With the Leaving Cert drawing to a close, it is time to consider the CAO change of mind option, advises Brian Mooney
If you are thinking of changing your CAO options for next year, you are not alone.
Over 20,000 students are set to complete the change of mind form before the deadline.
If you have applied for a college place at certificate, ordinary-degree or higher-degree level through the CAO, you need to remember that a change of mind form must be returned to arrive not later than 5.15pm on July 1st at CAO, Tower House, Eglinton Street, Galway.
Those using the postal system should post no later than Wednesday, June 28th. Online applications should be finalised by Thursday 29th to avoid last-minute technical problems on the final date for applications.
For many CAO applicants, the decisions of January seem like distant memories. There may be a temptation not to revisit this process, given the level of exhaustion you are feeling after two gruelling weeks of exams.
This would be a major error, as many things have changed since you made your initial applications. Colleges may have withdrawn some courses or added new ones. All changes are on the CAO website.
You may have changed subject levels from Higher to Ordinary, making you ineligible for a course. An example would be students who applied for degree courses in engineering while studying Higher-level maths, but who eventually took the Ordinary-level paper.
If you are among the one-third of students who used the original application as a holding exercise, because you were not sure what you really wanted to study next year, here are some words of advice.
You are not selecting the career you will work in for the rest of your life. You are simply selecting areas of academic study which you would enjoy studying over the next one to three or four years.
A growing proportion of students take a postgraduate course, following their undergraduate studies, in a specific career-focused field.
If you are still unsure of what courses to list, following research on the Qualifax database, list (in the order you really want them) those courses for which you meet the entry requirements, which interest you, and which you would enjoy studying.
Leave the question of what you will do following completion of the course until your final year, when your options will be much clearer than they are today.
Changing your mind: essential tips
1 Before making any changes to your initial application, read carefully the list of withdrawn and new courses, from those published in the handbook supplied by the CAO. This list is also on the CAO website.
2 Use the Qualifax programme, the national database of all PLC, cert/Ordinary and Higher degree courses offered by colleges in Ireland, to do last-minute research on any changes they may be contemplating. This is available at www.qualifax.ie
3 Always place courses in the order you want them. Do not second-guess your August results.
4 Cover all eventualities by listing a wide range of options at both cert/Ordinary and Higher-degree level.
5 Never list a course unless you have read about its content.
6 Do not be influenced in your course choice by factors such as where friends are applying.
7 Discuss changes you propose to make with a parent or other adult.
8 Follow carefully the CAO regulations to ensure your change-of-mind process is carried out successfully.
9 If using the change of mind form, you should obtain a certificate of postage. You'll find this printed on the inside-back cover of your CAO handbook.
10 You will receive a revised statement of course choices to confirm that your new choices have been entered into your CAO computer record. If this does not arrive by July 15th, you must contact the CAO immediately.
