JESSIE Webb had already received an early offer to study construction management when she sat her Higher School Certificate exams, but still set her sights on an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank above 90.
"It was just for my own personal achievement," she said.
"I also wanted to beat my brother.
"He got 89 and that's why I wanted to get a 90. I'm very competitive.
"The funny thing is he was thinking they were going to mark easier [due to COVID] and said 'You have to beat my ATAR by five marks', so I had to get a 94 to satisfy him.
"So I did beat him, even with his rules in place!"
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Former Cardiff High student Jessie, 17, came eighth in the state in English Standard, achieved an ATAR of 96.45 and won a $4000 University of Newcastle (UON) scholarship.
She said people have since told her she should consider other degrees that require higher ATARs such as medicine, but she wanted to stay true to herself and her interests.
"I could go into one of those courses, but it's not going to be what I want to do," she said.
"I really believe the ATAR really reflects supply and demand.
"I was always aiming for a high ATAR whether or not the course I wanted to get into was that high.
"Construction has always appealed to me, it suits my personality to a tee, the common sense, the decision making, problem solving, communicating."
She'd considered business, psychology and social science, but decided in August to pursue construction management.
Her parents both work in the industry and her brother is in material engineering.
UON made 2603 offers to school leavers and 1122 offers to non-school leavers on December 23.
These are in addition to the early offers made to school leaver applicants, including Jessie, as part of the enhanced Schools Recommendation Scheme.
It has now made a total of 8454 offers, a nine per cent increase compared to last year.
Of these, 5842 were to school leavers, 2612 to non-school leavers.
It increased its pre-ATAR offers by 26 per cent compared to last year.
UON made the most offers to Bachelor of Education (Secondary) with 524, followed by Bachelor of Psychological Science with 511, Bachelor of Education (Primary) with 465 and Bachelor of Nursing with 456.
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