Thousands of year 12 students have discovered their ATAR scores this week, bringing an end to their high school careers.
But the university entrance score is not as crucial as it once was, with many students receiving early offers or choosing to take a break from academia.
Merici College student Freya Spring was thrilled to discover her rank of 99.35, making dux of the school.
Instead of going straight to university to study law with media and communications, she decided to take a gap year to work in a boarding school in England.
"I got my ATAR and I was very happy but it didn't change my uni degree or my future plans," she said.
Being school captain while having two jobs and dance and sport commitments made the final two years of school busy but rewarding.
"These were the best two years of high school, definitely. You get so much more support and you build stronger relationships with your teachers and you feel like so much more of an adult."
Classmate Colette Paterson was very proud to achieve an ATAR of 99.2, but will also take a year off study to live in France as an au pair.
"French has always been a passion of mine and there's no better way to learn the language than with total immersion. But also because I will admit, I work pretty hard... I don't think it's necessarily bad to take a break and step back before going back to uni."
She felt doing karate during year 11 and 12 helped build her resilience and problem-solving skills.
The ATAR is no longer the only path for prospective university students, with a broad range of pathways available into tertiary education.
University of Canberra deputy vice chancellor academic Geoff Crisp said universities were maturing in their approach to student admissions.
"One of the important things for students and their family to realise if they're finishing school that just because you get a score or a number at one point in your life, that doesn't determine what you do for the rest of your life, because clearly there are multiple pathways into the university," he said.
A growing number of students are admitted through alternate pathways at the University of Canberra, including about 300-500 through the school recommendation scheme, 200 through the early round offer and 200 per semester through the UC College. About 700-900 undergraduate enrol via their ATAR scores.
Courses that have limited places still rely on students' ATAR to ensure fairness.
Merici College student Alyssia Borgia was waiting for her ATAR to discover if she could get admission to midwifery or medical science. She was excited to see her score of 94.5.
"It was just this like pinnacle of everything that I had been working so hard towards the last two years."
The common piece of advice from the students was to choose subjects you love, not what might get a high ATAR. Freya said she felt pressure to choose sciences and harder maths subjects.
"I picked English, humanities subjects that I thought wouldn't scale that well, but it really was not the case. I think that's a little bit of a myth."
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