AS Leaving Cert students return to school this morning and face the serious business of filling out their CAO form by February 1st, they can console themselves that there has not been a better year for college applicants in a long time.
There has been a dramatic increase in college places since last year, the number of CAO applicants will probably be down, the jobs situation for graduates is positively booming and fees have been abolished. So overall it should be easier to get into college, it will cost less and the jobs situation at the end of three or four years study is very promising indeed.
It is not a year in which anybody should be wavering about whether it is worthwhile to go to college or not and it is a year in which putting plenty of thought and research into getting one's choices right on that CAO/CAS form is more important than ever.
Every year this column encounters students who fill out the form in a slapdash fashion without giving any serious thought to what the particular courses involve. Yet, the implications of one's CAO course choices are far reaching, determining to a certain extent a student's future economic and social circumstances, quality of life and personal well being.
Other students make decisions based on inadequate knowledge of the employment situation; students continue to see law and medicine for example, as safe job bets despite considerable employment problems in both areas. Yet, several electronics degrees failed to till all their places in recent years and employers area queuing up at the colleges to find electronics graduates. Indeed, some employers have been forced to hire electronics personnel abroad.
Over the next three weeks, this column will provide information and guidance daily for those making course choices and filling out the CAO/CAS form by February 1st. Filling out the form in itself is no big deal; it is very simple, in fact.
What is much more difficult is picking the courses to list as one's preferences on the form and finding out about the different courses and colleges and the employment situation for graduates in the different disciplines. This is what the Countdown column will be helping students to do over these vital three weeks.
Much of this work will already have been done by school guidance counsellors. But getting a good overview of the jobs situation can be quite difficult. Over the past few weeks, this column has been researching the jobs situation and we will provide the most up to date view on how the different qualifications and disciplines are performing in the jobs market.
COLLEGE PLACES: There are plenty of college places there for all. Don't be misled by the idea that "you have to be a genius to get into college that is simply not true.
There are people who got into perfectly good RTC courses last year with under 200 points in the Leaving Certificate courses which can, and often do, lead to a degree qualification at the end. We hear and read a lot about the high points courses, but there are more places on courses with fewer than 300 points in the CAO/CAS system than on courses over 300 points.
Thousands of students with average Leaving Cert results get into college each year. The average Leaving Cert score, incidentally, is 240 points. That means that 50 per cent of all candidates score 240 points or less; only 10 per cent get over 460 points and 5 per cent get the magical 500 or more.
So, if you are an average student who will come in between 200 and 300 points, there is a place there for you, too.
About 60,000 students sit the Leaving Cert; it was 62,000 last year, but because of the extension of the Transition year, the Department of Education expects it to fall by around 5,000 this year, so it could be as low as 57,000.
For those 57,000 students, there are 32.500 CAO/CAS places available. There are another 18,500 PLC (Post Leaving Cert courses) places; somewhere be tween 3,000 and 5,000 take up places in British and Northern Irish universities and there are various other assorted colleges. So you see there are plenty of opportunities for every Leaving Cert student - it's a question of looking around.
RESEARCH: It may sound is the most important step in approaching CAO/CAS course choices. Amazingly, many people still fill out the form without reading the detailed account of course content in the college brochures and find out too late that the content of the course they have been offered is not what they thought it was.
The biggest mistake any student can make is to fill out the CAO/CAS form simply from the details in the handbook. The CAO handbook tells you nothing about a course but its name and code. It is essential to get the college brochures and individual faculty and course brochures from the colleges to find out exactly what a course involves, what options are available under it, what careers it leads to, what specific subjects it requires.
If you haven't done so already, get copies of those immediately.
The inside front cover of the CAO handbook has telephone numbers and addresses for all the colleges; get on to them and get the brochures fast. The school careers room will have copies of them of course, but it is useful for parents and student to be able to study them together at home. To make a course choice without consulting those brochures is a form of refined madness.
OVERVIEW: Guidance counsellors will have done much work with students already and some will have made their choices. But now is a good time to sit back take stock and look at the overall picture; this is better than digging yourself into one particular area on which you think you've already decided or concentrating on a narrow range of possible careers.
This first week or two is a time to broaden your horizons, resolve to learn as much as you possibly can about ALL courses, so that when you come to take the final decision in late January, you are doing so as fully informed as you possibly can.
FILE: A good tip for all CAO/CAS applicants is to set up a college applications file for yourself now; it can be a big envelope, a plastic bag, a trendy file or a drawer in your desk - it doesn't matter. The important point to set aside a space where you will store all those college brochures, information about your CAO application, your Leaving Cert and CAO numbers - when they arrive, and all the various other communications you will get from the CAO over the next nine months.
Believe me, if you don't there will be many occasions between now and next September when you will regret not setting up a file.
OPEN DAYS:
. UL has two open days this year tomorrow and Wednesday (both days will follow the same format), and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, also has an open day on Wednesday so undecided students could visit both UL and Mary I on the same day.
. Trinity College is holding two information evenings for parents and Leaving Cert students on Thursday, January 18th and Thursday, January 25th. Places are limited and tickets are available on a first come, first served basis. Contact the Admissions Office, West Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin 2.