THOUSANDS of university hopefuls may have missed out on a first round offer but for a group of Maribyrnong students, the wait is finally over.

Close to 40,000 students last week received first round offers, granting them places at Victorian universities and TAFEs.

Among them were Footscray City College graduates Sada Nor, Melissa Miller, Hannah Willoughby Pearson and Brendan Fry.

Sada,17, said she was thrilled with her Enter score of 95.0, which secured her a place studying optometry at Melbourne University.

Although it wasn’t her first preference, the teenager, originally from Somalia said her achievement had meant a great deal to her family. “I was raised by a single mother along with my six siblings.

When we first came here as refugees, we had nothing, so to go from that to studying optometry at a prestigious university is just amazing,” she said.