How ATARs really work

Your ATAR isn't a mark out of 100, and it isn't an average of your Year 12 results. It's a ranking that shows where you sit compared with other students your age in your state.

So, an ATAR of 80.00 means you ranked higher than about 80 per cent of the students in your age group.

UAC has a useful way of thinking about it: your subject results are like your time in a race, while your ATAR is where you finished. Two students can get similar results in different subjects and end up with different ATARs.

The ATAR runs from 0.00 to 99.95. If your ATAR is 30 or below, it's reported as “30 or less”, rather than as an exact number.

It might seem like 50 should be the middle, but it isn't. Not everyone your age gets an ATAR – students who leave school before completing Year 12 don't receive one. So an ATAR of 50 doesn't mean you're an “average” student.

This is an important one: universities often use your selection rank, rather than your ATAR by itself.

Your selection rank can be your ATAR plus adjustments you qualify for. These used to be called bonus points.

Adjustments can be based on things like the subjects you've studied, where you live, your circumstances or an equity scheme. The rules are different between universities and courses, and sometimes the university applies them automatically.

So if your ATAR is a little below a course's published entry rank, don't assume you're out. Your selection rank could be higher.

Most course pages now show two lowest figures. The lowest rank is ATAR plus adjustment factors; the lowest ATAR is the figure before them. The gap between the two is how far adjustment factors carried the students who got in at the bottom. If you have no adjustments, compare your ATAR with the lowest rank. If you might have some, the lowest ATAR shows how far below the rank they have taken other students.

You'll often see a course listed with an entry rank from a previous year. That's useful information, but it isn't a cut-off for the next group of students.

The rank needed to get an offer depends on things like:

• how many places the university has
• how many people apply
• the selection ranks of the people who apply

Change any of those things and the entry rank can change too.

That's why universities can't tell you in advance exactly what rank you'll need. The final number depends on the students applying that year and the places available.

UAC puts it simply: the lowest selection ranks can change from year to year and aren't known until applicants are selected.

The lowest figures are exactly that: the lowest rank, and the lowest ATAR before adjustments, among students who were offered a place. One student sets each. Neither is the typical student, and neither measures how good or how hard the course is.

That is why we show the median next to it wherever we have it. Across our catalogue the median rank sits about 10 points above the lowest rank, and sometimes far more: one communications and media degree has a lowest rank of 58.20 and a median rank of 84.15. Both numbers are true, and only having the first one would leave you with the wrong idea.

Read the lowest as “people have got in from here” and the median as “around where the middle of the offers sat”.

Plenty of people start a degree without an ATAR, or with one well below the published rank. Common routes include starting a diploma or a TAFE qualification and transferring with credit, an enabling or preparation course, taking a related degree and moving across after first year, or applying as a mature-age student later on.

Some courses also select on more than a rank: a portfolio, an audition, an interview, a questionnaire or a prerequisite subject. Those cut both ways, and they are worth checking on the university's own page before you rule anything in or out.

The entry ranks on My Shortlist come from Course Seeker, the national course database used by the tertiary admissions centres. We show the year the data comes from, so you can see how recent it is.

Quality and graduate outcome figures come from government QILT surveys. We show the survey and year next to the figures and flag anything that's an estimate.

The explanations here are based on information published by the admissions centres, including UAC and VTAC. The details can be different between states, universities and courses.

If there's a particular course you're interested in, check the university's own admissions information too. Your careers adviser can also help if you're unsure how the rules work in your state.