If you're a Leaving Certificate student, the advent of 1999 heralds the end of your schooldays. But the chances are that you will exchange one place of learning for another, as most Leaving Certificate students go on to further education or training. For more than 60,000 Leaving Certificate students and some few thousand of their more mature peers, January is college application time. This year, more than 40 third-level colleges are offering a wide variety of third-level courses through the Central Applications Office.
These courses may take you to towns and cities such as Athlone, Letterkenny, Cork or Dublin or even to Paris, Madrid or Boston. You can study subjects as diverse as earth sciences, interior architectural technology, fine art, manufacturing engineering, or international marketing with languages.
And the good news is that the number of third-level places available is set to increase again this year. If you had been applying to college in 1992 you would have been competing for 26,762 first-year places. This year, there will be at least 10,000 more places, bringing the total number of first-year places beyond 36,000.
It is fashionable to take a pessimistic view of your chances of securing a college place. Many students waste their time and nervous energy worrying about points levels and juggling their course choices accordingly. This time and effort could be put to better use researching what exactly courses entail and what the career prospects are like.
The hype and tension surrounding the so-called points race are just that. Last year's figures should provide some solace to the worried. The CAO received applications from 65,285 people. Each of these applicants could have listed a total of 20 course choices on his or her CAO application form - 10 degrees and 10 certificates or diplomas. Each list operates independently, so some applicants received not one but two offers.
In all, 82,581 offers of college places were made through the CAO last year. This breaks down into 30,131 offers of degree places and 52,450 certificate /diploma offers.
So what did you need to get a college offer? 500 points? 400 points? 300 points? In fact, more than 50 courses registered the acronym AQA as their final cut-off points. This means they took all qualified applicants. In the case of some courses in the institutes of technology, this means you needed the minimum entry requirement - five passes in the Leaving Certificate - to secure a college place. Five ordinary-level D3s amount to 25 points. Think about it. Of course, you are already muttering to yourself "what use is a course if the cut-off points are so low?". The answer to that one is simple: cut-off points are a function of supply and demand. They have nothing to do with the quality of a course. It is you, the applicants, who determine the cut-off points, not the colleges. The cut-off points are the points obtained by the last person who accepted a place on a course - it is conceivable that a course with a cut-off of 120 also has students with 360 or more points.
With cut-off points ranging from 25 to 570 last year, offers were made to almost 52,000 applicants, with a proportion of these receiving not one but two offers. So 79.5 per cent of students who applied to the CAO got a college offer. Or, in other words, four out of five students received an offer.
You may now be asking yourself why, if four out of five applicants got an offer, did only one in two applicants actually go to college? The answer lies in the startlingly high rejection rate. Students who set their sights on particular courses - usually courses such as medicine, veterinary medicine, law, physiotherapy, actuarial studies - are not willing to take anything else.
And it's not just particular career choices that are at work here. Many students will accept an offer only if it comes from the degree list. Just over 30,000 degree offers were made and almost 19,000 students took up these offers. At certificate/ diploma level, a huge 52,450 offers were made and only 16,168 students accepted these offers.
This rejection of certificates and diplomas is a continuing trend among school-leavers who are, to put it bluntly, missing the point. It may sound more trendy to say "I'm doing a degree in TCD or UL", but the bottom line is that lots of students who began with certificate and diploma courses are graduating from the institutes of technology with degrees.
There is a well-worn ladder which takes students from certificate to diploma to degree and onwards, if desired. Of course, certificates and diplomas are valid qualifications in their own right also.
The number of add-on degrees available in the institutes of technology increases each year. This year, for the first time, the CAO handbook gives some indication of the availability of these courses. So, for instance, if you turn to page 18 of the CAO handbook you will see the courses offered in Carlow IT. At first glance, it seems as if there is only one degree - computer networking - on offer.
If you read down the certificate/diploma list you will see +DP and +DG written in the far column beside many of the courses. This signifies, in the case of +DP, that an add-on diploma is available, while +DG means an add-on degree is on offer.
The next step is to reach for the college prospectus. If you are interested in science, you might also be interested to find out that graduates of the two-year certificate in applied biology can proceed to a diploma in analytical science or food quality management in Carlow IT. From there, they can proceed to a B.Sc. in industrial biology or a degree in industrial environmental science in Carlow IT. Certain minimum grades are required for progression.
So research your course choices carefully. Do not spend all your time on the degree list and fill up the certificate/diploma list simply to keep your guidance counsellor happy. There are real opportunities in the institutes of technology.
In addition to considerations of fashion, geography is a compounding factor when it comes to college choice. Home is the cheapest place to spend your college years. With a quarter of the Republic's population in the Dublin area, competition for college places is at its steepest there.
Many students regard third-level courses as the only passport to a career and so they apply only to the CAO.
Of course, the CAO handbook is not the only source of inspiration for this year's school-leavers. The next biggest tranche of courses is in the vibrant Post- Leaving Certificate sector. It is expected that some 20,000 places will be available here, with courses from teleservices to animation to outdoor education to art and design on offer. While these are mainly one-year courses which prepare students directly for employment, they can also act as a steppingstone to third level. There is no central applications system for PLC courses, so you must spend some time gathering college prospectuses and finding out about application procedures. Places are not allocated on the basis of points. You must have passed the Leaving Certificate or equivalent and there may be an interview or other assessment. The more popular PLC courses fill early, before you have sat the Leaving Certificate, so you should set some time aside now to look into this sector.
There is a separate applications system for nursing, which is now a three-year college-associated diploma course. FAS will have more than 5,000 apprenticeship places, while Teagasc will be recruiting students for agriculture and horticulture courses. CERT is seeking students to train in the hotel, catering and tourism industry.
While the CAO handbook is generally regarded as the bible for third-level applications, colleges add and delete courses after it goes to print. This means that if you don't keep up with the changes, you could waste a choice on a course that has been cancelled or you might be unaware of a new prospect.
Changes to the CAO handbook listings to date:
The following courses have been cancelled: Staidear Gno in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GA003) and biomedical engineering in UL (LM071).
There are 17 additions to the listings contained in the handbook: The Kilkenny and Wexford campuses of Carlow IT are offering courses in business studies; computing (computer applications and commercial programming); and office information systems. Cork IT has two new courses: interior architectural technology and software development with German. UCC is offering two new degrees: government and public policy and law and Irish. Blanchardstown IT will offer four courses in its first year of operation: electronics and computer engineering; computing and information technology; business studies; business, information technology and languages. UCD has a new degree in law with French law, while Galway-Mayo IT is offering a degree in gno agus cumarsaid. Waterford IT has two new degrees - manufacturing systems engineering and electronic engineering.
Direct entry: Athlone IT is offering two courses outside the CAO - a national certificate in business studies in equine studies and a national diploma in languages and business administration (subject to Department of Education sanction). You must apply directly to the college admissions office.