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March 28, 2024, 11:44:46 pm

Author Topic: Pre ATAR Uni Offers  (Read 4051 times)  Share 

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caffinatedloz

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Pre ATAR Uni Offers
« on: October 20, 2019, 10:00:05 pm »
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Hey guys!
I was reading this article today and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts. It's about whether being given an early uni offer can have a negative impact on students.

DrDusk

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Re: Pre ATAR Uni Offers
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2019, 10:19:50 pm »
+1
Hey guys!
I was reading this article today and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts. It's about whether being given an early uni offer can have a negative impact on students.
Yeah I read that and I don't 100% agree with it. My opinion will probably be frowned upon but it's based on what I've seen from my school where about 60% of the students got in through early entry.

Honestly the people who did apply for early entry weren't the most academic kind of students. I know because they were the kind of students that most people in lower ranking schools are well aware of. Even if early entry was abolished these students would probably only have done a negligible amount better which at the end of the day would've gotten them into the same uni, because higher ranking unis in nsw don't offer early entry and only the lower ranking unis do. I personally never even considered early entry as an option.

As for it happening a 'negative' impact on the rest of the schools cohort, I think the makers of the article need to read up on how moderation works. The fact that 80% of my grade slacked off had no affect on my atar, in fact my internals got moderated up quite well. The only way it would affect someone is it might cause them to slack off because the people around them are doing so. Early entry makes no large impact on this as even without early entry all those student would still slack, if only a bit less.

In the higher ranking schools this is not even considered an issue because literally no one applies for early entry anyway, but even in lower ranking schools it's not really an issue.

Remy33

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Re: Pre ATAR Uni Offers
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2019, 11:10:58 pm »
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Idk how it works in NSW since that article focuses on HSC, but I agree with Dr Dusk above in the sense that I don't believe other students slacking off would significantly impact your results. The moderation process in VIC is quite fair. There might be some very negligible impact, but at the end of the day your result is a reflection of how hard you worked and complaining about being 'dragged down' by a weak cohort shows irresponsibility towards your own studies.

That said, I'm not the biggest fan of early entry schemes offered by some universities. A bunch of people in my school's 2018 cohort received early conditional offers to La Trobe through their Aspire program. Most of these people didn't end up getting in because they slacked off and missed the minimum ATAR requirement. There were also people who applied for early entry as a "safety net" when they were really aiming for a course with a higher ATAR, but then slacked off after receiving their La Trobe offer and ended up not getting into their top preference.

But as I said, I think early entry schemes only negatively impact individual students who are not accountable for their own studies. For others it could be beneficial. And it definitely does not impact entire cohorts.
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Aaron

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Re: Pre ATAR Uni Offers
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2019, 11:26:10 pm »
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I'm all for it if it's after the exam period and its that gap between the final exam and ATAR and can see the merit of it for some groups of students.

Anybody would not be blamed for having that mentality of "what's the point of exams" if they've already received an offer pre-exams.

I received an early offer to my undergrad course (before ATAR release date but post-exams). Don't think it hurt or impacted me negatively - it was nice knowing my spot was secure without having to worry or get caught in that hype bubble like the rest of the students at my school did.

Quote from: article
But Greg Whitby, head of the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, said early offers were a practical way to relieve the pressure of exams, and were evidence of the "redundancy" of the ATAR.
I don't mind this quote at all. I think it's a fair point and can definitely see why pre-exam offers are made in this instance.

Quote from: DrDusk
My opinion will probably be frowned upon
Quote from: DrDusk
Honestly the people who did apply for early entry weren't the most academic kind of students.  I know because they were the kind of students that most people in lower ranking schools are well aware of.
Can you explain the 2nd quote above please... I feel like I am interpreting a few of your recent posts incorrectly and honestly get a really bad vibe from this one in particular. Why does this matter if they are 'well known' in 'lower ranking schools'?
« Last Edit: October 20, 2019, 11:53:37 pm by Aaron »
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DrDusk

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Re: Pre ATAR Uni Offers
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2019, 12:23:12 am »
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Can you explain the 2nd quote above please... I feel like I am interpreting a few of your recent posts incorrectly and honestly get a really bad vibe from this one in particular. Why does this matter if they are 'well known' in 'lower ranking schools'?
Oh no no, please don't =(

I came from a 300ish ranked school so being from a really low ranking school what I meant is most of the students in it do not care about academics, which is fine if they want to pursue a trade or perhaps go to tafe or something, but only a small minority did that. The rest slacked off for the purpose of slacking off and annoying the class. This is 'well known' in lower ranked schools because high ranking schools usually have students who are highly focused on academics or whatever it is they want to do, but they're focused on something.
Expanding on that, everyone from my school who got into early entry were like what I mentioned above, i.e. a lot of them lied on their application for early entry as well.

I don't mean to bring any bad vibe =(  Maybe I'm phrasing some of my responses incorrectly, I'll definitely triple check my response now but I'm not doing anything intentionally. Even I've noticed  this from a few responses from the mods and I'll definitely see what's wrong with me here. I'll be honest I didn't think this response gave a bad vibe when I was typing it, so could you please tell me what's wrong with it, that way my future responses will be okay =) I'll really appreciate it :)
« Last Edit: October 21, 2019, 12:30:58 am by DrDusk »

caffinatedloz

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Re: Pre ATAR Uni Offers
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2019, 07:04:29 am »
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In the higher ranking schools this is not even considered an issue because literally no one applies for early entry anyway, but even in lower ranking schools it's not really an issue.
In VIC, at least, I know that this isn't 100% true. Many of my older friends applied to  the LaTrobe Aspire program and were given early offers (with a conditional minimum atar). One said that he struggled to motivate himself to study, but worked hard anyway. He ended up with an atar was higher then he needed and got into a different course at the different uni (one that he really, really wanted). He also went to a school with a fantastic seal program that is ranked in the 50 fifty in Victoria (so not a bad school).
So I don't really think it is just students at lower ranked schools that apply.

But as I said, I think early entry schemes only negatively impact individual students who are not accountable for their own studies. For others it could be beneficial. And it definitely does not impact entire cohorts.
I agree! I think that the individual student and their attitude has a larger impact than the conditional offers themselves. If students cannot motivate themselves once they have an early offer, that is more of a reflection on them than a problem with the system.