Some college applicants are still trying to grapple with the absence of an offer last Tuesday. Many people still seem to be under the impression that points alone will gain you admission to college, but you must fulfil the general college "matriculation" requirements as well as special subject requirements for a particular course.
A confused caller to the College 2000 helpline yesterday couldn't understand why he didn't get an offer from TCD. He had the points for the course he wanted; what he didn't have were the three higher-level C3s necessary to matriculate at Trinity.
First-round points were 305 for art history and Russian (both TR001 courses); it is possible to attain that score without having three higher-level C3s.
For NUI colleges it is worth remembering that, for matriculation purposes, one grade E on a higher course is acceptable if you have three grade C3s on higher-level papers, or at least one higher-level grade B3 and one grade higher-level C3 among your other subjects.
The helpline also heard from Kilkenny students who had put courses in their local campus (an outreach of Carlow IT) high on their lists. With their exam results they were confident of offers, but it was not to be.
Recorded after the six courses were the words "no offer". The admissions office said there were insufficient qualified applicants to justify running the courses. It is unlikely that offers will be made in round two, so the applicants who listed these courses had wasted those choices on the CAO application form.
More troubles: applicants with A-levels looking for CAO places have to contend with the lack of a common points system. For instance, TCD, DIT and NUI Galway give 190 points for an A-level A, 160 for a B, 130 for a C and 100 for a D; DCU, meanwhile, gives only 175 points for an A, though applicants for DCU who achieve three A grades at the same sitting receive a bonus of 45 points. In Waterford IT, applicants get 170 for an A, 140 for a B and 100 for a C, 70 for a D and 40 for an E. In UCD each course has individual A-level grade requirements.
The Commission on the Points System, which was set up to look at third-level entry, noted the diversity of practices that exist in recognising GCE Alevels in this State. In view of obligations under EU law, it recommended that third-level institutions agree a common approach to admitting applicants with qualifications from other member-states, particularly applicants with A-level qualifications. The recommendations have yet to be implemented.
This year, in round one, the CAO made 946 offers to applicants from Northern Ireland, 293 to those from Britain, 90 to other EU students and 40 to non-EU applicants.
Open University options in Bray
Bray Institute of Further Education, Co Wicklow, offers an unusual alternative for those seeking degrees in psychology, health and social care, social science or music, music with English or psychology. These are Open University degrees.
Students get 10 hours of tutorial support per week. The course is assignment-driven, with 50 per cent of marks for the year's final grade given for assignments. The annual fee is £1,800 and eligible students can apply for third-level maintenance grants, according to Ms Susan McCallion, the director of the degree programmes.
The BA or BSc (hons) in psychology, BA or BSc (hons) in health and social care, BA or BSc (hons) in social science and BA in humanities, in music, or music and English are all three-year programmes. The degrees in English and psychology, and music and psychology are four-year programmes. The psychology degree is recognised by the Psychological Society of Ireland.
Ms McCallion says the college welcomes applications from Leaving Certificate Applied students for the degree programmes. LCA students cannot progress directly to third-level colleges within the CAO system.
They are eligible to apply for post-Leaving Certificate courses and may find their way from there to third level via a links scheme, where 2,000 places are set aside for NCVA level 2 holders (the most common PLC qualification).
So Bray Institute of Further Education would seem to be the only college which will consider LCA students for third-level courses. Ms McCallion says the college would contact the relevant school for an additional report on the applicant's performance.
The college also welcomes applications from university students who have completed a first year in psychology but failed to qualify for the second year of the programme.
CAO website
A CAO spokesman tells us problems reported with accessing the website earlier this week "seemed to be with the capacity of local servers and not CAO capacity. People from London and Holland have had no problems and commented on the speed of access to the site."
Certainly, when College 2000 logged on yesterday morning, access was instant and we were visitor number 14,924 since Monday. If you have Internet access and are still looking for a college place, the site (www.cao.ie) has a list of courses with vacant places. This list is updated daily.
Deferments
Some college applicants have received offers they want but they have decided they would like to take a year off before they begin life at third level.
This can be a good way to make money to finance your college years, or it can give you time to mature, travel or just relax away from the grind. All colleges within the CAO system will consider applications for deferred entry, with the exception of the National College of Art and Design, and Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. The Royal College of Surgeons will only consider deferment applications in exceptional circumstances.
However, some college preclude particular courses. Tralee IT will not consider applications for deferred entry in respect of TL101 humanities (folk theatre studies) while UCD will not consider DN022 arts (evening modular). UCC will consider deferments for CK701 medicine and CK702 dentistry only in exceptional circumstances.
The procedure for deferment is that you communicate with the college rather than the CAO. So you don't accept the offer through the CAO but write immediately to the college admissions office, stating the reason why you want to defer. Attach part C of the offer notice to the letter. You should put "Deferred entry" on the envelope.
The letter must arrive in the admissions office two days before the reply date shown on the offer notice. So in the case of first-round offers, you must submit your deferment request by August 28th.