bonus points (1 Viewer)

[missmarka]

I heard that next year anu is giving bonus points even for bcomm - has anyone heard about this? Does it apply to actuarial?

 

[*Love-2-Hate-U*]

Hello.


yes.

 

[liv88]

I was down for open day in late August and was given a sheet about that. It says that 6 bonus points will be given for all commerce/business degrees (Actuarial studies doesn't apply) for people who achieve an HSC mark of > 60 in

- English (Advanced) or higher
and
- Mathematics (2 Unit or higher)

 

[lanyon]

no it does apply to actuarial studies, but only for a single degree, so it wont work on say actuarial and finance. I think its 5 extra point for Actuarial studies.

 

[klaw]

In my opinion, that doesn't really affect much. Very few people are going to get below 60/100 after alignment. I would say that over 99% of the people considering applying for commerce will get it. I believe that they only implemented this to artificially raise their UAI cutoffs, as many students associate UAI cutoffs to quality of the course.

So say if this bonus points thing isn't implemented, the UAI cutoff might be 85 for commerce. With this bonus points scheme, they can report that their UAI cutoff was 91. Then the next year, students look at the UAI cutoffs, and they see a UAI cutoff of 91, then they go "hmm... such a high cutoff, it must be a good course...". Therefore, although on the surface it may seem that they are promoting commerce courses to less intelligent students, they are actually the opposite and are attracting future students with high UAIs to consider ANU.

So basically, it should not affect your chances of getting into the course, as almost everybody applying will get those bonus points.

 

[lanyon]

^smart man

 

[klaw]

Now that I've read it, I realise that I was initially wrong. Not exactly wrong, as I do believe that artificially raising their UAI is one of the purposes of introducing the scheme, but I now believe that there is another purpose.

The criteria states that you have to get over 60% in english AND maths. Although two units of english is compulsory, "English as a Second Language (ESL) does not meet the required level." Similarly, only "2U Maths and above" is recognised. So the people who do ESL and/or general maths or don't do maths at all are disadvantaged by 5 UAI points.

This may be because they've realised that commerce degrees require at least a basic level of maths and english, and it is probable that many students who have previously struggled with maths and/or english have struggled with business courses in the past, and ANU introduced this scheme to reduce the number of struggling students.

So I was previously wrong, and certainly less than 99% of applicants will have done both standard or above english and 2U or above maths. However, I do believe that the vast majority of students will still receive those bonus points, as I believe that most commerce applicants do 2U or above maths and standard or above english.

 

[loquasagacious]

perhaps it is to artificially lower the score. eg the 85 base entry is being dragged up by the arts faculty and is actually leaving B.Comm courses under-enrolled eg at 85 they can't filll places hence the awarding of bonus points. Afterall this was the reason for up to 10 bonus points being awarded for B. IT/comp sci a couple of years ago.

 

[klaw]

perhaps it is to artificially lower the score. eg the 85 base entry is being dragged up by the arts faculty and is actually leaving B.Comm courses under-enrolled eg at 85 they can't filll places hence the awarding of bonus points. Afterall this was the reason for up to 10 bonus points being awarded for B. IT/comp sci a couple of years ago.

Hmm... If there is a low demand for BComm at ANU, why would they need to introduce schemes to lower the UAI cutoff? I thought the way uni admissions work, it automatically balances supply and demand to produce a UAI cutoff at equilibrium? So if there is a low demand for BComm at ANU, the UAI cutoff should automatically lower due to the lower demand.

I also don't understand how this scheme could artificially lower the UAI. Let's say without the scheme, the UAI cutoff is 82. The bonus points scheme gives 90% of the applicants an extra 5 bonus points, therefore artificially raising the cutoff that is reported to 87. I don't see how they can artificially lower UAI cutoffs unless they introduce penalties.

 

[loquasagacious]

ANU uses a single base UAI (unlike say UNSW) so our UAIs are not free-floating eg it is not a complete free market system.

There is very strong demand in some courses eg arts, asian studies and to a lesser extent science. This has the effect of bidding the UAI for these courses up to say 82. This 82 is then used as a universal base-UAI. However faculties like engineering/IT and commerce/economics are left with the problem that with an artificially high UAI cut-off of 82 impossed upon them they can not fill places. eg everyone over 82 gets in but this only fills half the course places. Now because course funding is tied up with enrolments they have a pressing incentive to fill the places.

To fill the places they must lower the UAI, however they can not lower the official base cut-off hence bonus points. Now they simply award as many bonus points as are needed to lower the effective UAI enough to fill places. eg by awarding 500 BComm applicants who fall between 77-81 five bonus points their UAI is raised to 82-86 and they get in. Enrolments have thus been raised by 500 and the effective (raw) UAI has been lowered to 77.

Understand now?