THERE are times when you could easily imagine that it is the mothers of this country who are trying to get into college, not the students. Call after frantic call to this column comes from mothers who have explored every avenue and ferreted out every possibility of a college place for their son or daughter - more often the son, it has to be said.
It sometimes seems as if half the young men in the country would never make it into college at all were it not for the efforts of their mothers. We've spoken to those who have kept scrapbooks of previous years' Points Race columns for reference, who have pored over every RTC course in the system and checked the vacancies in dozens of UK colleges.
Where are all these aspiring young students when all of this is going on? Hanging loose, waiting for their mums to sort it all out it would appear.
There was a mother yesterday who was rushing to get the CAO acceptance in the post "I don't want to have to travel all the way to Galway on Wednesday", she explained.
Wouldn't the student himself traipse down to Galway? "Oh, God, I don't know if I could trust him to do it right."
This is an 18-year old young man, who has finished school got an honours Leaving Cert and is just about to start, into the adult world and his mother feels she cannot trust him to deliver a CAO acceptance form to Galway?
This is part of the reluctant-to-leave Dublin phenomenon too. We've lost count of the number of mothers who have said things like: "Sure, I'd love to send him to Sligo RTC, but I'd be worried that he'd never get up in the mornings" or "I'd be worried that he'd just plonk down in front of the telly all night and not study ... at least at home in Dublin I can keep an eye on him and make sure he is knuckling down."
"He's a bit young to go to Athlone," another mother agonised. "I don't think he could look after himself." Isn't it amazing how you never find a mother in Kiltemagh or Cahirciveen who thinks her son is too young to be let loose on Dublin on his own?
But it does not stop once they've got them into college either. We've spoken with parents whose sons or daughters have failed first year at college and they re now going through the search for a place all over again as they try to place them in an alternative course.
Then there are the hundreds of unfortunate parents whose sons and daughters are off working in Frankfurt or New York and they have been left with the business of accepting the CAO offer; that's fine if everything is clear-cut and straightforward, but it rarely is: to accept the fifth preference on Round One or wait for the possible second preference on Round Two?
Surely, deciding on and accepting a particular college place is such an important step in a young person's life that they should be taking more personal responsibility for it.
. CAO
ROUND One acceptances must be in Galway by 5.15 p.m. today. There is still time to deliver these in person. Every year a few unfortunate students simply forget to get the acceptance back on time and forfeit their place. So do make sure it's not sitting on a shelf or in your back pocket. Practically every year this column talks to a mother who paid the deposit, was meant to post the acceptance and simply forgot.
Round Two offers will be posted on Monday next, so should arrive in applicants' homes on Tuesday morning, September 3rd; the new Round Two points - where there has been a change - will also be published early next week.
People still seem to be confused about acceptances, preferences and effects on Round Two chances.
Accepting or rejecting any offer on Round One does not jeopardise one's chances of being offered a higher preference on either list on Round Two. Once you have been offered a particular preference, however, you will not be offered a lower one from that list. Each list operates independently of each other, so an applicant who has been offered her first preference on the diploma list and only her fourth on the degree list will, of course, still be in the running for a higher preference on the degree list.
In the case of clinical speech at Trinity and PE teaching in UL, where the first offers are only being made in Round Two, applicants may either accept the place when offered or stay with whatever else they accepted on Round One; they are not obliged to accept the UL or Trinity place even if it is their first preference. If they want to accept it, they simply do so in the normal manner and this will cancel any Round One acceptance.
. RTC VACANCIES
OUR sermonising about Dubliners' reluctance to travel to the provinces to avail of RTC vacancies has brought a rash of inquiries as to how people can find out where the vacancies are. So here is a summary of what Points Race is aware of at the moment.
. Sligo RTC: SG103 Business/ German; SG104 Business/Spanish; SG132 Euro Business/German; SG133 Euro Business/ Spanish; SG232 Industrial Design; SG302 Construction Studies; SG303 Mechanical Engineering; SG305 Electronic Engineering; SG431 Analytical Chemistry/Quality Control.
. Letterkenny RTC: LY002 Accounting Technician; LY905 Coras Eolais Oifige; LY008 Civil Engineering; LY009 Construction Studies; LY010 Electronics; LY011 Mechanical Engineering; LY015 Graphic Design; LY016 Industrial Design; LY018 Business/Languages; LY007 European Studies/Languages.
. Limerick RTC: LC002 Accounting Technician; LC009 Marketing Management; LC014 Accountancy (ACCA).
. Dundalk RTC: DK001 Electronics (Product Development); DK004 Accounting (three higher Cs requirement).
Athlone RTC: AL019 Professional Accounting (three higher Cs).
These are the vacancies which have been notified to us, but there are certainly other courses in the system which have not been filled and may be in a position to offer vacancies.
Galway RTC would be worth trying for vacant places on their Castlebar campus (several courses there registered AQA - all qualified applicants accepted -which means all existing applicants have already been accommodated). Athlone RTC has been showing just 100 points for its outreach courses in Cavan and Greendale Community School in Dublin. These would also be worth checking, as would the six Carlow RTC outreach courses in Kilkenny/Wexford, which have all miraculously come out at 110 points, as well as possibly some other Carlow courses.
Tralee RTC may be worth trying on aquaculture and physics/ electronics as they were offered to all existing qualified applicants on Round One. It would be best to ring the colleges directly rather than the CAO.
. COST
A BIG factor in Dubliners not accepting RTC places in the provinces is cost, readers have been telling us. "I'd love to get her into Sligo RTC," a typical parent told us, but I've, been doing the sums, and we simply cannot afford it.
Another pointed out she'd been doing the costings and that most digs in RTC towns provide only a Monday to Friday service. "That means at least £10 each weekend in travel costs plus £50-60 a week board and accommodation, lunch money, books and other incidentals."
Several Dublin families made the point that they simply could not afford it. The interesting point is that families in similar economic circumstances in non-college provincial towns do manage to afford it. The difference is that a family living in Westport, Mullingar or Wexford has always known that to get any higher education their children would have to travel away from home, so they have planned accordingly. Dubliners, on the other hand, have assumed they would remain at home and are not prepared for the financial damage.
Several families we've spoken to have worked out that the fact that income tax is deductible (at standard rate) against fees for private third-level colleges means that it works out cheaper for them to attend fee-paying private colleges in Dublin, than fee-less RTCs outside Dublin.
This could mean that RTCs' enrolments may be affected by the granting of tax exemption status to the private colleges.