Your step-by-step guide on how to submit an Early Admission application

Early Admission is your chance to earn a spot at UOW before sitting your exams. As one of the first universities in Australia to start such a program, we have had a long history of students entering into their dream course without the pressure of attaining a certain ATAR. Instead, we consider your unique skills, experience and hard work to offer you entry into UOW.  

Here is everything you’ll want to know about Early Admission. 

What is Early Admission?

Before you start your application, it’s good to understand how Early Admission works. 

Early Admission is a direct application to UOW. Whereas any applications made through the Universities Admission Centre (UAC) is an indirect application. 

There are a few key differences between these application types. The Early Admission program will assess your eligibility for your chosen courses based on factors other than your ATAR. This includes Year 11 subject performance and your personal response to the application questions. 

We know you’re more than a mark and look at other criteria that can earn you an offer before you sit your exams. This is why we don’t need your ATAR.  

UAC, on the other hand, will use your ATAR to provide an offer to your preferred courses, and this happens after you sit your HSC exams.

Who is eligible? 

Any Year 12 student completing an Australian senior secondary qualification (e.g. HSC or interstate equivalent) in Australia or overseas, or completing the IB Diploma in Australia.

You must also be awarded your Higher School Certificate, an interstate equivalent or International Baccalaureate to be eligible for an offer.  

Before you apply

There are a few items you’ll need to have handy before you start your application. These include:  

• A personal email address – many school emails become inactive after you graduate. The email address you provide will be our main point of contact throughout the entire application and enrolment process, which can stretch into 2024.  
• NESA student number – this gives us access to your Year 11 results.

Your application

Your application is broken into six parts and is very straightforward.  

Personal details

You’ll be prompted to provide your personal details so we can learn more about you. You can also elect to allow your parent or caregiver to speak on your behalf in the instance that we need to contact you and you aren’t available.

Additional details

If you have experienced hardship in Year 11 or 12, there is space on the application to outline your circumstances. This will not hinder your application. Instead, it provides context on how this could impact your learning experience and marks.  

There is also the opportunity to show your interest in UOW accommodation, global sports programs and scholarships, which many students are eligible for by simply applying through Early Admission.

Qualifications

You can upload your Year 12 half yearly report or trial HSC results. This is not mandatory, so do not stress if you don’t have these yet.

Course preferences 

Onto the most exciting part of the application: selecting your courses! Among the stress of the HSC and applying to uni, you can sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. Take a moment to step back and think about what you want to do after you finish high school. What is your dream job, and if you can’t clearly see that yet, what is a study area you are interested in? Use Course Finder to read more about our available degrees, and then select up to two on your application. 

You can drop and drag these degrees to indicate your preference order. It’s also good to double check you have the right start date and campus, as some UOW degrees are offered at multiple campus locations.

Questionnaires

You are required to answer four indicators of success as part of your Early Admission application. It is your opportunity to showcase your unique skills, experiences, and achievements that demonstrate your suitability for your chosen degrees.  

We suggest approaching the questions just as you would any assessment task: plan, draft, re-write, proof and submit. Use a word document to start jotting down scenarios where you demonstrated the indicators of success (there are some starting points included in this article). Once you have a strong idea of your responses, get a first draft out of your head on onto the page. Dot points or the STAR response method are completely acceptable. From there, you can start to refine your answers and ensure they fit within the 500-character limit.  

Don’t forget to proof-read for spelling and grammatical errors, preferably once you’ve had some time away from your work. This helps you to spot any mistakes easier. Even better, get a parent, teacher or friend to proofread them too.

Review and submit

The final step is to review and submit! We recommend that you keep a copy of your written responses in case you need to refer to them for scholarship applications. You also have up until 5 pm on 11 August to edit or change your application, just remember to re-submit any changes. It is always good to download a copy of your confirmation of application for peace of mind too.  

And you’re all done – you can breathe easy knowing there is one less thing to stress about.