Nowadays the 17 and 18-year-olds are constantly hitting the refresh button on their computer, phone or tablet to discover what Australian Tertiary Admission Rank they have received — and plan where their university education will continue.
For one St Augustine’s College student there will be no such haste, having already received two tertiary institution offers several weeks ahead of sitting her final exams.
Elleina Suarez is in a fortunate, albeit hard-earned, position as she has been offered two university positions before the end of term three.
The 17-year-old has an interesting story, having grown up in the Phillipines before relocating to Sweden when her mother met her Australian husband and finally, seven years ago arriving in Australia.
“I’ve always been someone to take every opportunity, so I jumped at the chance to apply for early admissions.
Elleina has received offers to Charles Sturt and Swinburne, where she applied for a Bachelor in Psychology position.
Charles Sturt took Elleina’s Year 11 results into calculation and also required answers to several “soft skills” questions, asking about her resilience and community involvement.
“Swinburne had its own types of questions. I’ve been offered a double degree there — a Bachelor of Physiological Sciences and Bachelor of Criminal Justice and Criminology,” she said.
Elleina, not one to leave things to chance, is completing a university accelerant as one of her six VCE subjects — in psychological sciences — giving her further credits for that subject.
Her end goal is to become a forensic psychologist.
“I’ve always been keen on helping other people in the community and recently have become very intrigued in justice system,” she said.
Elleina is among a very small number of students who was offered early positions at universities.
But she is not done yet.
“By the end of the year I would like to receive a couple of more offers. I am also applying for ACU,” she said, explaining that putting as many irons in the fire as possible was her ultimate aim.
Elleina was speaking only days after sitting the General Achievement Test (GAT), which assesses skills in mathematics, science, technology, the arts and humanities.
It measures the results of Year 12 — and those Year 11 students completing a VCE subject — against national standards.
It was Elleina’s second GAT exam as she completed the test as a Year 11 student last year.
There were 50 St Augustine’s students involved in the GAT, which took the form of a two-section/three-hour exam with 100 multiple choice literacy and numeracy questions and half-hour writing task — followed by a second writing task and 50 multiple choice general knowledge questions.
Elleina, in spite of the offers which have come her way well ahead of schedule, is considering using 2023 as a GAP year, but there will be no international back packing or fast food jobs used to fill in the 12 months.
"I am considering doing a TAFE course in the mental health field for the year,“ she said.
As for her ATAR score, she said anything above 85 would be acceptable.
She will be given tours of her prospective university campuses in coming months.
