COLLEGE applicants can be a very hypocritical lot; they count the number of Leaving Cert candidates, get excited when the numbers fall and then hang on with hated breath for the points to fall. What do they when the points fall cheer? No, they start turning up their noses at excellent courses because "the points are so low".
For that is exactly what the Points Race column has been hearing this year.
"I'm thinking of repeating."
"Oh, did you not get an offer, then?"
"Well, I did, but it is in this course which has very low points and I don't think it would be any good if it's that low, do you?"
The answer to that is that the course is exactly as good as it was when the points were considerably higher than this year. The nature of the course has not changed, the numbers applying has changed because the numbers sitting the Leaving Cert are down. Chances are that a student turning down such a place and repeating could need 20 or 30 more points to get in next year.
Points don't just fall dramatically. As demand falls, more students get their higher preferences, leaving fewer students in line for the lower demand courses, so the fall in points is like a ripple effect going down through the large range of diploma/certificate courses in the RTCs. It doesn't change the value of the courses. And with the normal Leaving Cert cohort having 7,000 additional transition year students dumped on top of it, these courses could well be in high demand again next year.
. POINTS
ONE of the biggest mistakes a student can do is to judge a course by its points; there are some pretty mediocre courses which register very high points and some excellent ones which can be obtained at relatively low points. Points reflect simply the number of places available. Lawn French in Trinity registers 570 points because there are only 10 places.
History/Politics in Trinity is registering 515 points; it, too, has just 10 places. You can do History/Politics through the arts degree at UCD (385 points) and I'm dammed if anyone can persuade me that either one course is better than the other.
It takes 405 points to get into the arts degree at UCG, but you can make it into the UCD arts degree at 385 (random selection). Is one better than the other? Not at all, it's just that UCD has 1,000 places and UCG just over half that amount.
In the area of computer science/computer applications, various computer agencies have rated these degrees for us a: 1. DCU; 2. UL; 3. Waterford RTC. Cork RTC is mentioned as coming up fast but none of the traditional universities featured when I inquired. But how do the points lie? Trinity 420, DCU 415, UCC 410, UL 390, UCG 385, RTC Cork 355, and RTC Waterford 325.
Apart from having probably the best job prospects of any course, you'd expect the points to be higher overall. UCD also provides a computer science degree through its general science entry (415 this year), but I wonder how many students are aware of this, as it does not feature as a separate entry on the CAO form.
Extending this analysis to the question of low points diploma/ certificate courses, we can see a similar rationale. In Round One there were 21,674 places offered on degree courses and 41,372 on diploma/certificate courses. It stands to reason that if you offer twice as many places, you are going to end up much lower down the points ratings.
It's important to realise that the level of points published represents the points score of the last student to get in there are plenty of students with much higher points. So the average points of the class will be much higher.
. NEW DEGREES
THE universities, the Minister for Education and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) are in discussions at the moment with a view to floating an additional 400 university places into the system in round two or round three - or maybe later. The Minister says she has made £1.4 million available to the universities for this and she wants to see the places being provided for students this year.
This is causing considerable hesitancy among applicants. They have read these reports and some are tempted to turn down their certificate/diploma offer in the hope that the magical degree might materialise. Others are having false hopes raised in relation to areas such as medicine, veterinary, physiotherapy, etc.
Points Race would strongly advise applicants to accept whatever they have on offer at the moment and continue in the assumption that this is all they will get. Otherwise they run the risk of ending up with nothing.
Four hundred places spread over seven universities does not add up to a lot of places; neither are they even remotely likely to be in medicine, veterinary, physiotherapy or the other high points paramedical courses. The likelihood is that they will be in general degrees such as business languages, arts and probably some in computing and science/ engineering.
And even in those I would not anticipate big drops in points - remember that something like UCD arts still has quite a waiting list of applicants on 385.
While additional places are always welcome, this column cannot think of any development more designed to create confusion and chaos for applicants than the creation of additional places after the initial college offers have been made.
What have the Minister and the universities being doing all year? Did it only occur to them after the offers season started that they need more places?
Floating new places out through the CAO late in the season will create chaos for everyone; students will be confused as to whether they are likely to get a new offer; many have already made deposits on accommodation in the college of their first offer; and for every new offer made, an existing place is freed up and offered to someone else down the line, whose place in turn is offered on ... so that every single college in the CAO/ CAS system is disrupted.
At the moment we have 20 RTC courses with unfilled vacancies, so how is the conclusion that there is a shortage of places justified? And how many more RTC courses are going to be left with empty spaces when the 400 new university places are offered out?
If there is a new policy to put more people into university degree courses then it needs to be thought through.
. CAO/CAS ACCEPTANCES
Wednesday (August 28th) is the closing date for receipt of CAO/CAS acceptances. You would really need to be posting your acceptance today to be certain of it arising on time. They are absolute sticklers for deadline and nothing, but absolutely nothing, will be accepted after 5.15 p.m. on Wednesday.
If you are still dithering for any reason, you can take the train, bus or hitch to Galway and drop it in personally at 5.14 on Wednesday, but arrive at 5.20 and you've had it.