MED Application - Special Considerations !

The Free Boost Most Med Applicants Forget to Claim

Adjustment factors, equity schemes, SEAS, EAS — different names, same idea. Here is how they work and who should apply.

Every year, students miss out on a medicine offer by a fraction of a selection rank point — and a meaningful number of them were eligible for adjustment factors they never applied for.

If something outside your control made Year 11 or 12 harder than it should have been, most Australian universities have a formal way to account for it. It costs you nothing but a form and some paperwork, and it cannot count against you.

What are adjustment factors?

Universities add adjustment factors to your selection rank — the number built from your ATAR — if you have experienced circumstances that negatively affected your education. Depending on where you apply, these are called special consideration, equity adjustments, access schemes, or simply adjustment factors.

Two things worth understanding straight away:

• Your ATAR itself never changes. The adjustment is applied on top of it to form your selection rank, which is what the university actually ranks you on.
• Each tertiary admissions centre decides the adjustment factors on an individual basis. The more severe and better-documented the circumstance, the larger the adjustment can be.

What counts as a circumstance?

Categories vary between states and universities, but these are the ones that appear most often:

Medical / health conditions	Ongoing illness, injury, disability, or mental health conditions affecting study
First in family at university	No parent or guardian has completed a university degree
Non-English-speaking background	Recent arrival in Australia from a non-English-speaking background
Financial disadvantage	Long-term financial hardship in the household during senior schooling
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background	Recognised across all admissions centres, often alongside dedicated entry pathways
Mature age (21+)	Applies to some schemes and institutions rather than all

Recency rules for the non-English-speaking background category are tied to a specific arrival date that shifts each admissions year — check the current cut-off date on your admissions centre's page before assuming you qualify.

Other categories you will commonly see include rural or remote residence, difficult family circumstances, disrupted schooling, carer responsibilities, and school-level educational disadvantage.

Proof matters more than the story

Depending on the circumstance, you may be asked to provide documentation or a written statement to support your case. This is where most weak applications fall over.

• Get third-party evidence. A letter from a GP, specialist, school counsellor, principal, or social worker carries far more weight than your own account alone.
• Show the effect on study, not just the event. "I was unwell" is weak. "I missed 27 school days across Terms 2 and 3 and could not sit two SACs" is strong.
• Give dates and duration. Assessors need to see which part of your senior schooling was affected.
• Start early. Medical letters and school statements take time, and these applications close well before ATARs are released.

The misconception that stops people applying

"Special considerations will disadvantage my application if the university disagrees."

Truth: applying can only ever hold your score steady or lift it — never lower it.

Universities judge circumstances differently. Some will accept your application, others may decline it. But a declined application does not subtract anything. Your selection rank is either increased or kept the same.

Put plainly: if you are eligible, there is no downside to applying. The only real cost is the hour it takes to fill in the form and chase your documents.

Where to apply, state by state

You apply through your tertiary admissions centre, not directly to each university:

State	Centre	Scheme
VIC	VTAC	SEAS — Special Entry Access Scheme
NSW / ACT	UAC	EAS — Educational Access Scheme
QLD	QTAC	EAS — Educational Access Scheme
TAS	University of Tasmania	Special Considerations (applied direct)
WA	TISC	EAS — Educational Access Scheme
SA / NT	SATAC	Adjustment Factors

Eligibility categories, evidence requirements, and closing dates are set by each centre and change year to year. Always confirm the current rules on the centre's own website before submitting.

One caveat for medicine specifically

Adjustment factors lift your selection rank — which matters enormously for programs where ATAR forms part of the ranking. They do not change your UCAT score, and some medical programs weight or treat adjustments differently from general undergraduate courses.

Before you apply, check the admissions page for each medicine course on your list and confirm how adjustment factors interact with their selection model. Two universities in the same state can handle this quite differently.

The takeaway

If you are wondering whether your situation "counts," apply anyway and let the assessors decide. The scheme exists precisely because raw ATAR does not capture the conditions a student sat their exams under.

You cannot lose points by asking. You can lose a place by not asking.