MICHAEL Munro is just one of many high achieving Stawell Secondary College students who this week received a University offer.
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For Michael, the offer had added weight and gave him extra cause to celebrate.
Michael was not only offered a place at Federation University to study Information Technology, but by accepting the offer, he will be the recipient of an IBM (International Business Machines) scholarship and internship worth $35,000.
In addition to the bursary Michael will have the opportunity of employment with IBM at the completion of his degree.
Stawell Secondary College acting principal Murray Hart said Michael's achievements have been one of the school's most exciting outcomes.
"Michael's success is extremely well deserved after six years of dedicated studies," he said.
Michael said he felt happy and relieved when he received notification he had not only obtained a place at University but also the scholarship.
"I felt pretty good that all my hard work had paid off, it was a huge relief," he said.
Michael had devoted countless hours to study in 2014 and said that he was now excited for the year ahead.
"It has been a really busy time for me, I did a lot of study," he said.
"I want to thank all of my family, they have been very supportive of me during this time."
Michael now plans to relocate to Ballarat where he will study at Federation University's Mount Helen campus and could one day become a computer technician.
Mr Hart said of the 19 Stawell Secondary College students who this year applied for tertiary places, 17 were successful in gaining a first round offer.
"This is a much higher result than the school can recall ever happening in the past," he said.
"A large number of these offers were the student's first preferences, which has meant a lot of very happy people heading off to tertiary studies.
"The two students who missed out are very likely to get a second round offer based on their ATAR scores and preferences they have chosen.
"Stawell Secondary College is extremely proud of the high percentage of its students who are going on to further education."
The most common tertiary institutions who made offers to the students were Federation University (four), Deakin University (five) and Monash University (four).
All students have been reminded that it is far from the end of the world if they didn't receive a first round offer.
Their application will continue to be processed and could well be accepted as part of the round two offer process.