A neat tidying up operation

THE most interesting aspect of the Round Two offers which emerges from the points tables (see centre pages) is how so many colleges have perfected the art of filling all their places on Round One. The blank spaces in the column for Round Two points tell their own story in every case where there is a blank, no offers at all have been made.

Effectively, for most colleges Round Two has become a tidying up operation with few genuinely new offers or reductions in points.

This is more so in the case of the diploma/certificate sector, where the RTCs, and the RTCs in particular, seem since last year to have perfected the art of filling on Round One. What happens in the RTCs is that they take a risk and make a huge number of offers in the first round, thus factoring in an expected rejection rate. This, to a considerable extent, explains why the points are low for many of their courses in Round One; effectively the first round points are the same as the final points, as no more offers are forthcoming in most cases.

Thus Sligo RTC has practically no offers at all in the second round, and neither has Tralee RTC. Most of the other RTCs have mainly made offers to people in respect of whom some problems arose in Round One, and they are only getting their entitled offer now - on or above the existing Round One points level.

DEGREES: For a variety of reasons universities find it more difficult to estimate the rejection rate of their first round offers, and so there are more places and a great drop in points in evidence in degree courses. However, UL got it so bang on target in Round One that they have no change in points at all and virtually no offers at all in the second round; the DIT also got it well on target for their degree courses.

In colleges such as Trinity, where medicine has fallen from 570 to 555 between the rounds, matters are complicated by sizeable numbers of Northern Ireland students with good A Levels applying there; with such high results, they have to be made an offer, but if they also get a place from Queens or a British university there is always the possibility that they will opt for it and turn down the Trinity offer. But there is no way Trinity can know this in advance and if all of these Northern applicants did take up their places and Trinity had not taken this into account in their first round offers, then they could easily end up overcrowded.

DCU also got it pretty accurate on Round One, and it has made very few offers in the second round. UCC is showing small drops in points in quite a few courses, there are some drops in UCG, Trinity and very little change in UCD, which also hit it pretty neat on Round One.

Reading the Points: Where there are no points at all listed opposite a course in Round Two, this means that no places at all were offered; it remains exactly as in Round One. Where the same points as in Round One are listed, this means that some "tidying up" offers have been made. There are students whose Leaving Cert results may have been amended in the meantime because a clerical error was discovered, students who, for some reason, did not have all their subjects counted for points, who may have forgotten to include a subject sat in an earlier exam on the CAO application form, or maybe they had some UK A Levels, the results of which did not reach the CAO on time.

If such people were found, after Round One, to be genuinely entitled to a place and were on or above the cut-off points, they would get an offer in the second round; this accounts for offers on courses which are showing exactly the same points as in Round One.

Where the same points are showing in both rounds, but with the random selection asterisk * missing the second time around, it means that any outstanding applicants waiting on random have been cleared and all should have got an offer in the post this morning.

Changes in Points: Some of the changes are interesting. Pharmacy in Trinity has come down to a more realistic 545; this reflects the additional 20 places created by Trinity this year, bringing the number from 50 up to 70 for the first time in decades. Trinity is building a new pharmacy building which will be ready next year and as first year pharmacy students spend most of their time in general science lectures, it was felt that the additional 20 could be "taken in this year.

Pharmacy is now at last falling from the unenviable position of highest points course which it held for many years - purely because of the places "being capped at 50; this, it should be added, was through no fault of Trinity's - they had been asking for a bigger building for years. also took quite a dive from 570 to 555 in Trinity, for reasons referred to above; this will certainly have cheered up quite a number of Dublin-based applicants and will, in all likelihood, free up a few places in UCC and UCG medicine in the third round as Dubliners who have already accepted medicine places there give them up to accept the Trinity offers.

Medicine seems to be settling in around the 540-55 level in most colleges; in UCD, true, it sits on 750, but that still includes a bonus of a possible maximum of 40 points for higher levels maths. This bonus goes from 1998 onwards, and will in all likelihood bring the Trinity-UCD points more into line.

Physiotherapy has fallen back a bit from the ridiculous heights of Round One - when it was ahead of medicine. It's down 10 points to 565 in UCD and 535 in Trinity - but both colleges have quite a few students still on the waiting list on random selection on these points.

Veterinary at UCD has managed to clear the outstanding applicants waiting on 575, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any further reductions; this one is always going to remain very difficult to get into - and no, there are no backdoors!.

At UCD, actuarial studies which had the highest points at 595 in Round One, has fallen a miserly five points to 590, leaving it still the top points scorer. But one has to bear in mind that a minimum of a B in higher maths is required for this course.