Bright minds have world at their feet

By Ashleigh Fielding | posted on January 4, 2018

DRIVEN by the desire to earn bragging rights over older siblings and the chance to score a retro car, Albany year 12 graduates James Hearle, Scott Fielding, Danaleigh Victor and Nicholas Gillespie worked hard and achieved impressive Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks (ATAR), which were released a day earlier than expected in mid-December.

Great Southern Grammar pupil James received an ATAR of 96.55, which he hopes to use to get into engineering at Curtin University or aerospace engineering at the Australian National University.

“I wanted to get 97 because Dad would have bought me a Beetle if I had, but I was still pretty stoked with what I got,” James said.

“I’m hoping to do some travelling and work this year, and go to uni next year.”

Albany Senior High School (ASHS) student Scott knew the first person he had to reveal his 94.6 ATAR score to was his older sister, of whom he was incredibly driven to beat.

“I was a bit nervous about getting my score because I thought I didn’t do well in physics, and I was worried about the scaling, but I was really happy with how I went,” he said.

“I snapchatted my sister straight away and told her I was smarter than her, and then I told my parents.

“They were more excited than me; Mum was dancing around the house.”

Scott hopes to pursue a physiotherapy degree at Curtin University or a biomedical science degree at the University of Western Australia (UWA).

ASHS graduate Danaleigh found out the ATAR results had been posted early via a Facebook group chat, and felt relieved when she saw her 96.7 score.

“I think I nearly fainted!” she said.

“It was really nerve-wracking because I wanted to get into medicine at UWA, so hopefully, with the rural bonus points, I will have enough to get into it.”

She hopes to study at the UWA Albany campus full-time this year, and continue her studies in Perth in 2019.

ASHS student Nicholas Gillespie earned himself a whopping 97.5 ATAR score, and said he was happy with his efforts.

“I’m hoping to go to UWA and do a physics degree,” he said.

“I’m going to live on campus and study full-time and work a bit, which will be a good chance to meet new people.”

The final closing date for applying or re-arranging preferences for university acceptance on the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (TISC) website is today at 11pm, with main round offers available online and via email on January 17.

From this day, applications and change of preferences re-open for second round university offers and the second final closing date will be January 22.