Science joins the top tier as points see dramatic rise
Students aren’t the big winners this year as points for many courses have increased, with science and technology courses experiencing the sharpest growth
IT’S A tough year for students. CAO points have soared in science and technology, but they have also risen for most business, nursing, engineering and medicine-related courses. While points have fallen in some areas like construction-related courses and some arts courses, the fall off has been in no way as dramatic as the rise.
Points for most courses in Dublin colleges have risen while UL (which has operated a bonus point system for maths for 20 years) saw points falling overall.
UL saw strong demand in nursing and education courses while NUIG’s engineering, nursing and technology courses were all strong players. However, arts and business courses in both colleges suffered.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Science is now officially a high points course with courses in TCD and UCD hitting the 500-point mark. Points for TCD’s science degree surged by 35 to bring it to 515 while UCD’s entry requirement jumped by 45 to 500.
Science education in NUI Maynooth also jumped from 470 points last year to 500 this year. Elsewhere, the trend is similar although it may be slightly less dramatic. Biotechnology in DCU is up 30 to 465 while science in NUIG is up 10 to 380 with random selection. More specialised science courses such as biotechnology and biomedical science in NUIG are up significantly by 30 and 35 points respectively.
Technology is another winner this year. Computer science courses are up overall. DIT’s computer science degree now requires 400 points for entry – a rise of 50 on last year. Points for TCD’s computer science course took a massive jump of 65 points to 450 this year, while UCD’s course rose to 470 points – a rise of 60 on last year.
ARTS
First-choice applications for arts dipped by more than 1,000 this year and it shows. While points for UCD arts (the largest course in the country) remain unchanged at 355, elsewhere the drop has been dramatic.
NUIG’s arts programme now has an entry requirement of just 300 points – a drop of 40 – and practically all of the college’s more specialised arts programmes such as arts with film studies have seen points falling. UL’s arts programme fares a little better at 415 points but this is still a drop of 35 on last year. Arts in UCC and NUIM stand at 335 and 370 respectively, both seeing a fall of 10 points.
Points for journalism have fallen significantly. Journalism in DCU has fallen to 410, from 440 last year. Meanwhile, journalism in DIT is down to 400 from 415 last year.
MEDICINE AND VETERINARY
Veterinary now requires a virtually perfect Leaving Cert for entry. Points have risen by 20 to a huge 585 this year.
Entry to medicine, of course, is entwined in the HPat results but overall entry requirements are up in the colleges by an average of six points. TCD has the highest requirement at 746, while NUIG is the lowest at a still whopping 737 points.
Other courses such as pharmacy are also up by quite a bit. UCC’s pharmacy course rose by 30 points to 575 this year. The story was similar in RCSI where the points rose to 565 with random selection. TCD’s pharmacy course is up 25 to 575, again with random selection.
