Football List | The Examiner

Thousands of Bendigo VCE graduates are waking to the results of final exams having distilled years of learning into an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). ATAR results, a rank between zero and 99.95 used as an entry path into university, will be released on December 11, marking the end to VCE graduates' high school education. Marist College Bendigo graduate Wade Harrison also hoped the number would seal his future, looking to enter a Bachelor of Biomedical Science degree at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus. "I am overall feeling okay that I will get the score (I need), but it is fairly nerve wracking," he said. VTAC, the administrative body that processes university applications, reminded graduates that an "an ATAR does not define" students and there were pathways for university entry beyond the score. "There are a few options out there, but I have my heart set on this," Mr Harrison said. Mr Harrison hoped to eventually take his degree to the University of Melbourne at Shepparton to complete a four-year Doctor of Medicine. Fellow graduate Sebastian Bovell said he was not even sure he wanted to check his ATAR. "There is a big part of me that doesn't want to touch it, just ignore it completely," Mr Bovell said. "But I feel like I am going to say that for an hour and then the curiosity will get the better of me." Mr Bovell planned to take a gap year in 2024, but hoped to defer entry into a Bachelor of Arts and Law at La Trobe. Those plans were not concrete though, he said. "I have an idea of what I want to do, but it really could change at any moment," Mr Bovell said. Mr Bovell felt once he received his ATAR, he could work out his "path from there". Fellow graduate Layla Hopley also planned to take a gap year in 2024, but still felt an expectation to turn her ATAR into a university entry. "Not necessarily from my parents, but everyone around me says, 'oh, I need this [score] to get into uni, or I need this score," Ms Hopley said. "So it is a bit stressful." Ms Hopley swore by a simple mantra to deal with the impeding stress over the results. "I know that in my heart I did my best, I studied hard, and whatever comes from that, comes from that," she said. Before university, Ms Hopley hoped to travel with her best friend and had a trip planned to Sydney in 2024 before going overseas. "Growing up and maturing, and just seeing what happens ... that is exciting to me," she said. The ATAR results will be available from 7am on Monday, December 11.

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