Close consideration vital in applying for courses

With the pressures of Leaving Certificate year keeping most college applicants’ minds busy, it is important that they give close consideration, around now, to the courses for which they plan to apply.

The looming Feb 1 deadline for CAO applications is a good incentive to choose where, and what, you want to study.

A significant feature of Irish higher education is the availability of similar courses at various colleges, meaning closer physical access for many students to degrees, and other programmes, they may be interested in.

But it is important to do much more detailed research than just looking up the course title and the list of subjects involved.

The career prospects, and opportunities for further study, in related fields should be an important consideration, particularly when the teenagers of today are likely to move jobs/change careers on numerous occasions before retirement.

Although the Central Application Office (CAO) will allow an unlimited number of changes to course lists from May 5 to Jul 1, with the exception of courses with restricted entry requirements, it would be wise to decide much earlier in the year.

For those attending school, the advice of their guidance counsellor should already be assisting in pointing them in the right direction.

Parents, too, will have an important influence on the choices that this year’s school-leavers may be weighing up.

But the most significant person in the decision-making process has to be the student. While it is easy to be swayed by the preferences of parents, the assessments of teachers or the intentions of friends, choosing a college course needs to be done for the right reasons.

Every year, hundreds of students drop out of college courses around the country because they made the wrong decision.

While some of the circumstances might have been unavoidable, it shows the level of research that has to be done.

For example, an understanding of the standard required in certain subjects is particularly important.

This is a central reason for lower retention rates in some courses related to science and engineering, for example, where students did not appreciate beforehand the level of maths or science required.

However, many colleges now provide additional support for students who struggle with certain aspects of their course, to try and ensure they can stay on board.

The best way to find out about many of these aspects of a course is from the colleges.

Most have organised open days either side of Christmas, at which staff answer students’ questions and give a flavour of what might be involved.

But even if you have not been able to attend an open day, the admissions offices at most colleges should be willing to point anybody with queries in the right direction, with an email or the phone number of the person best-equipped to answer their questions.

Another difficulty, which arises year after year, is that some students do not follow the number one rule of filling in their CAO forms: Always list courses in your genuine order of preference — not on your exam performance expectations.

While the CAO points needed for most courses tend not to fall or rise significantly year-on-year, do not be put off by a course just because you think you might not reach the standard with your Leaving Certificate grades.

Many students get a very pleasant surprise at exam time, doing much better than they had expected, and there are almost five months of study from now to the first written exam.

There is also the possibility that a college could significantly expand the number of places on any given course, which could help bring down the minimum CAO points needed, as could a shift in general demand away from one of your preferred courses.

As well as not ruling out a course that has much higher points than you expect to get in the Leaving Certificate, high-performing students should not rule out lower-points courses.

Some of those students with the top results each year are often heard afterwards to be opting for medicine or other, limited-entry professional courses that command higher CAO points than most degrees.

But, equally, arts and social science programmes are also attracting many of the country’s top school students, as evidenced at a recent function for top-performing 2012 entrants to University College Cork.

As well as pressures sometimes put on students to aspire for certain courses, there is also a big emphasis on aiming for science, and related courses, to meet the needs of ‘Ireland Inc’ into the middle of the century. But, again, students should remember that the choices they make now will help to shape their working lives, notwithstanding the greater flexibility to change study and career paths midstream.

So, if you are considering applying to the CAO, choose courses that you will be interested in, rather than just those you are told you would be good at.

For many of those who will be applying to CAO as mature students — be they in their mid-20s or their mid-60s — the ability to switch focus is probably already clear.

But the wisdom of more years should not deter mature students from seeking the same kind of advice on prospective course choices as students who do not have the same life experience