Universities you apply to will generally contact you within 4 – 6 weeks of receiving the application form. It is best practice to respond to these universities as soon as possible.
Under most circumstances, universities will contact you through E – mail or post. Make sure you check your E – mail regularly after submitting the application so that you get to know as soon as you receive a response from a university.
The response you get from a university can be either a positive one or a negative one. The most common responses are mentioned below.
Unconditional Offer or ‘Firm Offer’
An unconditional offer or a ‘Firm Offer’ means that you are being offered a definite place in the course and the decision to join or not join depends completely on you.
If you receive such an offer, then it means that you have already met all the requirements for the course and your admission will be confirmed if you choose to accept the offer. Such offers are generally given to students who have complete academic records, including their final transcripts and English proficiency test proofs.
To enroll yourself for the course, all you need to do is make the payment for the tuition fee deposit and OSHC plus confirm your response through the acceptance form and financial declaration provided with the Letter of Offer.
Most Indian students who want to pursue undergraduate courses in Australia do not receive such offers as by their Class 12th board exam results are not announced before the application deadlines of the Australian universities.
Conditional Offers
A majority of the Indian students who wish to study undergraduate programs in Australia receive ‘Conditional Offers’.
Essentially, conditional offers mean that you will be guaranteed a seat in the course you have applied for only if you manage to meet the conditions specified on your Letter of Offer in the given time. These specified conditions generally refer to your Class 12th marks or your English language proficiency requirements.
Students receive such offers on the basis of their Class 10th and Class 11th marks along with their estimated marks for Class 12th.
As most Indian students do not manage to receive their Class 12th final marks by the time they apply to Australian universities, a condition is included in their offer letters regarding their Class 12th result. The condition generally states that your academic performance should not have dropped and that your final result should be similar to the estimated result mentioned in your application.
A conditional offer is also sent to students with incomplete English language proficiency requirements. So if you have not appeared for the IELTS/TOEFL or have not secured the required marks in the test, then the university offers you a chance to improve your marks or appear for the test and meet the English proficiency requirement. If you manage to appear for the test and secure the minimum marks required, then your seat in the course will be confirmed provided that you meet all the other conditions.
Keep in mind that when you receive such an offer, your admission is not guaranteed. If you fail to meet to meet the specified conditions in your Letter of Offer within the given time duration, then your offer will be withdrawn and you will not be eligible for admission in that particular university.
Invitations
Depending on the course you have applied for, there is also a chance that you might receive an ‘invitation’ for an interview or an audition. Such invitations generally mean that your application has been liked and you have been shortlisted for the next round of the selection process.
Invitations for interviews or auditions are generally for courses related to arts and performance in which practical skills are a very important part of the curriculum. However, this does not mean that invitations are restricted to only these courses. You can get an invitation for an interview or an audition for other courses as well. Whether you do or not depends upon the university’s admission procedure.
Generally, these interviews/auditions are held to know more about your practical skills and to judge your personality. Universities use them as assessment tools to see whether you’re appropriate for the course you have applied for or not.
Unsuccessful/Withdrawn Applications
The applications on the basis of which you do not manage to receive an offer and are declined admission are called unsuccessful applications. An unsuccessful application basically means that the university found a more a suitable candidate for enrollment into the course you had applied for and that you cannot join that university for that course.
If a university had offered you admission, but you failed to respond within the specified time or failed to meet the required conditions, then your application will be withdrawn. This means that even though the university was offering you a seat in their course earlier, it is rejecting your application now.
Do not worry if you receive an unsuccessful application. You can always apply to more universities as there is no limit to the number of applications you can make in Australia. You can also choose to wait till the start of the next semester, and then apply for that intake.
What to do if you receive multiple admissions offers?
If you have received admission offers from more than one university, then you will have to select one university and reject all the others.
Out of the total universities that you applied to, you might have one or two that you would prefer over all others. It is advisable to reconsider all your options equally even if one or two of the admission offers are from universities you prefer over the others.
What is important to understand is that even though you might feel that a particular university is the best for you, it might not be offering you the best ‘package’ or admission offer.
You should re – consider these factors before choosing which admission offer to accept:
Course
Even though you might want to join a particular university more than the others, it is possible that it does not offer your ideal course. It is essential to prioritize your course while choosing to accept an admission offer.
Reputation
Reputation plays a very important role in deciding the value of your degree and in determining the kind of jobs you will get once you graduate. Do not make the mistake of considering the reputation of the university without considering the reputation of your academic department/course.
Financial Aids
Even though it is most likely that the universities you applied to are the ones you can afford, do take into consideration the kind of financial aids a university is offering you before you make a decision.
If a university is offering you a scholarship or some other type of grant, then you might want to choose that institution over others as your total expenditure will significantly reduce.
Student Life
Consider the student life at the university before you make a decision. Some universities have very active international student communities which help new students adjust and adapt to campus life.
You might be more comfortable in a university which has a lot of international students as compared to one with very few international students.
Location
The location of the university might play an important role in the decision making process. You might not want to spend so many years of your life in a very hot place, or you might not want to live in a small town. Research about the location of the university and find out about its climate, environment, safety etc. before making a decision.
Once you’ve considered all the above factors, you can respond to a university in any of the following ways:
Accept the offer
By accepting an offer, you confirm to the university that you wish to enroll yourself for the particular course and that you will be joining the university at the start of the new session.
You should be very sure about an institution before you accept their offer as you will be spending 3 crucial years of your life there. Consider your options, think wisely and then choose to accept an offer if you’re sure.
Accepting an offer also means that you’re confirming that you have met all the conditions (if any) that were a part of your offer. Keep in mind that you will need to provide documents that can prove this, such as test reports, Class 12th mark sheets etc. You will not be able to accept an offer until and unless you’ve met all the specified conditions.
Usually, when you’re provided with a Letter of Offer, it is accompanied by an acceptance form or a ‘Response to Offer’ form and a ‘financial capability declaration’. To accept an offer, you will need to fill in the acceptance/response to offer form, sign the financial capability declaration and send both these documents at the specified address. You can also choose to accept an offer online using the link provided in your online Letter of Offer.
Most universities would also require you to submit a tuition fee deposit along with the acceptance form and financial declaration. Your admission is not confirmed until the university receives this deposit. The amount of this deposit varies from university to university and course to course. Under normal circumstances, it will be mentioned on your Letter of Offer.
Some universities might also ask you to submit the amount for the ‘OSHC’ or the Overseas Student Health Cover. This will also be mentioned on your Letter of Offer.
Defer
You can also choose to ‘Defer’ or delay an offer if you wish. Deferring an offer means that you’re confirming your acceptance to the university and states that you will be attending the course but not from the upcoming session. Through this option, you choose to postpone your studies.
By deferring an offer, you ensure that a seat in the course is confirmed for you whenever you wish to join. A university cannot deny admission to a student who chose to defer his/her offer for not more than the permissible duration.
Most universities will not allow you to defer an offer for more than a year. This means that if you applied to a university for the July 2014 intake, then you can either defer your offer till the February 2015 intake or the July 2015 intake. Under normal circumstances, you will not be allowed to defer your offer for a longer duration.
Students normally choose to defer an offer to gain more clarity about their careers, gain work experience or to arrange the finance for their studies in Australia. Keep in mind that some courses cannot be deferred and you must confirm beforehand that your course and university allows you to do so.
To defer an offer, all you will need to do is select the ‘Defer’ option in your response to offer form and send it to the university. Under most circumstances, you will not be asked to pay to defer an offer.
Decline
By ‘Declining’ an offer, you confirm to the university that you do not wish to join their course and that they are free to offer your seat to another applicant. It is advisable that you think clearly before choosing to decline an offer.
