Are Cut-Offs Over-Rated? Has anyone noticed the exageration of the Cut-Offs? (1 Viewer)

[alex_c86]

no its not bullshit, because i definately dont get eas or access or any bonus points, and im below the uai cut-off and i still got places for both hecs and fee paying b science at sydney, which doesnt give extra points for local students, and i didnt do alternative entry either

 

[theone123]

wat course are we talking about here?

 

[alex_c86]

r u asking me? umm b science at uni of sydney..

 

[Cactus]

yeh well the 2005 cut-off for my first preference this year was 81.40 (according to the uac website, on the main-round 2005 hecs cut-off file) and my uai was 77.45, and i got a place...

shhh dont tell anyone! lol

 

[alex_c86]

lol yeh thats what the lady said when i called up the uni of syd advice line to check...

 

[ameh]

when they offered more places and closed down faculties, i guess they're going to increase HECS even more

 

[stazed]

I mentioned in another thread on this topic that uni's do set minimum standards....
But oh well, yes, you are right they do set a minimum level of capability for a course, which you only ever see if the course has vacancies.

But you can't blame them if you can't even meet that cut-off when the course has vacancies! They universities do have a reputation to uphold

 

[llamalope]

unfortunately cut-offs have nothing to do with how hard a course is...and everything to do with demand

 

[daiana]

they say its all about the demand and supply

but i'm sure some other things do come into play. more than the uni's will ever release to the public

 

[daiana]

who would've thought...

hehehe well said LaraB!

but the UAC guide did mislead a lot of students... a lot of yr 12 students used the uai-trend as well as the uac guide to choose their preferences in order of uai(which isn't the smartest thing to do, but some did anyway) but then who would've thought that the uai's would fall sooo much?

 

[tennille]

I got into B science (advance) at USyd and I got 1.1 below the cut-off, and no, I didn't apply for a fee-paying place. Many unis raise their cut-offs so they're in competition with other unis. If you got below the cut-off, they look at other criteria like the subjects you completed in year 12 and how well you went in them as well.

 

[daiana]

Tenille, are you serious? well, i mean you would've had 96.xx to begin with! gosh, you did no pleading, no letters...nothing? wow. usyd is sure nice!


yea LaraB, i see what you're saying. but i was really sceptical about the "cut-offs will fall" stage. i, just looked at the trends and they just kept on skyrocketing! (for almost every course..ok if they ddint skyrocket, they still went up) so i was really scared and thought everything would go up..again.. despite there being public release of "demands have fallen", "fees rise" (hence less demand, again) i really couldn't convince myself that uai's would fall.

ugh. i'm anti-uai! a note to any applicants for uni courses... don't go by the uai cut offs of the previous yrs when choosing your preferences! best to choose by what you want to do, not so much by what the uai is. i heard that one person got a uai of 100.00, and she enrolled for a science degree with only a cutoff of 80 sth. she could've got into medicine or law even, but it's really silly to choose a course just by what your uai can get you (coz you may not enjoy it or see much interest in it at all)

 

[tennille]

Tenille, are you serious? well, i mean you would've had 96.xx to begin with! gosh, you did no pleading, no letters...nothing? wow. usyd is sure nice!

I got 95.30, and the cut-off is 94.60.

 

[mishka]

ugh. i'm anti-uai! a note to any applicants for uni courses... don't go by the uai cut offs of the previous yrs when choosing your preferences! best to choose by what you want to do, not so much by what the uai is. i heard that one person got a uai of 100.00, and she enrolled for a science degree with only a cutoff of 80 sth. she could've got into medicine or law even, but it's really silly to choose a course just by what your uai can get you (coz you may not enjoy it or see much interest in it at all)

as i've said before, your UAI is like a ticket. some people get tickets to go further (i.e. courses with higher cutoffs) than others. that doesn't mean you have to use it all. i agree with daiana, because i've always thought that if you go into a course just because you got enough UAI points for it, it might be taking the place of someone who has aspired to do the course for some time.

 

[tennille]

Sorry, the cut off was 96.40, not 94.60.

 

[daiana]

u got 95.3

but cutoff was 96.4

u missed ur target course by 1.1

i missed my target course by 0.9

u got an offer

i didnt get an offer
HM!

 

[tennille]

u got 95.3

but cutoff was 96.4

u missed ur target course by 1.1

i missed my target course by 0.9

u got an offer

i didnt get an offer
HM!

I guess it depends on the demand and the amount of places they have. Porbably my course had more vacancies. I dunno.

 

[acmilan]

unfortunately cut-offs have nothing to do with how hard a course is...and everything to do with demand

There are other factors that determine it, apart from the demand for a course, cut offs may also be determined by the difficulty of the course. For example say a uni accepts 20 people for a subject like Advanced Maths, then the 20 highest applicants will be accepted. But if for some reason the applicant with the highest UAI for the course was 80 then it will be unlikely that they would be accepted in to such a difficult course. There are minimum standards that must be met as well as the demand for the course

 

[Korn]

no it doesnt - it could mean that, ut that's only one of many possible explanations....

It could simply be that a lot of people are like me - got 98.4, but the course i really wanted to do ended up with a 90 cut off as it's not very popular, so for all we know, 99.9% of people in the course had say, 98+ but the last oe in had 90 so the cut off is 90..

I think a lot of peopl forget that the cut off is the LAST person into the course, so i mean, although its unlikely, logically the course could average marks much higher than the cut off would indictae...


other explanations could simply be along with the fact that less people are choosing to go to uni, more people are full fee paying so the hecs cut off's are lower, people with higher marks are no longer just doing law and med coz their schools say they shuold but are researching and doing something they enjoy, people are now more looking to uni's like uws and mac and anu and the like rather than just unsw an dusyd so the cutoffs 'even out' a bit...etc etc etc etc

Most importantly, a lot of people are choosing tafe courses or business college courses or independent IT schools etc etc as they cannot afford university, especially if they don't live within a reasonable distance from o ne and have to move out of home and therefore have to also work etc etc etc

If anything - there aren't more spcaes as a lot of courses are no longer available as they have been dropped due to lack of interest or funds

Yes but even UWS cutoffs dropped signifacantly

 

[Korn]

It's quite true. Some courses do have minimum requirement UAIs.

Engineering (Software) at UNSW requires a 90 minimum regardless of supply and demand. A friend of mine got 89.5 and missed out in the main round despite there still being vacancies in the course.

What the heck, my uncle who was a lecturer said that unis will keep taking ppl until a course is full