College Choice/Brian Mooney: Students are warned to ensure their applications are in for restricted application courses
Restricted application courses
Restricted application courses are those for which no application will be accepted after the initial application date of February 1st, 2005. All the courses listed below fall into this category.
Mature application for nursing
Applicants who are 23 years of age or over on January 1st, 2005 may apply for consideration for a place on the General, Psychiatric and Mental Handicap nursing courses available throughout the country. I will deal in detail with Nursing as a career option later in this series of articles.
Art and design
The National College of Art and Design offer specialisms in Ceramics, Glass, Metal/Jewellery, Fashion, Textiles and Visual Communications in its Design Faculty and Media, Fine Print, Painting and Sculpture in its Fine Art Faculty.
All the specialisms start with a common first year and portfolio, and application forms have to be submitted directly to the college by January 28th, 2005.
Applications are therefore not made to the CAO. They offer two degree programmes through the CAO: Industrial Design (AD012) for those interested in the design of products for manufacture and Art and Design Education (AD001) for those who want a career as an Art Teacher.
A teaching qualification may also be obtained by first completing a degree in art and design and then taking the Higher Diploma in Art and Design Education at NCAD or the Diploma for Art and Design Teachers offered by some Institutes of Technology.
Places in NCAD are not awarded on Leaving Certificate points. Selection is based on portfolio assessment only for direct applicants, and portfolio assessment and interview for AD012 and AD001.
Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art/Design/Technology offers eight programmes within their school of Art/Design/Media, five Honours Bachelor degrees in the fields of Animation, Photography, Visual Communication (Print, Screen and 3D Spatial), Visual Art Practice aimed at those aspiring to become practising artists, and Film and TV Production aimed at aspiring directors, producers, scriptwriters, editors, camerapersons, web developer and digital effects specialists. They offer one ordinary Bachelor course in Model-Making and Design for those interested in artistic illusions and special effects.
Finally they offer two Higher Certificates in Radio Broadcasting and Make-Up for Film/TV and Theatre. All eight programmes involve portfolio assessments in March, with interviews where necessary in April.
Dublin Institute of Technology offers four honours degree programmes within their Faculty of Applied Art, Design - Interior + Furniture, Design Visual Communications (aimed at those wishing to become graphic designers, typographers, image-makers, illustrators and digital media designers), Fine Art (for those seeking careers as artists in painting, sculpture, print media), and Photography.
It also offers a Certificate in Design Display for those who wish to pursue careers as display designers in the retail industry.
All the above programmes are in Dublin. Outside the capital Athlone IT offers an Honours degree programme in Design - Visual Communications. It also offers a Communications Ordinary Bachelor degree, as does Cork IT for those interested in Art and Design.
For those interested in becoming professional artists, Ordinary Bachelor degree programmes are offered in Art by Carlow IT (Gorey campus), Cork IT (in the Crawford College of Art and Design), Sligo IT and Limerick IT.
Finally for those interested in Furniture, two programmes are offered through Galway-Mayo IT at the Letterfrack campus, a certificate with an add-on degree in Furniture Design and Manufacturing and an ordinary degree in Furniture Conservation and Restoration.
As I will not be returning to Art and Design courses again there are a small number of courses not restricted by the February 1st deadline.
They are Product Design at the DIT and UL, Printing Management at the DIT, Design Communications at WIT, Graphic Design at Letterkenny IT, Industrial Design at Carlow, Sligo, and Letterkenny IT and Art at WIT.
Music
Those interested in a career in Music have a wide range of degree choices. For those specifically interested in second-level teaching, Trinity has Music Education (TR009), the DIT has Music Education (FT602) and Mater Dei has Music and Religious Education (MD401). For those who wish to keep their options open, Maynooth, UCD and UCC have a single Arts subject in first year. UCC has a four-year Music (CK103) and a three-year Art + Music option (CK104) with two arts subjects in first year. Honours bachelor degrees are offered by UCD (DN001), Trinity (TR002), DIT (DT501), the Royal Irish Academy (DC211), Dundalk IT (DK860), WIT (WD027), and CIT (CR121). For those interested in Irish traditional music, UL has an Irish Music and Dance option (LM030). For those who have not satisfied the specific entry requirements for the above programmes the DIT offers a one-year Music Foundation course (DT527) for which fees of €1,900 apply.
CAO applicants may also like to know that there is a new Music Technology (MH102) degree at NUI Maynooth beginning this September. It is listed on the CAO's late degree list on its website which contains new degrees not in the CAO Handbook. The course is intended for those interested in careers in music recording and sound engineering. It is not a restricted application course.
Drama and theatre studies
There are four degree programmes available, Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity (TR025) and UCC (CK112), Drama (Performance) at the DIT (DT526) and Folk Theatre Studies at Tralee IT (TL170), which requires a minimum grade C higher in Irish, but is not restricted by the February 1st deadline.
Monday: Business courses.