<p>Dear Ily,</p>
<p>You may already know this about the Australian universities you listed, but for broad-brushed comparative purposes, in the most recent U.S. News list of the World’s Best Colleges and Universities (September 2010), </p>
<p>the Australian National University was ranked 20th (McGill was ranked 18th and Toronto ranked 29th);
the University of Sydney was ranked 37th;
the University of Melbourne ranked 38th (UBC was ranked 44th); and
the University of New South Wales - which is in Sydney and also offers degrees in the health sciences - was ranked 46th.</p>
<p>Epicgee has given fine advice. It also seems to me that it would be a good idea for you to go to the websites of each of these universities and and get the contact details of the departments you’re interested in (as well as the admissions offices), to begin correspondence to identify how you might be considered for admission. It is the case that each Australian university commences in February, but, I believe, there also are some international student intakes in July. </p>
<p>Another place you might go for information would be an Australian embassy or consulate in Canada. Again, just Google for contact details and speak with someone about some of your questions. If they can’t help directly, you can always ask them to suggest someone who might be of more assistance.</p>
<p>It’s important for you to know that the ATAR or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (and its now-superceded predecessor, the UAI or University Admission Index) is not a standardised test. So it’s not like an SAT and isn’t something that international students not following an Australian secondary curriculum can take. But it is important for you to understand how it works, because when you do apply, your Canadian credentials will have been considered with regard to the various ATAR ranks of Australian applicants.</p>
<p>An ATAR is a rank - it is not a grade or a mark - given to each Australian university applicant, on a state by state basis, when they complete their final secondary school examinations. In New South Wales, for example, for the school year just ended, almost 72,000 students sat the NSW Higher School Certificate examinations (in Victoria, these exams are called the Victorian Certificate Examinations or VCE and Victorian students also receive an ATAR; each state has its own label for these types of exams). Similarly to the UK A-level/O-level/GCSE system (and maybe the Canadian system, I don’t know), these HSC or VCE or other states’ exams are given to students after intensive study for two years, with, in the case of the HSC, the final HSC examinations themselves counting as 50% of each HSC course taken (e.g. English Advanced, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Ancient History, Modern History, Music, Visual Arts, Drama, any of a number of languages, etc.). The HSC/VCE, etc. exams are taken in October and November and students received their HSC/VCE. etc. scores, which are converted to an ATAR ranking in each state, in December. In the case of New South Wales (the largest state), ATAR ranks are issued in groups of approximately 35 students per hundredth - from a high of 99.95 to a low of 0.05. </p>
<p>Unlike U.S. universities (though I don’t know about Canadian universities), Australian universities have a fixed number of entrants permitted per year to each degree. In other words, just like Oxbridge, you are admitted to a degree (not just a university) and jump straight into your major from the first day. The ATAR rank, therefore, is used by all Australian universities to determine the cut-off below which people who would like to study for that degree are not permitted to do so. For example, each year the University of Sydney has, say, some 200 or so places available for commencing a five-year combined arts/commerce or otherwise plus law degree (which is an undergraduate degree at most Australian universities). For the entering class which began in February 2010, the ATAR cut-off was 99.65 (from 2005-2009 it was 99.55 and cut-offs do vary slightly from year to year, depending on the number of people seeking entry to a particular degree in a given year). At UNSW last year, for combined law, the ATAR cut-off was 99.55. At ANU it was, from memory, around 95.00. And at Melbourne Uni, which has now shifted law to a post-graduate degree, if a student received an ATAR over 99.00 this year (and maintains a specified grade average in their 3-year undergraduate degree) they are guaranteed entry into post-graduate law (where they study a 2-year J.D.).</p>
<p>Most universities worldwide - and Australian universities are no exception - have methods to convert the secondary school credentials of international students to determine whether a given student can be considered for admission to the degree they seek. I don’t know how the credentials of Canadian students are assessed, nor do I know what, if any, additional factors might be required or considered. </p>
<p>While there is no single listing all of the degree courses across Australia (or at least that I know of), there is an organisation in each Australian state which can provide some information. In New South Wales (and the Australian Capital Territory) that body is called the Universities Admissions Centre or UAC. Its website is [Universities</a> Admissions Centre (UAC) - Apply for Australian tertiary study](<a href=“http://www.uac.edu.au%5DUniversities”>http://www.uac.edu.au). In Victoria, that body is called the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre or VTAC. Its website is [VTAC</a> - Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre](<a href=“http://www.vtac.edu.au%5DVTAC”>http://www.vtac.edu.au). (I don’t know what the other states’ are, but Googling the name of x-state plus “tertiary admissions”, probably will retrieve the appropriate sites.) On the UAC website’s homepage, for example, there is a listing for International Students, which will have some pertinent information for you. On the VTAC website, scrolling down the menu on the left-hand side of the home page under ‘General Information’ shows a listing for ‘Overseas qualifications’. Clicking on this will take you to a page which lists requisite Canadian qualifications by province. (BTW, just a quick look further on the VTAC website directs one to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s website. They have a page headed ‘Equivalent Qualifications’ at <a href=“Pages - VCE Curriculum”>www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/vcerecognition.equiquals/equivalentquals.html</a>. That page has a link called Assessment of overseas qualifications for VCE Equivalent - Year 12. That page, under Canada, gives more specific information, by province, of the minimum acceptable marks that will be considered.) </p>
<p>What I do suspect is that, like with almost any large institution, you will need a little persistence in locating the people you’ll find most helpful in answering your questions. Besides contacting the universities and an embassy, contacting someone at each of these Centres should be helpful for you, too. These Centres assess international secondary credentials and should be able to tell you the range of degree courses - and at which universities - you might be eligible to consider (and to be considered for, by the university).</p>
<p>You’ll probably know this already, but Australia has other fine universities besides the three listed in your post, each offering well-regarded health-based degrees. They may be worth researching/contacting at the same time as the ones you listed: e.g. Monash (in Melbourne), the University of Adelaide (in South Australia), the University of Tasmania (in Hobart), the University of Western Australia (in Perth) and the University of Queensland (in Brisbane). Australia also has two large private universities: Bond University (in Queensland) and the Australian Catholic University (in Sydney - and, maybe, in Perth). </p>
<p>Because you’re considering Southern Hemisphere universities, don’t forget New Zealand as another Commonwealth country destination. New Zealand has some outstanding health-based faculties (see the Universities of Auckland, Christ Church, Otago, etc.).</p>
<p>Good luck with your considerations and contacting people. It may sound a little complicated, but I would find it hard to believe that you would be the first student from Canada looking to enter an Australian university as a first-year undergraduate. Someone at each of these uni’s and the various State admissions centres will know how to advise you.</p>
<p>Good luck again,
Weetbixmum</p>