turn.
Your son or daughter is likely to be offered a place in the first course for which they meet the ATAR cut-off. For example, if they don’t have the required ATAR for their first preference but they have the ATAR needed for the second preference, they are likely receive an offer for their second preference.
What is an ATAR?
The Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) is a number between 0.00 and 99.95 that represents the position of your son or daughter’s HSC results relative to all students who sat the HSC in the same year.
Universities use the ATAR to select students for their courses. Most university courses specify the minimum ATAR students need to be considered for a place on the course. This is known as the ATAR cut-off.
The ATAR cut-off is adjusted every year, and the course guides always state the cut-off for the previous year.
