Residential College Admissions

[dommo92]

I'm new here but I've been freaking out over the admissions at the residential colleges at the University of Melbourne, I've already accepted an offer to study BA at the uni but it's just this last accommodation part that's killing me.

I sent in my application quite a while back. I chose Ormond College as my first preference, followed by Trinity, then Queen's, Whitley, University College, St. Hilda's, St. Mary's, Newman, JCH, International House, then lastly, Medley Hall.

I currently live in Japan as I graduated from an international school here and when I chose these colleges in this order, I basically based it on what I saw from their websites.

Now, my problem is, I did not make it into the shortlist back in December for Ormond which would somewhat assure me of a spot into the college so now my application is sitting in the intercollegiate pool.

I have no idea how this thing works exactly and I'm worried now that I won't be able to get into any of the colleges I applied to.

My IB score converted to ATAR is 87.30.

Is this competitive enough to get me into any of the colleges?!

Anyone else in the same boat?!

[nbhindi]

Hey dommo92! I've selected ORMOND college as my first preference as well I believe the December selection is based on your ATAR/IB score. One of my mates who didn't make it in last year said that you require a score of 95+ to be shortlisted.......I'm not too sure if this is true or if he was just making excuses Don't stress about it ATM you will get in somewhere.....maybe even ORMOND

[dommo92]

Hey dommo92! I've selected ORMOND college as my first preference as well I believe the December selection is based on your ATAR/IB score. One of my mates who didn't make it in last year said that you require a score of 95+ to be shortlisted.......I'm not too sure if this is true or if he was just making excuses Don't stress about it ATM you will get in somewhere.....maybe even ORMOND

I had no idea Ormond would be one of the tougher ones! I haven't even visited the university itself, I was in Melbourne for like a week during one of my summer breaks and I loved it so much I decided to apply there.

Did you make the December shortlist? I'm pretty sure the way I understood it was that since I didn't make the shortlist, my application has been moved to the intercollegiate pool.

How effective is the intercollegiate pool?!

[nbhindi]

Yeah I made the short listing for December  I'm not exactly sure how it all works but if you didn't get shortlisted it doesn't mean you are completely out of the running for ORMOND.......you may receive a second round offer if someone defers their place the intercollegiate pool is fairly effective....you're basically guaranteed a spot at at least one of the residential colleges 

[dommo92]

Yeah I made the short listing for December  I'm not exactly sure how it all works but if you didn't get shortlisted it doesn't mean you are completely out of the running for ORMOND.......you may receive a second round offer if someone defers their place the intercollegiate pool is fairly effective....you're basically guaranteed a spot at at least one of the residential colleges 

The last point you mentioned about having a guaranteed spot doesn't make sense to me though. UoM is a fairly large school, I'd guess that the intake this year would be around like 7,000 people. I understand that not everyone will choose to stay at a college due to financial reasons or the whole college idea just doesn't appeal to everyone but even then, I expect several thousand people to apply to the colleges with only maybe a couple thousand or less spots for accommodation.

Correct me if I'm wrong on the number of residential college applicants but how will the pool be effective if there are so many more applications than there are spaces for accommodation?!

Dumb question but seriously, I'm skeptical unless I've completely overblown my estimation of how many people actually choose to apply to these colleges....

[Tashi]

Yeah I made the short listing for December  I'm not exactly sure how it all works but if you didn't get shortlisted it doesn't mean you are completely out of the running for ORMOND.......you may receive a second round offer if someone defers their place the intercollegiate pool is fairly effective....you're basically guaranteed a spot at at least one of the residential colleges 

The last point you mentioned about having a guaranteed spot doesn't make sense to me though. UoM is a fairly large school, I'd guess that the intake this year would be around like 7,000 people. I understand that not everyone will choose to stay at a college due to financial reasons or the whole college idea just doesn't appeal to everyone but even then, I expect several thousand people to apply to the colleges with only maybe a couple thousand or less spots for accommodation.

Correct me if I'm wrong on the number of residential college applicants but how will the pool be effective if there are so many more applications than there are spaces for accommodation?!

Dumb question but seriously, I'm skeptical unless I've completely overblown my estimation of how many people actually choose to apply to these colleges....

Wouldn't really say many people do in Australia. It's not like the US where the majority of kids leave for college. I live in suburban Melbourne and I don't know anyone living at a residential college. It's an unnecessary expense for people within about 2 hours travel distance.

[dommo92]

Yeah I made the short listing for December  I'm not exactly sure how it all works but if you didn't get shortlisted it doesn't mean you are completely out of the running for ORMOND.......you may receive a second round offer if someone defers their place the intercollegiate pool is fairly effective....you're basically guaranteed a spot at at least one of the residential colleges 

The last point you mentioned about having a guaranteed spot doesn't make sense to me though. UoM is a fairly large school, I'd guess that the intake this year would be around like 7,000 people. I understand that not everyone will choose to stay at a college due to financial reasons or the whole college idea just doesn't appeal to everyone but even then, I expect several thousand people to apply to the colleges with only maybe a couple thousand or less spots for accommodation.

Correct me if I'm wrong on the number of residential college applicants but how will the pool be effective if there are so many more applications than there are spaces for accommodation?!

Dumb question but seriously, I'm skeptical unless I've completely overblown my estimation of how many people actually choose to apply to these colleges....

Wouldn't really say many people do in Australia. It's not like the US where the majority of kids leave for college. I live in suburban Melbourne and I don't know anyone living at a residential college. It's an unnecessary expense for people within about 2 hours travel distance.

Seriously, I've been estimating this whole time that at least 5,000 people would be vying for spots?! Then like how do people get the "full" college experience???

I'd understand though, I was telling my friends who are studying back in the States how much dorms cost here and they all started spazzing out when I told them it costs like $25k. Back over there like at USC in Cali for example, people pay roughly $10k with meal plans for an entire year.

[Tashi]

People don't really care much about the "college experience" here. University is seen as more of a place where you learn and get a qualification that will provide job opportunities, unlike in the US where its more of a coming of age experience. Most of the people living at the colleges will be interstate/rural/international students. And yeah, $25k a year is ridiculously expensive, particularly for people who can easily just stay at home.. looks like fun though!

[Geepers]

Heard on the grapevine that there were about 400  applicants with Trinity as their first preference for about 150 places.

[dommo92]

Heard on the grapevine that there were about 400  applicants with Trinity as their first preference for about 150 places.

Brah, you're going to make me lose sleep over this.

I feel like I have no leverage whatsoever as an international student, don't these colleges take into account whether you're an international applicant or at least an interstate applicant?! I know most places, like in the States or even in the UK, international students are given a priority on on-campus accommodations.

Is this the case here?!

[ducke]

Apologies for resurrecting this topic, but what does it mean to be 'shortlisted'? I applied for College and received an email saying I would be contacted in 2013, does this mean I have been shortlisted? Thanks 

[rebeckab]

I think it depends on the college - I got given a conditional offer to IH the day after my interview, which I had quite late in the year, just after results came out, but I know a lot of people from my school who've applied to Queens and Hildas haven't been told anything yet. And not that many people here go to college - most of them are rural, like my school, and even then they're the 'richer' ones, $20 grand a year is not something to be laughed at, and the scholarships aren't often that generous. So I think a majority of students who apply to college that need a place (aka they don't live in Melbourne) get a place.

[TheFedExpress]

I've applied for Hildas. I sat an interview in November last year, and was told I would find out whether or not I had obtained a place the day after Uni Offers.

Most Colleges need to know for certain that you have a place at UoM before they accept you I think.