Students who didn’t receive an offer in Round Two this morning still have options.
At the close of the Round One reply date for CAO offers on Monday last, 38,239 applicants had accepted an offer of a place on an honours or ordinary degree or a higher certificate course.
A total of 50,848 applicants had received an offer in Round One, with almost 50 per cent of these applicants receiving a Level 8 first preference and 78 per cent receiving either a first, second or third preference on their Level 8 list.
Some 81 per cent of applicants were offered their first-preference Level 7/6 course in Round One.
This morning online at cao.ie, from 6am, colleges offered unfilled places to all qualified applicants remaining.
Available places
Some of those places offered today are in courses that did not fill initially and have been available to students on the CAO “Available Places” list over the past few days.
Where there has been particular interest in a vacant-places course, and the number of new applicants exceeds the number of places remaining, the normal CAO rules apply, with those with the highest points securing the places.
This list of vacant-place courses will continue to be published on cao.ie over the coming weeks, and any existing or new applicant can still apply for a place and receive an offer in the weeks ahead.
Private colleges
Because of the fees in private colleges, they will probably continue to have the greatest numbers in CAO Available Places.
Many of the private colleges continue to hold open days to let students know what courses they still have on offer for 2014.
Dublin Business School, for example, has an open evening on Tuesday September 2nd at 5-7pm.
There is 20 per cent tax relief for parents paying the average fees of €5,000 in private colleges, so they cost about €1,250 more than State-funded colleges, which have a €2,750 registration charge/fee. (For advice on how to choose a course in a private college: see page 2).
Having papers rechecked
You still have a few days to apply to the State Examinations Commission for remarking of Leaving Cert papers. Exam scripts can be viewed at your school on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th August to see first-hand how the marking scheme was applied to your exams and judge if you should appeal a result.
In 2013, some 5,302 appealed against 9,100 grades leading to 1,637 upgrades – 18 per cent of all appeals lodged were upgraded (three results were downgraded).
Make an appeal application by 5pm on Wednesday, September 3rd. The fee for remarking is €40.
Repeating the Leaving Cert
The numbers repeating the Leaving Cert have dropped considerably in recent years and is well below 2,000 a year.
The Hpat test for medicine has taken many high points students out of the repeats process. But students who consider their exams were not a fair reflection of their ability may still seriously consider repeating.
Many schools run repeat Leaving Cert year groups within the public school system, and private fee-paying institutions, such as the Institute of Education in Dublin, the Tutorial in Limerick, Yeats College in Galway, and Bruce College in Cork, also run repeat courses .
The 16 Education Training Boards offer targeted repeat Leaving Cert classes.
In Dublin, CDETB offers repeat programmes in Rathmines, Plunket, Pearse and Ringsend colleges. Ringsend has offered Leaving Cert repeat programmes since the mid-1980s for those who want to increase their points or change their subject emphasis, away from the sciences and towards business for example.
Post Leaving Cert courses
A post Leaving Certificate programmeallows you to apply again via the CAO next year, with the result of your PLC course as your method of entry.
You may also progress directly within the PLC sector, for a degree. PLC colleges have progression arrangements with colleges and universities in the Republic and the UK.
PLC/further-education courses are based on continuous assessment, not final exams. Details of all PLC courses are on qualifax.ie.
PLC qualifications in a vocational area (eg, hairdressing, security studies) are where that qualification is only available within the State sector at this level. Alternatively, PLC students get a taste of an area to see if they are really interested in it before, for example, enrolling for a four-year nursing degree. Universities reserve a number of places for PLC/FE students.
PLC/FE courses have mandatory work placement throughout Europe under the Leonardo da Vinci programme.
PLC courses are available in all counties and are reasonably priced (a €200 Government levy is the minimum, plus any additional course fees).
Cavan Institute, one of the biggest PLC providers in the north-east, reports large demand for science and engineering, and students progress to degrees in these areas. This year a number of their students successfully used their Fetac results to progress to agricultural science and science degrees in UCD and NUI Maynooth.
They also report strong demand for security, which is linked to criminal justice and legal studies courses and they still have vacancies in business, multimedia and airline studies.
Study in Europe in English
A small but growing number of college aspirants, particularly those seeking places in high points faculties, look to top universities in Continental Europe; taught through English.
There are now over 1,000 such undergraduate programmes. Some students short of the points for CAO courses are looking at these European options which may still be available for September this year, or for 2015 admission.
Check eunicas.ie for the full range and vacancies. Eunicas is the application service which supports Irish students applying to these programmes.
Those interested in veterinary and medical programmes in Hungary should contact Dr Tim O’Leary in Schull, Co Cork, who coordinates the application process for these, on mizencomputers@eircom.net.
Irish students have been enrolling on these and other medical programmes in European universities for nearly 10 years. But they are now enrolling on a wider range of programmes, including physiotherapy, international law, psychology, business, game design and science.
Increasingly popular with Irish students are liberal arts and sciences degrees offered by the leading Dutch universities: seven Dutch universities are higher ranked than Trinity College.
Students can attain a BA or BSc, depending on their second and third year specialisation.
In first year, you select eight to 12 subjects from large menus of a wide range of humanities, social science and science modules. At the end of the year, students specialise in one of their first-year subjects.
With over 80 per cent of Dutch liberal arts graduates going on to post-graduate study at some of the world’s top universities, this route is a great opportunity for Irish students. The fees for most European courses are lower than in Ireland, though they are higher for medicine and veterinary in central Europe.
Some EU countries offer financial support. If students qualify for maintenance grants here, they can take them to courses in public universities in the EU. There are no fees in Scandinavia and most German states. Points for most courses are significantly lower than through the CAO, with most systems having selection procedures not wholly dependent on grades. Dutch universities are forbidden to select students exclusively based on grades.
The most popular destinations for Irish students are The Netherlands, which has the largest choice, and Italy where the fee for medicine degrees are €600-€3,800 a year, though increasing numbers of students are now applying to Denmark where there are no tuition fees and students, subject to some conditions, can get grants. Tuition-fee loans are available in The Netherlands and Bulgaria. Grants are available in The Netherlands and Denmark, subject to minimum monthly working hours.
Very few select on points, and four models are used in selection: automatic entry (NUI matriculation including subject requirements); entrance test, eg medicine, veterinary and so on; combination of interview, personal statement, letter of recommendation from school and grades, though other elements are often more important than grades; and grade point average, ie grades, in a small number of programmes.
