Brian Mooney answers your questions
I made my initial application to the CAO in January. Am I free to change those choices now?
Yes, all current applicants may change the order of preference of their courses, or add new courses up to July 1st, 2009. With the exams coming to a close, this is a good time to clarify your best options.
My initial list of choices were very general in nature as I was not at all clear what career I wanted.
Many applicants use their initial application as a holding exercise.
It is now time to ask yourself which course or courses will build on your strengths, interests and aptitudes, and boost your prospects in the jobs market.
I have just finished my Leaving Certificate and don’t think I did as well as I hoped to do. Should I abandon my existing list of CAO choices and replace them with courses on lower points?
Every student feels that they have done less well than they hoped and in most cases, they are wrong. If your existing CAO choices are what you want to do next year and you have allowed for a great result, a good result or an okay result in your current choices, just leave well enough alone. You will probably be pleasantly surprised when you get your results on August 12th, so don’t panic.
How can I see what’s on offer?
If you want to examine the current full list of courses, including every detail of each programme, go to www.qualifax.ie and click on CAO courses. You will locate a drop- down menu which classifies every course offered under various headings business/arts etc.
Where can I find career information that might help me to finalise my choices?
www.careersportal.ie. has an interest inventory which will help match your courses to areas of interest to you. It may well open your mind to possibilities you hadn’t considered before. The site includes interviews with more than 100 employees of major Irish employers in which they talk about the daily realities of their work.
Remember, the CAO website, www.cao.ie, also provides applicants with a wide range of very valuable information with links to all of the colleges offering places – as well as the online application system – to enable applicants to register their Change of Mind option.
Do all applicants need to get involved in this Change of Mind process?
Yes, all applicants need to review their application prior to the CAO deadline – July 1st at 5.15pm.
But what if I am happy with the choices I made in January?
All that you need to do is to check the list of courses you have applied for against the latest published list of courses on offer. Ensure that all these courses are still on offer. However it is well worth also having a look at the new courses on offer as you may want to take these into consideration.
Also ensure that you meet all the subject and level of subject entry requirements for your chosen course. If you are uncertain, go to the subject choice module in Qualifax where the entry requirements for all courses are outlined. If you are a Leaving Cert student and have dropped down from honours to ordinary level maths, you may have forgotten that the honours level may be a minimum entry requirement for some of their initial CAO choices.
If some of your initial choices are no longer open to you because you took maths or some other subjects at ordinary level, you now need to remove them from your list of choices. If, having reviewed your choices, you are happy with your current application; you need take no further action. You do not need to communicate in any way with the CAO.
So, what do I do if I want to change my order of preference or add new course choices?
If you used the original application as a holding exercise, that’s perfectly understandable. Many students in the middle of 6th year are unclear about what they really want to study in college.
Now that the time to make your final choices has arrived, bear in mind that you are not selecting the occupation you will work in for the rest of your life. You are simply selecting areas of academic study which you would enjoy studying over the next one to three or four years.
Remember, 50 per cent of all undergraduates take a postgraduate course immediately following their undergraduate studies, with the intention of securing their first step on their career ladder after completing their postgraduate programme.
Now is not the time to be contemplating what that step, which may be up to five to six years away, will be. Leave this question until your final year in college, when your options will be much clearer in your eyes than they are today.