Results week
Checked against each admissions centre's own website on 17 September 2026, for students starting university in 2027. Dates can change, so confirm yours with your admissions centre before you act.
If your ATAR came in lower than you hoped, you have more options than it feels like right now. This is what the admissions centres themselves advise, and the key dates and deadlines that matter in your state.
Universities select on your selection rank: your ATAR plus any adjustments you're eligible for, such as for results in particular subjects, where you live, or an access scheme. It can be higher than your ATAR, and it can be different for each course. How adjustments work
The lowest rank that got an offer changes from year to year. That's why UAC's advice is that you can still leave your first preference where it is. The entry ranks on this site are a past year's, not next year's cut-off.
VTAC keeps change of preference open after results partly so you have time to do your research and add pathway courses. Pathways come in several forms:
Deadlines are tight in some states, so check yours below before you do anything else.
VTAC's advice is that if your ATAR isn't high enough for the course you want, it's worth contacting the university to ask about alternative pathways, and that more often than not there will be another way in. TISC says the same of Western Australian universities: each has alternative entry pathways for students whose results don't give them direct entry.
Many students don't start in their first preference. UAC notes that plenty begin in a general degree and apply to transfer after a year. QTAC describes the same idea: enter a similar course with overlapping subjects, and use your results there to build your selection rank.
The first offer round is not the last. Admissions centres run further rounds through January, and in New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and Queensland into February. VTAC points out that a student who hasn't had an offer by January might still receive one in February. You can keep adjusting your preferences between rounds.
In VTAC's words, the ATAR is only a tool used for tertiary selection: “it does not define you as a person, nor does it determine your capabilities.”
Times are local to each state.
More rounds follow in January and February.
Change of preference for the December round closes at noon on Saturday 12 December for VCE students, two days after results come out.
February rounds follow from Wednesday 3 February 2027.
More rounds on 21 January and into February.
Preferences for the main round close at 11:59pm on Sunday 20 December, the day results come out.
SATAC doesn't publish the results date; Year 12 results come from the SACE Board. SATAC's 10 December offer round does not use 2026 Year 12 results.
In Tasmania you apply to the University of Tasmania directly. It makes first-round offers to Tasmanian Year 12 applicants, based on their ATAR, in mid-December.
Put in the ATAR you actually got. We'll show every course you're likely to be eligible for, the ones that are borderline, and why.
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