COLLEGE CHOICE: Yesterday was the moment of truth for the 59,072 CAO applicants as the letter from the CAO arrived in homes around the country.
Of these, 22,643 candidates received an offer of two courses, while 10,129 received an offer of a degree course and 13,132 a cert/diploma course.
Sadly, 13,132 candidates received a letter telling them no offer was being made in round one. Half of this group are ineligible for any offer because of a poor Leaving Certificate result, whereas the other half may be offered a place on one of their chosen courses in subsequent rounds if places offered to other candidates are not taken up.
An alternative route for this group of students is to log on to the vacant places list on the CAO website, at www.cao.ie, where many places are on offer.
Guidance counsellors working on the helplines yesterday reported dealing with many very distressed calls from both parents and students who had received bad news from the CAO. Calls came not just those who received no offer - some of the most distressed callers were those with over 500 points but who had missed out on a place on a medical or paramedical course. In many cases such calls take some time because the caller needs some mechanism to express their anguish and distress. It is our privilege as guidance counsellors to share that time with them.
One particular group of callers were those who believed they were entitled to a place but had received no offer. Some of these were unaware they had not met a minimum entry requirement for the course in question. One such group are those who were exempted from Irish but had failed to inform the college in question. If the college is in the NUI network, the exemption must be registered with them. A student should immediately forward a copy of their exemption to both NUI and the college. They may be offered the place if one is available in round two.
Another group of students seeking places were presenting A-level results, but the examination bodies had not forwarded all their results to the CAO, so a place had not been offered. It is up to the student to ensure that their results are known to the CAO. A final group of disappointed candidates are those from among the 23 EU countries other than Britain or Ireland.
A spokesperson for the CAO said: "Applications are assessed by the higher education institutions and not by CAO. The institutes of technology have prepared a document outlining the assessment criteria that they use for many school-leaving qualifications from around the world. This document may be found in the 'applicant scoring' section of the CAO website (cao.ie). Any queries about assessment of qualifications should be directed to the admissions offices. Assessment of qualifications is a dynamic process.
Evidence of summer 2004 qualifications (certificates and statements of results) begin to arrive in CAO from all around the world in mid-July and continue to appear right through September and even into October. The HEIs assess these qualifications as they appear throughout the offer/acceptance season."
Dr Dermot Douglas, senior academic executive, Council of Directors of Institutes of Technology, last night said: "The institutes of technology operate a common evaluation system for all foreign applicants. The purpose of the Institutes of Technology Central Evaluation Forum (IOTCEF) is to provide a central scoring system for non-Irish applicants. This guarantees these applicants an open and transparent mechanism for determining the minimum level of CAO points, which equate with their achievement in school leaving examinations in their country."
The scoring system used is available at: http://www.cao.ie/ app_scoring/app_scoring.htm. This document is amended and added to each year as applications from other countries are received and as examination systems change.
As a general requirement, applicants are required to have mathematics and English as subjects in their school-leaving examinations, unless otherwise stated in the particular course entry requirements.
As courses are delivered through English applicants may also be required to demonstrate competency in spoken English before admission can be finalised. The minimum standard of English required is given on page three of the IOTCEF booklet, which can be downloaded from the CAO website.
The offer of a place does not confer any legal status on an applicant. All foreign applicants who have been offered places will be required to complete all the normal legal requirements (as laid down by the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs) to gain access to education in this State before acceptance and registration requirements can be brought to a conclusion.
In order to have an application evaluated, the completed CAO form must be accompanied by English translations of qualifications, certified copies of transcripts as well as notarised English translations of all official documents (including transcripts) submitted. It is not possible to go ahead with an application in the absence of these documents and translations.
Queries on the process can be addressed to help@cao.ie with "IOTCEF" in the subject line, or to IOTCEF, c/o CAO, Eglinton Street, Galway, Ireland
It is unclear what procedures are in operation in the university sector for dealing with non-standard applicants from other countries, but it seems that they evaluate each application on an individual basis.
Other issues raised by callers concerned the procedures for viewing scripts, and applying for rechecks. September 8th is the final date for the receipt of Leaving Certificate appeals applications.
Finally, another group of particularly disappointed applicants were those who failed to secure a place in nursing. Students can take a one-year pre-nursing Post-Leaving Certificate course, leading to a FETAC level-two award. The problem is that colleges allocate only a handful of places at nursing degree level to such students each year.
Brian Mooney Irish Times Helpline 1800 946 942
The Irish Times Helpline is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today to deal with your CAO questions. The helpline, sponsored by ESAT BT, is staffed by experts from the Institute of Guidance Counsellors
You can e-mail Brian Mooney on bmooney@irish-times.ie
Tomorrow: the grants system