is this true / common? (1 Viewer)

[Epic]

I've heard that some universities, if they still have vacancies in certain courses they will accept the next best students into the course just to fill the places, even if the students UAI is well below the cut off.

I personally know of someone who was accepted into a course and was over 5 UAI points below the cut off. They had no bonus points whatsoever.

Is this a common practice?

 

[u-borat]

depends on the course.

 

[Epic]

depends on the course.

For example...?

 

[Kurwa]

B Everything

 

[LordPc]

For example...?

well for most courses this would be true, but i would assume that courses like medicine and law have such high demand that they would never need to look below the cut off to fill places

but for other degrees certainly. I know quite a few people who got into a degree despite being quite below the cut off

 

[chewy123]

UAI cut-offs are released after the main round, and the cut-off is nothing but the uai of the student who got the lowest mark. For example, in 2008 300 students got into course x in the main round, the lowest uai in this group is 95, then the cut-off is 95, excluding students with bonus points.

New cut-off are then released in subsequent rounds and the cut-off is determined by the same technique, if you look at the uai cut-off in any year, you will notice that it generally gets higher and higher after each round in all courses. Thus by this logic I would say it's nearly impossible for a student with below cutoff to get in that course without special considerations.

 

[spence]

UAI cut-offs are released after the main round, and the cut-off is nothing but the uai of the student who got the lowest mark. For example, in 2008 300 students got into course x in the main round, the lowest uai in this group is 95, then the cut-off is 95, excluding students with bonus points.

New cut-off are then released in subsequent rounds and the cut-off is determined by the same technique, if you look at the uai cut-off in any year, you will notice that it generally gets higher and higher after each round in all courses. Thus by this logic I would say it's nearly impossible for a student with below cutoff to get in that course without special considerations.

Except it happens all the time

 

[Epic]

So based on these answers I'm assuming that this is only *common* in universities and courses which have a lower demand than usual?

 

[moll.]

Yeah, it's true. The UAI cut-offs are never accurate.
Towards the end of last year when we were having interviews with the deputies to gauge our performance I told her I wanted to do Commerce at UNSW. And she was like, "Oh yeah, you shouldn't have too much trouble with that. I know students who have gotten 89 and still got into it." The cut-off for the past few years has been around 95. And whilst there are up to 5 bonus points given, 95.xx - 5 =/= 89

 

[Suic1de]

Hmm, no surprise that all the useless replies are from the Southern States. There is a reason your below QLD and this thread has proved that.

The system in QLD (THE SMART STATE) works on that it goes to the person with the next highest OP, if there is two people with the same OP then they use another measurement called FP's. If the result is still the same i'd imagine they deny both or accept both. There are other ways of comparing both people by actually looking at their work etc.

If any of you downers bothered to study this then you would know what those way were.

BL on being born down.

 

[melsc]

It does happen but don't count on it...you are lucky if it happens

 

[Miner]

Hmm, no surprise that all the useless replies are from the Southern States. There is a reason your below QLD and this thread has proved that.

The system in QLD (THE SMART STATE) works on that it goes to the person with the next highest OP, if there is two people with the same OP then they use another measurement called FP's. If the result is still the same i'd imagine they deny both or accept both. There are other ways of comparing both people by actually looking at their work etc.

If any of you downers bothered to study this then you would know what those way were.

BL on being born down.

Qld has what ... 25 different OP ranks. Given that the other states all have about 280 different ranks they don't have to rely on field positions. It is usually all of a specific rank or none of them that get in. Certain schools within unis will just juggle the figures around to take in extras where there is demand, because in the end the uni wants the fees.

 

[undalay]

yeah ive heard of stories. but anyway say taht there are 1000 places for course 'x'. 997 places have been taken by students who scored 95UAI or above. there are over 40 students that get 94.95 and want to do the course - how do they determine which ones get in to the 3 places that are left???

You know I think only 40 (or thereabouts) students in all of NSW/ACT get the same UAI.

I would say a comparison based on individual HSC marks is likely.

 

[katietheskatie]

i think you're entirely missing the point of the whole cut-off thing .. it's the lowest uai that someone has that has got them into the course that particular year/round/whatever, not some arbitrary number the university picks for each degree

 

[undalay]

arbitrary number the university picks for each degree

In theory you are completely correct.
But some sources indicate that they are in fact just picking a number (inflating UAI cutoffs)

 

[Dr_Fresh]

its also only based on the lowest person's uai in main/second/final round cutoffs. the situation where the person gets with a uai significantly below the cutoff, is not taken into consideration/reported as the uni contacts the applicant directly and offers them a place.