When Aisling McKevitt filled out her original CAO form in 2012, her first seven choices were psychology. Two months later psychology was not on the form at all.

“I had changed completely to science in UCD, science in Trinity and other science courses,” she says.

“In school people were saying take something in college you like doing in school. Take your favourite subject. I had a few. I really liked home economics and history but biology was my favourite overall.”

She is going into the fourth year of her science degree at UCD and is concentrating on microbiology.

The common entry programme at the college allowed her to sample different sciences before making a final decision at the end of second year.

She says that in first year she had a “taster” of other subjects, such as chemistry and physics. After that she was sure biology was her thing.

“At the end microbiology was the one that hit me because it was so broad.

“There are medical, food-making, pharmaceutical, industrial and environmental aspects to it. There’s a lot of scope.”

McKevitt has “no idea” what she will do after she graduates next year but hopes to have a better idea by then. She is thinking of going straight into a master’s or PhD.

“Some people say to take time out and think about it. I think I’d rather go straight into it. If I stop and go out into the real world, I think I would find it harder to go back to studying.”