Change of preference: plan your uni offers before results

If there's a university applicant in your house, the weeks around results day can feel like the decision is out of your hands — you apply, you wait, you get what you get. That's not quite how it works. Between applying and offers being made, there's a window called change of preference, and it's the single most useful lever a school-leaver has. It lets you re-order, add and drop your course choices after you know your ATAR (the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank — the rank your state's admissions centre uses to compare school-leavers), right up to a deadline a day or two later.

This guide is for senior students and the parents beside them. It explains what change of preference actually is, the one rule about preference order that changes everything, and — state by state — the 2027-entry dates you can't afford to miss. The smart move is to have your strategy ready before results come out, so the short window after is calm, not frantic.

What change of preference actually is

When you apply for university in most of Australia, you don't apply to each institution one at a time. You apply through your state's tertiary admissions centre — the body that collects applications and runs the offer rounds for that state:

• UAC — the Universities Admissions Centre (New South Wales and the ACT)
• VTAC — the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre
• QTAC — the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre
• SATAC — the South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre (South Australia and the Northern Territory)
• TISC — the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (Western Australia)
• In Tasmania, you apply directly to the University of Tasmania (UTAS).

On your application you list a ranked set of course preferences. Change of preference is simply the period when you can go back in and reshape that list — add a course you hadn't considered, remove one, and (most importantly) re-order them. It's open at most times and closes briefly just before each offer round while the centre runs selection. Crucially, it stays open until after results come out, so you can adjust once you know your real rank rather than guessing in September.

And it's free. As VTAC puts it: "There is no cost involved in changing your preferences. As long as you pay your course application processing fee, you can change your preferences as many times as necessary within the specified periods."

The one rule that changes everything: order is your strategy

Here is the mechanic that most families don't realise, and it's the reason change of preference matters so much. In each offer round you receive one offer — to the highest course on your list that is willing to take you. Nothing below it is looked at that round; anything above it is reconsidered in the next round.

Order = outcomelist courses in true order of preference, not by how likely you think you'll get in

UAC spells it out: "If you're eligible for your first preference, you'll receive an offer to that course only. Lower preferences will not be considered in that round." VTAC is the same: "You will only receive an offer for your highest eligible course on your preference list."

Two practical consequences follow:

1. Put your genuine first choice first — even if it feels like a stretch. The system can only offer you something it can see above your safe options. Ranking a course lower "to be realistic" doesn't improve your odds of the course you actually want; it just hides it.
2. Keep a realistic option on the list, lower down. Because you're only ever offered one course, having an achievable preference below your aspirational ones means the round still produces an offer if the top choices don't come through.

Most centres let you list up to five preferences. Think of it as a ladder: aspirational at the top, likely in the middle, safe at the bottom — all genuinely acceptable to you, because any one of them could be the offer you receive.

Changing your list does not cancel an offer you've already accepted. If you accept a course but want to keep chasing something higher, follow your centre's instructions for managing that accepted course in your preferences so it doesn't block the ones ranked above it.

The dates that matter: 2027 entry, state by state

This is where preparation pays off. Results come out just before the main change-of-preference deadline, so the window to react is short — in Western Australia, it's the same day. Have your reshaped list drafted in advance, then you're only confirming it when results land.

The table below covers the main offer round for 2027 entry. Dates and times are the ones published by each centre as at October 2026 — always reconfirm on your own centre's key-dates page, because they can shift.

A few state notes worth reading closely:

• Western Australia is the tightest. TISC releases the WA ATAR at 8am on 20 December 2026, and the deadline to "add/re-arrange preferences" for the main round is 11.59pm that same day. If you're in WA, your plan genuinely has to be ready before results, not after.
• South Australia and the Northern Territory give you more room. SATAC's mid-December round (10 December 2026) deliberately doesn't include Year 12 offers, and the Semester 1 change-of-preference deadline is 6 January 2027, with the major Year 12 offer round on 14 January 2027. Note the separate equal-consideration deadline — applications submitted and paid for by 1 December 2026 are guaranteed consideration for Semester 1 courses.
• Tasmania works differently. You apply directly to UTAS and manage your course preferences in its Applications Portal under the "Course preferences" tab, rather than through a shared state centre. UTAS also runs a Schools Recommendation Program early-offer pathway based on a school recommendation and Year 11 results rather than your ATAR.
• Later rounds exist, and you can keep adjusting. If the main round doesn't land the offer you wanted, there are January rounds in every state (for example UAC's January Round 1 closes for changes on 29 December 2026 with offers on 8 January 2027). Change of preference reopens between rounds — so a disappointing first offer is rarely the end of the road.

How to build your change-of-preference plan — before results

The families who handle this well treat it as a plan drawn up in advance, not a scramble on results morning. A calm way through it:

$0cost to change your preferences, as many times as you like while the window is open

1. Research now, decide later. Before results, list every course you'd genuinely accept and look up each one's selection rank and prerequisites on the university's own site and your admissions centre. (Remember a published selection rank is from last year and isn't a guaranteed cut-off — it's a guide, not a promise.)
2. Draft three versions of your list. One if results are above expectations, one if they're about as predicted, and one if they come in lower. On the day, you just pick the version that matches reality and confirm it.
3. Order by genuine preference, with a safe option kept on. Top choice first, a realistic option lower down — all five acceptable to you.
4. Know your exact deadline, to the hour. Put your state's change-of-preference cut-off in the calendar now. For WA especially, that's the same day as results.
5. Don't act purely on emotion the morning results drop. A number that's a little under a hoped-for mark rarely closes a door for good — there are later rounds, adjustment schemes and alternative pathways. Breathe, then work your pre-made plan.

None of this comes with a guarantee — no one can promise a particular ATAR, offer or course. But change of preference is the part of the process you genuinely control, and using it well is often the difference between an offer that fits and one that merely arrives.

Turn results week into a plan, not a gamble

The students who navigate offers calmly are the ones who did the thinking before results day — one clear direction, and a ranked, honest list of the courses most likely to reach it. If you'd like a structured way to connect your interests and strengths to real courses, their entry requirements and the deadlines that matter, a Career Action Plan (CAP) walks through it stage by stage, from getting clear on a direction to acting on it. It's a steady way to make results week feel manageable — so when the change-of-preference window opens, you already know exactly what you want to do.