Sydney Life

Hey dudes and hip chicks,

I recently had an enquiry on this blog about transferring to Sydney Uni if you don’t first get into the course you want.

So I thought I should deliver with the inside scoop.

Basically, transferring degrees is an option for people who:

a) changed their minds during the course of their degree, or
b) didn’t originally get into the degree of their choice.

The way to go about it is through UAC (University Admissions Centre) again. If you have done at least one year of tertiary study, the UAC will consider your UAI and your uni marks in combination. You effectively get a “new UAI” (you don’t find out what it is) and you will compete against the current year’s cohort for a place in the course of your choice.

Therefore, you can transfer from any university to any other university. If you get in, you then apply to the faculty to see if any of your previous studies will be credited towards your new degree. If they are, you may be able to start at the level of a 2nd year, or you might have to catch up on some 1st year pre-requisites etc.

Now, here are some caveats:

1) Some degrees are harder to transfer into than others. Examples are Combined Law* and Vet**. Generally the higher the UAI of the course, the harder it will be to transfer.

Therefore,
2) You are not guaranteed a place! You therefore must be happy with the original course you are in, because there is the chance that you will end up graduating from it.

Good luck!

*With Combined Law there is also another important point to note, that you can only attempt to transfer after 1st year. This is because it is a very structured degree and if you have completed more than one year it is probably a better option to finish your degree and apply for the Graduate Law program (which is the same course, and in the end takes one more year in total).

**Vet also takes into account some other details, such as a STAT mark and your demonstration of commitment to Veterinary Science