With the main round of university placements to be released at 9am Friday, the University Admissions Centre Web site is bracing itself for a stampede of students.
With 71,000 applicants fighting for just 49,000 university places in NSW and the ACT, the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) anticipates the site will receive about 40,000 and 50,000 hits.
"We get quite a load of people trying to get on our Web site on important dates, of which [this] is one," UAC representative Andrea Marshall told ZDNet.
When 60,000 NSW Year 10 students checked the Universities Admission Index ranking on December 19, the UAC site was swamped with 20,000 hits in the first hour and a half.
"A lot more students are using the Web site these days," according to Marhall.
"It's seen a definite increase in popularity with a lot more queries coming in via email too".
The site, running on two servers, is a secure system into which students have to enter a UAC and PIN number that allows them to access personal information only - and not that of fellow students.
University applicants can access offers online at the Web site -
Despite being capable of taking 120 calls simultaneously, the Centre is warning there could be some congestion.
There's also the option of students waiting for their results in the post or checking newspapers for their university placement.
"We're trying to cater for all different sorts of people who have all different sorts of access," Marshall said.
This a seriously outdated story at 2001. Please remove it from the internet.