The CAO form is four pages long. And most students will have only have to contend with the first two pages. So, why do many students send off incorrectly completed forms each year?
It may simply be nerves or it could be that you are so caught up in studying for the Leaving Certificate, you put career guidance aside as an optional extra, something that won't be examined in June. The reality is that choosing a path after school is something that requires your efforts now.
Filling out the form should be the culmination of a process of research. Don't fill out the form if you haven't talked to your guidance counsellor and parents. Equally, don't fill it out if you haven't read the college prospectuses. The one-line course description in the CAO handbook is not something on which you should base your future.
If you have put in the work, you should next familiarise yourself with the general information contained in the front section of the CAO handbook.
That done, it's time to take out the pen - or switch on the computer - and fill out that form (keeping the handbook close by at all times).
Page one is straightforward. It asks for personal details such as name, address, and schools attended. Hardly a big deal. But, the commonest error reported by the CAO is made by students who substitute the date on which they are filling out the form for their date of birth. This strange propensity is clearly the product of nerves and is a strong argument for photocopying the form and filling out a practice version first. Ask a friend, relative or your guidance counsellor to check the real version before you post it. The CAO returns erroneous forms and charges £5.50 for reprocessing them.
Page two is the important page. It contains two separate lists - one for degrees and one for certs and diplomas. These lists operate independently of each other so you should pay equal attention to both.
Many students leave the cert/diploma list blank because they are only interested in degrees. If you do this, you are cutting yourself off from, believe it or not, good degree options. There is a well-trodden path from cert to diploma to degree and the number of add-on degrees available is increasing each year. And, of course, certs and diplomas are perfectly good qualifications in their own right.
Remember, if you fill out both lists you may well end up with, not one, but two college offers.
The CAO allows you to list up to 20 courses in all, and you should try and use this facility to the full. The vital thing is to list the courses in order of preference. This means you should put the course you want most at the top of the list.
The course topping your list should not be the culmination of labyrinthine calculations about points and places. It should simply be your dream choice, the one you want above all others. Each year, The Irish Times helpline and the CAO receive tearful phone calls from students who did better in the Leaving Cert than they had expected. Unfortunately, they had listed the courses in the order in which they had "guesstimated" the points would lie.
Students also frequently underestimate their own potential Leaving Certificate performance. All of this means you could be offered your first choice but really want something a little further down your list.
If you are offered your first choice, you will not be made any further offer. All of the courses listed below the course that you were offered are effectively wiped out by the CAO computer. You can move up the list but not down. Bear this in mind as you fill out your form.
Once pages one and two are completed, most school-leavers should be ready to visit the bank to pay the application fee prior to posting the form off to Galway.
Special category applicants must also fill out pages three and four. These applicants include students who have sat NCVA/PLC courses; students with previous third-level education; mature applicants and those with trade or craft qualifications (turn to pages 8 and 9 of the CAO handbook).
Each year, many applications have to be delayed because of problems with pages 3 and 4 and related documentation, cautions the CAO. You must supply the CAO with a photocopy of pages 3 and 4 of the form for each higher level institution to which you are applying. Equally, any other attachments with pages 3 and 4 must be photocopies so that there is a set for the CAO and each college.
Before you post off your form, you should take a photocopy and keep it for reference. Don't forget to get the certificate of posting, on the back page of your CAO handbook, stamped.
