What if I pick the wrong course?

Are you stressed and confused by the VTAC preference process? Soooo scared of making the wrong course choice that you can’t finish your preference list? Or just too overwhelmed by all the different study options to start your list at all?

FOCTWC (Fear of Choosing the Wrong Course) is real. Hundreds of Year 12s all over the country suffer from a bad case of it every year – but you don’t have to join them. Keep reading for three easy ways to troubleshoot a wrong course choice at every step of your journey from school to uni.

young man looking anxious in front of laptop

1. Before you’ve received a course offer

Submitted a preference list full of paramedicine courses, then realise your true passion lies in teaching?

No problem.

This phase is the easiest to avoid the wrong course. Once you’ve submitted your VTAC application, you can easily change your course preferences.

In fact, change of preference opportunities are available at all times apart from during selection periods (just before offer rounds are released). You can even change your preferences after you receive your Year 12 results.

boy walking down street looking at smartphone

2. When you’ve received an offer for the wrong course

Everyone is congratulating you for receiving an offer for (what they think is) your dream course during round one. The only problem is, you no longer want to be a lawyer at all – it’s biomedicine that has your heart.

The good news?

You can receive and even accept a course offer during round one and still be considered for subsequent offer rounds. Courses that have not met their quotas in the first round continue to offer places, so you can change your preferences between subsequent offer rounds to maximise your chances of getting into the right course.

Once you’ve been accepted into any course at a uni, it can be easier to move between courses at the same institution after completing some of your original course.

So – go on and accept that first round offer and read on for post-enrolment options!

3. After you’ve enrolled & started the wrong course

Uh-oh. You’ve accepted, enrolled and started on what you thought was your ultimate course, but turns out it’s not.

You had no idea osteopathy meant carving up cadavers and, really, after a few weeks of pracs, you couldn’t imagine enjoying life in a clinic at all. Meanwhile, the thought of supporting international aid projects through a career in community development has you jumping for your passport.

Easily solved.

Once enrolled, you can apply internally for a course transfer at the same institution or make an external application to another university. Depending on the courses you are transferring between, you may even be able to carry across credit from units already completed to your new degree!