CAO points, vacant places, round two offers, lost forms, confusion over entry requirements. Over the past two weeks, the Irish Times Results Helpdesk has answered a variety of queries, mostly from students, but some from parents.
Brian Howard, a career guidance counsellor from Newbridge College, Co Kildare, is a former national secretary of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, and he also produces and edits the Directory of Leaving Certificate Entry Requirements for the institute. He has been staffing the helpdesk for more than five years, and he says it's never been busier.
“On the day when the CAO first found offers were made, we answered more than 250 queries. It is possible that the popularity of the helpdesk is because of the cuts that have been made to guidance counselling in schools.”
Deirdre Garrett, a guidance counsellor in Monasterevin and secretary of the BSTAI Kildare branch, has also answered hundreds of online queries for The Irish Times Results Helpdesk in recent weeks, and agrees students are seeking more information from alternative sources.
“There’s less time for one-on-one guidance in the classroom and guidance counsellors are now a lot less available than they would have been a few years back. Both students and parents lack clarity.”
Both guidance counsellors noticed some trends in the queries posted. Garrett says students are often confused about the order of preference on the CAO form and they aren’t clear on the fee implications of dropping out of college in first year.
Howard says students have asked about how the CAO allocates college places, how to lodge an appeal on Leaving Cert results and about the process for applying for the late availability Vacant Places on cao.ie.
Points but no offer A number of people who got the points required didn’t receive a CAO offer. “It may be because they did not respond to a letter from the CAO looking for details of Leaving Cert numbers or FETAC awards,” says Howard. “This is an example of the complexity of the system and of why students need to keep an eye on the ball.”
Several students, or their parents, asked about the allocation of places. In particular, they wanted to know whether accepting their fourth preference in round one would rule out the possibility of securing their first, second or third place in the second or third round.
"Accept the course," advise the Irish Times career experts. "You may still be offered course choices that are above your course offer in future rounds. In order to receive an offer of a higher course preference you must meet the cut-off points."
Some students said they felt they made the wrong choice and don’t want to accept either of their two offers. Both Garrett and Howard advise such students to check with the college where they have been offered a place to see whether they could possibly transfer to a more suitable course, but they warn that every third-level college has a different policy.
Queries to the helpline also focused on vacant places, and how students who missed out on the course they wanted could nab one of them. Students can apply for vacant places through their CAO account.
College dropout rates, particularly for Level 6 and 7 courses, remain stubbornly high at around 30 per cent, according to figures released by the Higher Education Authority earlier this year. Garrett says some students are unaware that, if they drop out after October 31st, they may be liable for fees at full economic cost if they take a different course from first year in the following academic year.
Heartbreaking queries Schemes aimed at improving access to third-level for students with disabilities and students from disadvantaged backgrounds have, this year, led to some confusion.
According to Garrett and Howard, there is a lack of clarity, transparency or consistency around the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) and Disability Access Route to Education (DARE) schemes, and both say that this drove a large volume of queries to the helpdesk.
“A lot of students who qualified under HEAR and DARE got the CAO points needed, but didn’t get a place,” says Howard. “We’re in the dark over how colleges make these decisions, and it seems to differ from college to college. Students are asking us for help, but we’ve had to refer them to individual admissions offices.”
With many third-level admissions offices under huge pressure at this time of year, it can be difficult for students to talk to the person they need. This has also driven a high volume of queries to the helpdesk. Howard advises students who really need to speak to a college admissions officer to keep trying, possibly sending an email and then following up with a phone call.
Then, there’s the unanswerable questions, says Howard. “Will CAO points go down in round two or three? Will I be offered a place? We don’t know and won’t know until places come up in round two, and colleges see how many are filled and how many students want to defer. Then we’re into round three and we start again.”
Some of the queries are particularly heartbreaking, says Garrett, and none more so than those from students who missed a college place due to random selection.
“We really do feel their pain. Random selection is most likely in the high points courses such as medicine, pharmacy and speech and language. These students have worked really hard and met all the points and entry requirements, but missed out on a place. It is soul destroying and you’d hope there could be a better way – possibly a test in the area of study for those places.”
Howard says the CAO can be complicated, with a lot difficult rules and regulations. “It is fair but it is also a blunt system and if you don’t follow the rules you could lose a place on a course.
“Younger people are that bit slower to pick up the phone but are very comfortable on the internet, so the online helpdesk worked well.”
