CHRISTMAS has come early for thousands of Hunter students who have achieved their goals and received offers to study at university, following a disrupted Higher School Certificate.
Former Hunter School of the Performing Arts student Lily Elsley, 18, said it felt "great" to receive an offer to study law and communication at the University of Technology, Sydney.
"I got a text from a friend asking if I'd gotten the offer I wanted, so then I went and checked," she said.
"I had forgot about it and was trying to ignore it."
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Lily had already received early offers to similar degrees at Australian National University, the University of Newcastle (UON) and UNSW but had her heart set on UTS.
"It's just a huge relief that now I can go accept that and turn the other ones away and move forward in making plans for the new year and moving to Sydney," she said.
"I've always wanted to move, I wanted to travel next year but obviously that's not an option, so this is second best. I'm looking forward to the future and meeting lots of new people and having new experiences."
Lily received an ATAR of 95.35 and was an All-Round Achiever, meaning she received subject marks in the highest band possible in 10 or more units of study.
"I come from a political family, my grandfather was Bryce Gaudry, so that's what I've grown up around," she said.
"I want to do social and political sciences with communications because I'd love to work in either communities around Australia, or internationally, to help provide a platform to grow a voice for people who haven't had the chance to express their issues and social issues to do with any sort of thing, sexuality, ethnicity, gender problems and really grow a platform for people to speak out on injustices they've experienced."
She said it was important for students not to be overwhelmed by reports of how many hours their peers spent studying, saying this didn't suit everyone, could lead to burn out and was not sustainable long term.
"You don't have to work yourself to the point of breaking to get these marks, you just have to be consistent throughout the entire year."
Former Belmont High student Emma Young, 18, said she "definitely felt excited" to receive an offer to study physiotherapy at UON.
"I didn't think I'd get the ATAR for it, I thought I'd have to do exercise and sports science first and then go into it, so it's definitely a relief that I got straight into it," she said.
"I have not really thought about [how to celebrate], I might go out tonight."
Emma achieved an ATAR of 94.2 and came 10th in the state in Society and Culture. She had already received early offers to exercise and sports science at UON and the University of Wollongong.
Emma wants to eventually become a doctor and work in sports medicine, which she said would be "really interesting."
"I've always wanted to work around sport because it's been a big part of my life. Sports medicine is the highest thing you can really aim for around that."
Emma comes from an athletic family and has played soccer for eight years and sailed all her life, as well as participated in netball, Oztag and cross country.
She said she played soccer up to her exam period and it kept her mentally fit and focused.
"Because I didn't have much time I used the time I had wisely, it really helped with my time management."
Meanwhile former Whitebridge High student Emily Egger has to wait another "nerve-wracking" fortnight to January 8 to find out if she has been offered a place to study midwifery at UON.
Emily, who was 10th in the state in Ancient History and received an ATAR of 94.65, said UON starts making its midwifery offers in January, when it also tells successful students in the "very hands-on type of course" where they will be doing their placement.
Emily said she'd always been interested in working with children and babies and started thinking seriously about midwifery as a future career path in year eight.
"It just looks like a very rewarding career, you can help so many people through the early pregnancy and early stages of having children... at their most vulnerable time."
She said "quite a bit" of hard work had gone into achieving her results and her teachers had been "very supportive".
"It's so easy to not do work when you're not at school [during lockdown] but I just tried to keep on top of it and tried not to burn out by the end of the year.
"I thought 'I'll try to get the best I can so if I don't get in I still know I did my best'."
The Universities Admissions Centre said universities made 34,701 offers on December 23, down on 38,000 at the same time last year.
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