Selective schools · Profile
Aurora College: Selective Entry & Places
Aurora College is a fully selective, virtual co-educational high school in Statewide (virtual), Statewide. It offers 100 Year 7 selective places (50 boys, 50 girls), entered through the Selective High School Placement Test.
NSW's first virtual public school (2015): selective classes are delivered online to gifted students at rural and remote host high schools, with 100 Year 7 places split evenly between girls and boys.
A virtual school with no physical campus students attend — eligibility requires enrolment at a rural or remote host high school.
Aurora College at a glance
| Type | Virtual selective |
|---|---|
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Suburb | Statewide (virtual), Statewide |
| Year 7 places | 100 (50 boys, 50 girls), 2026 — NSW Department of Education selective-schools list |
| Entry routes | Year 7 via the Selective High School Placement Test.Primary entry is at Year 7 via the Selective High School Placement Test; Aurora delivers selective classes across Years 7–10. Students must be enrolled at an Aurora College host high school classified as rural and remote to be eligible. |
| Boarding | None — day school. |
| Official website | aurora.schools.nsw.gov.au |
How entry works
Year 7 entry to Aurora College runs through the statewide NSW Selective High School Placement Test, sat in Year 6. There is no separate school exam and no catchment for selective places — you nominate the school among your preferences, and offers are made from a single statewide placement score. The steps and deadlines are in our application walkthrough.
About one applicant in four receives a selective place across the state. A miss says very little about a capable child — with roughly four applicants for every place, the maths alone means most well-prepared children miss out, and are fine.
Later years: Primary entry is at Year 7 via the Selective High School Placement Test; Aurora delivers selective classes across Years 7–10. Students must be enrolled at an Aurora College host high school classified as rural and remote to be eligible.
The last-published entry score — read this honestly
The last time the Department published a per-school minimum entry score was for 2021 entry, on the retired 300-point scale. For Aurora College that figure was 160/300 (170/300 the year before).
That is a historical record, not a current cut-off. The test and its scoring have changed since — four equally-weighted components, computer-based, no school-assessment mark — the Department no longer publishes per-school minimums, and it states plainly that there is no set entry score. Treat any "current" cut-off you see quoted for Aurora College as an estimate, not a fact.
Aurora appears in the historical tables but is not one of the physical Year 7 selective sites; this 2021 figure is an old-system historical record, not a current cut-off.
Where these figures come from, why the Department stopped publishing them, and how to sanity-check any number you read: our cut-off scores guide.
Known for
- NSW's first virtual (online) public school, which commenced classes in February 2015.
- A fully selective virtual high school delivering selective English, Mathematics and Science classes online to Years 7–10, for academically gifted students in rural and remote NSW.
- Students stay enrolled at a local rural/remote "host" public high school and join Aurora's timetabled online lessons via web conferencing; the college operates through around 185 host schools statewide.