Admissions Centres Preferencing: General Discussion

[A1]

I am honestly happy with both unis, I am just trying to see where I’d get a CSP tbh

MSO has discussed this CSP vs BMP matter a few times.
Due to the way UAC not splitting CSP/BMP in the pref list we haven't found a way to deal with this.

1. Whichever one you put at 1st pref, there's a risk it's BMP while forgoing the other CSP.

2. The strategy of WSU 1st pref then switch UNSW to 1st later - is only useful when you marginally miss UNSW 1st round offer.
Then you hope for a UNSW 2nd round offer, but being near the offer ranking cutoff it's most likely BMP anyway.

(For CSP vs BMP purpose) The best strategy is to put at 1st pref the one you feel you have the best chance. This best chance means it's more likely to be CSP than the other one is. It somewhat improves your CSP chance but not foolproof. Good luck.

 

[RainRainGoAway]

MSO has discussed this CSP vs BMP matter a few times.
Due to the way UAC not splitting CSP/BMP in the pref list we haven't found a way to deal with this.

1. Whichever one you put at 1st pref, there's a risk it's BMP while forgoing the other CSP.

2. The strategy of WSU 1st pref then switch UNSW to 1st later - is only useful when you marginally miss UNSW 1st round offer.
Then you hope for a UNSW 2nd round offer, but being near the offer ranking cutoff it's most likely BMP anyway.

The best strategy is to put at 1st pref the one you feel you have the best chance. This best chance means it's more likely to be CSP than the other one is. It somewhat improves your CSP chance but not foolproof. Good luck.

Sorry, one last question.

So if I put UNSW first, and then I am not eligible for an offer, in UAC’s Eyes is my first preference WSU or am I still second in comparison to those who put WSU first?

___________
A1 replies: There is NO you being "second in comparison to those who put WSU first".
The only matter is where you rank in comparison to them on the WSU offers rank list.

 

[syler]

Asking for my son.
UCAT 3100, ATAR 98.05, NSW non-rural.
Received ND offer Bach. of Biomedical Science (Assured Pathway) via TISC for Fremantle campus even though the preferred location was Sydney!

The deadline to accept the offer is by the end of December.
However, he is also Casper top quartile, so there is a chance he might get an interview from Curtin which is preferable due to its shorter duration and direct entry.

To receive a more preferred course offer, TISC recommends "Do Nothing" (don't accept or deny) says it will automatically "save" the offer for next round even though the next round will be past the deadline.

To make things more confusing, Curtin won't even interview interstate until late Jan. So it will be past the main Jan round until we know any progress in Curtin.

TISC process of "sitting on an offer and doing nothing" is different to UAC in NSW where students simply accept the offer and change preferences and I find it bit unnerving. If he accepts the offer now it seems forfeit any opportunity for future offers via TISC!!!

What does everybody think? Has anyone else faced this? Any tips are highly appreciated!!

 

[A1]

TISC process of "sitting on an offer and doing nothing" is different to UAC in NSW where students simply accept the offer and change preferences

The UAC method seems better to you but it has a flaw - in that a two-time successful applicant can sit on the two offers for weeks while depriving another applicant of getting the one the former doesn't want.

If he accepts the offer now it seems forfeit any opportunity for future offers via TISC!!!

Thus TISC is very clear you do not accept this offer for now. You use the TISC Safety Net to save it.

To receive a more preferred course offer, TISC recommends "Do Nothing" (don't accept or deny) says it will automatically "save" the offer for next round even though the next round will be past the deadline.

TISC Safety Net says in the next offer round your son will either get a higher pref offer or get the ND offer again. This 'again' reconfirms your son still has the ND offer in his pocket.

 

[syler]

Thanks that helps! I understand why TISC does that way; to prevent students from hoarding multiple offers.
My confusion is that TISC second round offers are on 21st Jan and Curtin interviews only commence on 24th Jan, so we wouldn't know the outcome even then, only if he is selected for an interview. Does that mean Curtin makes direct offers, outside TISC to interstate?

 

[A1]

My confusion is that TISC second round offers are on 21st Jan and Curtin interviews only commence on 24th Jan, so we wouldn't know the outcome even then

TISC Safety Net says on 21st Jan your son will get the ND offer again, probably with a new 'Accept by' date. You can check with TISC then what to do next.

I remember in a previous year Curtin 2nd round was by direct offers.

 

[mg123]

Hi! Just wanted any advice about preferences for Jan Round 1
I'm GWS and 760VR / 99% UCAT (both may increase my WSU chances?). Personal preferences are UoN > WSU >> UNE but also CSP > BMP

1) If I place JMP > WSU, then I could potentially receive UNE, but am I correct in thinking I could move WSU higher for a later round or is it extremely unlikely
2) If I place WSU > JMP, and receive WSU, then I've pretty much got no shot at JMP?

 

[2xq]

Hi! Just wanted any advice about preferences for Jan Round 1
I'm GWS and 760VR / 99% UCAT (both may increase my WSU chances?). Personal preferences are UoN > WSU >> UNE but also CSP > BMP

1) If I place JMP > WSU, then I could potentially receive UNE, but am I correct in thinking I could move WSU higher for a later round or is it extremely unlikely
2) If I place WSU > JMP, and receive WSU, then I've pretty much got no shot at JMP?

I think there is a few questions to answer here.
1) How badly do you not want to go UNE?
2) How much more of a personal preference is it to fo UoN as opposed to WSU?
3) Would you still be happy with a UNE CSP as opposed to a WSU BMP? etc. etc. I could go on...

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hi! Just wanted any advice about preferences for Jan Round 1
I'm GWS and 760VR / 99% UCAT (both may increase my WSU chances?). Personal preferences are UoN > WSU >> UNE but also CSP > BMP

1) If I place JMP > WSU, then I could potentially receive UNE, but am I correct in thinking I could move WSU higher for a later round or is it extremely unlikely
2) If I place WSU > JMP, and receive WSU, then I've pretty much got no shot at JMP?

1) yes, correct. UNE (and BMP) are a possibility. WSU used to participate in a Dec offer round for rural students ONLY. When this was the case, doing a switch of preferences did mean you could potentially be offered JMP in Jan (I know, because I did this), but it was only a select few applicants this applied to. They no longer participate in the Dec round, and from memory of recent years, the chances of this working for Jan/Feb rounds is limited.
2) yes, correct.

The only productive way to approach this preferencing dilemma is to choose your actual fave for #1 but to recognise that ANY offer is amazing (so so many will miss out) and to commit with enthusiasm to whatever that offer is. Until (if) UAC make changes to the system, it’s impossible to preference for all the nuance involved and it’s unhelpful (unfortunately) to get too invested.

I know that’s a disappointing answer but there are so many in this boat, it’ll be a common theme. Especially when you throw UNSW into the mix.

Also, question, do you preference WSU specifically these days? Or JPM and then get allocated WSU or CSU? (IOW, could you get CSU while gunning for WSU because that would be another thing to factor in).

 

[Qwzoo]

UNSW does reserve a generous number of spots for the 2nd round. This should not be seen as favouring 2nd round, there's a reason for it.

The 2nd round interviewees + the 1st round missing-outs are put into one pool for these reserved spots + any 1st round declined spots. This ensures 1st rounders & 2nd rounders are subject to the same offers ranking cutoff.


Who you are competing against is as explained above. But there's another issue.

1. If you qualify for & get WSU being first pref, and you DON'T qualify for UNSW 1st round then you can do as above.

2. If you happen to qualify for both WSU + UNSW (in the 1st round) and get WSU being 1st pref, UNSW won't put you into the 2nd round pool (UNSW confirmed this by email to me). Reason is UNSW views it as you were made an offer but you declined it (actually UAC declined it on your behalf due to your WSU 1st pref) so no 2nd round consideration.

Hi A1, do you know any information about roughly how many places are reserved for the 3rd round for UNSW and roughly the Ucat score I need (I have 99.95 ATAR) since I can only compete in the last round of interviews and will receive offers on February 6th, thank you so much.

 

[A1]

Hi A1, do you know any information about roughly how many places are reserved for the 3rd round for UNSW and roughly the Ucat score I need (I have 99.95 ATAR) since I can only compete in the last round of interviews and will receive offers on February 6th, thank you so much.

I just looked in UNSW website there isn't a 3rd round, only the 2nd round interviews on 22-23 January for which offers will be on 6 Feb.

We don't know the number of places UNSW reserve, only the info that (proportional to 1st round offers) it's on the better side to ensure 2nd round interviewees are not disadvantaged. Any surplus would go to the 1st round miss-outs anyway.

Hard to say what UCAT is needed. Provided you don't fail the interview-score hard cutoff (i.e. rejecting the poorest regardless of their ATAR/UCAT) your final ranking is determined by ATAR + UCAT + Interview.

 

[Qwzoo]

I just looked in UNSW website there isn't a 3rd round, only the 2nd round interviews on 22-23 January for which offers will be on 6 Feb.

We don't know the number of places UNSW reserve, only the info that (proportional to 1st round offers) it's on the better side to ensure 2nd round interviewees are not disadvantaged. Any surplus would go to the 1st round miss-outs anyway.

Hard to say what UCAT is needed. Provided you don't fail the interview-score hard cutoff (i.e. rejecting the poorest regardless of their ATAR/UCAT) your final ranking is determined by ATAR + UCAT + Interview.

Hi A1, thank you very much for your response, I thought there was a December round for UNSW offers and January round 1 and January round 2. I was interviewed on 22-23 January, do you think there's a still handful of places left after these previous offer rounds?

___________
A1 replies: The early-Dec round was for Lateral entry applicants (i.e. UNSW internal).
For non-lateral there are two rounds : 19-23 Dec interviews 9 Jan offers and 22-23 Jan interviews 6 Feb offers.
(Ignore the 23 Jan offer round, it's too soon for the 22-23 Jan interviewees. I don't know if anyone got an offer on 23 Jan).
As I explained in my previous post and the earlier post you quoted, the number of places are proportionally better than 1st round so must be more than a handful.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Hi A1, thank you very much for your response, I thought there was a December round for UNSW offers and January round 1 and January round 2. I was interviewed on 22-23 January, do you think there's a still handful of places left after these previous offer rounds?

No December round for UNSW med (unless maybe a few rural and indigenous pathway applicants got pre-Christmas offers). The first main round for UNSW med is Jan.

 

[Deboza]

No December round for UNSW med (unless maybe a few rural and indigenous pathway applicants got pre-Christmas offers). The first main round for UNSW med is Jan.

Indigenous students get their offers for UNSW med in early dec fwiw.

 

[A1]

General info on UAC Med offer rounds for non-rural applicants.

1. USyd interviews are usually a few days after ATAR release. They also quickly award place offers within December.
The offers may be directly from USyd or may be via UAC. It's not important since no other med schools interfere with their offers on this date.
(There may be a mini interview round later for IB students whose results come out later, we'll skip that).

2. UNSW holds two interview rounds: round-1 for applicants whose ATARs are known by mid-Dec and round-2 for those later.
With two interview rounds UNSW have two *formal* offer rounds, one for each in mid-Jan & early-Feb.
It follows that UNSW does not release all the place quota to round-1, they hold back a good portion of places for round-2.

Of interest is round-1 interviewees, who *don't qualify* for a round-1 offer, remain in the pool to compete for a round-2 offer i.e. their round-1 offer ranking could be higher than round-2 interviewees.
(However info I received from UNSW Med is - applicants who qualify for a UNSW round-1 offer but forfeit it due to getting a higher-pref offer elsewhere, they are *removed* from the pool thus excluded from UNSW round-2 offers).

3. JMP is similar to UNSW in having two interview rounds - one for NSW/ACT/Qld, one for the other states.
Therefore two offer rounds, but different to UNSW in that afaik the places JMP holds back for round-2 offers are exclusive for round-2 interviewees. I haven't heard of any round-1 interviewees getting a round-2 offer (but am happy to be corrected).

4. WSU holds only one interview round so all places are released in round-1 offers, no reason to hold back any.
Whether WSU has round-2 offers is up in the air.
If they have sufficient numbers of round-1 offer declines they make into a round-2 via UAC.
If only a few declines they might do individual top-ups by contacting directly the next-in-line applicants.

Hope this helps in your UAC preferencing "strategy".