What is Early Entry?
Early Entry is a program that gets you accepted or gives you a lower required barrier to a course at a university before you get your final results in year 12. It’s a great option for you if you have had good results in year 11 and know exactly where you want to go or to lock in a potential pathway before your results come out at the end of the year.
Because it isn’t reliant on an ATAR, early entry can be based on many different attributes than just academic performance. Usually, universities will look at your year 11 results as well as your extra-curricular involvement, leadership roles and service to your community. This is a great way to be recognised for things outside of school that would make you a great addition to a university and places a higher emphasis on your character strengths and your approach to learning.
Whilst some universities do not offer early entry, and some for only selected courses or for certain circumstances, it is definitely worth having a look at your course interests and seeing if they align with an early entry scheme. Having a confirmed entry to a university is a very comforting position to be in, and means that you have more flexibility in your career planning and in the final stretch of year 12.
How to get early entry?
Early entry schemes differ between universities in their application process and the courses they offer. However, here are a few Victorian universities and their requirements.
La Trobe University
La Trobe University offers early entry through multiple of their programs.
Aspire Community Contribution
- Early conditional offer based on significant community involvement throughout the school.
- Applications for entry in 2025 are open now and close on 6th September 2024.
Aspire Year 11 Conditional Entry
- Early conditional offer based on outstanding year 11 results, and academic commendation by your school.
- Applications open now and offers are made in September.
Aspire Advance
- An entry scheme that involves taking an undergraduate subject whilst at school, potentially providing you with an early offer.
- Applications for entry in 2025 are open now and close 15 July 2024.
Aspire Prepare
A program where students complete smaller subjects to unlock a lower required ATAR or an early offer.
- Applications for entry in 2025 are closed for 2024.
Aspire Achieve Plus
An entry scheme where students complete two undergraduate subjects over the course of a year, to unlock a lower required ATAR or an early offer.
- Applications for entry in 2025 open on 1st August 2024.
Victoria University
Victoria University offers an extensive early entry program based on your academic record and your values, and how they align with the institution.
Early entry through VU comes with a multitude of benefits:
- Potential for scholarships
- Free ATARNotes+ subscription
- 5 bonus ATAR points added to your application for most courses and a conditional offer
- VU gym access
- Expert course advice
Application for VU’s early entry scheme takes 7 days to process and has significant benefits, prioritising entry based on your values.
RMIT
Early Entry with RMIT allows for your extra-curricular activities and achievements to be included alongside your ATAR. By achieving early entry, the required ATAR for certain courses decreases, including Bachelor’s Degrees, Associate Degrees and other packages. Lower required ATARs can be achieved for courses including, biomedical science, business, engineering, laws and science.
To apply you will need to fill out their application form on their website alongside two 200-word responses to two out of four possible questions.
Applications open in July and will close in September.
How to stand out in early entry application forms?
Lots of people apply for early entry to these universities, so how can you stand out above the rest and be accepted into these wonderful programs?
In your application, the most important thing is to be yourself. The whole point of early entry is that they want to know more about you rather than just your ATAR, so be honest about your experiences and your character, show how genuine and passionate you are. In your responses, see if you can discuss how your experiences have shaped you, and how they have aligned your values with those of the university, and prove to them that you would be a great fit. To do this, you may wish to brainstorm all the relevant leadership, sports and cultural initiatives you have taken part in beforehand, allowing you to easily tell the university what you are truly like.
The most important thing for any application related to universities is to be prepared. Early offers require you to be vigilant in seeing when applications open and close and organising yourself to meet these deadlines. University websites have extensive information about the process of applying and the types of questions they will ask, so be ready. Often you will have to complete your application in one go, meaning you should have all your relevant responses and paperwork ready digitally to submit. Furthermore, you may need to discuss with teachers or parents to organise your school transcript and potentially an academic/character endorsement.
Key Takeaway points:
- Early offer programs are a great way to show that you are more than your ATAR.
- Make sure you know the application deadline, and have all your paperwork ready, typically these have to be completed in one go.
- If successful, you may be given a lower required ATAR for certain courses or potentially a conditional offer.
- Early offers can be extremely useful, and make your future career planning much more flexible.
- Make sure to have a look at the website of a university you are interested in and see if they offer early entry programs!
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Written by KIS Academic tutor of VCE subjects Charlie Williams. Charlie is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne, majoring in Politics and Economics, and has tutored multiple students on subjects ranging from Maths Methods to Economics. You can view his profile on the KIS Academics website, and request him as a tutor.
