For year 12 student Angelique Claudette Adams, the pressure of the HSC has been stifling, and her every waking moment was spent studying or worrying about schoolwork.

When friends and family invited her out, she declined. “I felt an obligation to study, I felt I couldn’t leave my desk. Even if I wasn’t being productive, I felt like I had to sit there.”

That all changed last week, when an email rolled into her inbox: she’d been given an unconditional offer at the University of NSW to study criminology and criminal justice and a double degree of social work, under the institution’s early offer scheme.

“From the moment I opened that email I just felt so relieved. I was in. Now I can focus on achieving that ATAR,” she said. “I can breathe. I felt like I haven’t been able to breathe in a whi

See Full Page