A law degree is a broad qualification which opens up a range of careers, including management consultancy, stockbroking, banking, insurance, human resources, politics, journalism, accountancy, lecturing, property management, taxation and information technology, writes Brian Mooney
NUI Dublin (DN009), Cork (CK301) and Galway (GY251) offer a three-year BCL, with points requirements of 500-515. Trinity offers a four-year LLB (TR004), for which 530 points are required.
Law with a language
Trinity offers law with French (TR018) or German (TR019), with points requirements of 560 and 510, respectively.
UCC offers law with French (CK302) or German (CK303) or Irish (CK304), with points requirements of 505, 490 and 505. UCD offers a law and French law option (DN029) requiring 510 points. NUI Galway also offers a corporate law degree (GY250), which requires 475 points. This is a business and law hybrid and you have the option to study French, German or Spanish.
The University of Limerick offers law and European studies (LM042) which required 470 points. This programme combines all the core requirements for professional recognition with a European language and a choice of other disciplines such as history, politics or sociology.
Law with business
UL also offers law and accounting (LM020), 500 points. IT Limerick is offering a four- year law and taxation programme (LC951), 360 points.
UCD offers a highly regarded four-year programme, business, and legal studies (DN021), 495 points. Finally, at higher degree level, DCU offers a programme in economics, politics, and law (DC230), 450 points. DBS offers (DB514) Business in Law at 220 points as a fee-paying option.
Other options
Students taking an arts degree in Galway (GY101) can graduate with a law degree by selecting law in second year along with one other arts subject, qualifying with a BA in legal science.
Griffith (GC403) and (GC402) and Portobello College (PB250) offer law degrees that offer the same opportunities to progress to legal careers as the high point university programmes. Fees of €4,850 apply.
For those interested in legal studies at ordinary degree and national certificate level, there are three programmes offered by the institutes of technology in Waterford and Letterkenny and by Griffith College in Dublin . Add-on degrees are possible in all cases.
New programmes in 2006
This year, UCD has also added new combinations with some of the most popular arts subjects: civil law with politics (DN065), with history (DN060) and with philosophy (DN066).
Waterford IT (WD140) have introduced a four-year honours legal studies programme and IT Carlow (CW134) has introduced a three-year honours legal studies programme.
Becoming a solicitor or barrister
Those interested in becoming a solicitor must take a set of eight three-hour exams set by the Law Society, open to all graduates.
Law graduates would have covered all the content in their degrees. They become apprenticed to law firms or they may choose to work for the Irish Legal Aid Board. For information about the precise steps to becoming a solicitor, consult the Law Society's website at www.lawsociety.ie
To become a barrister,you must take the King's Inns examinations. Law graduates are exempted a major portion of these examinations.
For information on becoming a barrister, consult the Bar Council on www.barcouncil.ie .
Psychology
Psychology degrees are available in a number of institutions. Some are denominated degrees, which include psychology in their title.
For example, NUI Maynooth (MH106), UCD (DN054), NUI Galway (GY104), TCD (TR006), UCC (CK106) and the Dublin Business School (DB562). In other cases, psychology may be taken as an arts subject with possible progression to subsequent years in some cases.
In UCD, arts students (DN012) can take psychology as a minor subject while others can take modules in psychology through the new UCD horizons curriculum, which allows students to choose two out of 12 modules a year from across the university.
Last year the psychology modules were the most popular elective choice for students from outside the arts degree area.
NUI Maynooth has recently changed its offering so that all first arts (MH101) students have the option of taking psychology, with 30 students progressing to second year based on results. Trinity offers psychology in its two-subject moderatorship.
At Mary Immaculate College (LM047), psychology can be taken as part of the general arts degree along with any of 10 other arts subjects including media and communication studies.
The college offers a four-year honours degree programme (MI008) in education and psychology which qualifies students as primary school teachers. Psychology can also be pursued at postgraduate level leading to a qualification as an education psychologist or in other branches of psychology.
There are variations with psychology; for example, UL is introducing a new degree of arts in psychology and sociology. American College (AC141) offers a highly regarded honours degree in behavioural science (psychology).
Other variations include theology and psychology in All Hallows (AH002); psychology applied to information technology in Dún Laoghaire (DL141) and psychology through science at NUI Maynooth (MH209).
Tomorrow: taking the PLC route
Brian Mooney's column on CAO options will appear each weekday in the run-up to the deadline at the end of this month.