Going to College/Kathryn Holmquist: Now that medical education is to be reformed, some students who didn't make it this year are seeing a glimmer of hope.
Students who just missed the points required for medicine in 2003 are contending with the rumour mill which is grinding overtime about various new routes to completing the course.
The Department of Education and Science has no career advice to give.
While no one can predict precisely what will happen, students would do well to consider what the deans of the medical schools would like to see happen.
Their thinking is that aspiring doctors should have degrees in humanities, sciences, law, business or even music.
They view Harvard Medical School, where 40 per cent of the intake is from the humanities, as a model.
The deans' views carry much weight within the interdepartmental working group on medical education, founded in July.
Both the Departments of Health and Education are involved, which is why Mr Dempsey's recent solo announcement about reform caused some surprise.
Whatever its precise shape, it is likely that in four years' time, when the medical schools have their first intake under the reformed system, people with non-scientific degrees will definitely be considered.
This means that if you missed out on medicine this year, you have a choice: resit your Leaving Cert in the hope of boosting your points and joining the last traditional intake of medical students in 2004; or take a degree in something else and apply to medical school in 2007.
Part of the plan being discussed by the working group is that in 2005 and 2006 there will be a pause when no new students will be taken into medical schools.
Next year's Leaving Cert students would then be the last to enter medical school in the traditional way.
Among this year's intake of medical students, there are already some who have entered through alternative routes. For example, UCD medical school is bringing on board seven mature students from non-medical disciplines.
It is also bringing four students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who scored approximately 450 points in the Leaving, into medical school as part of the New Era affirmative action programme.
Some critics have suggested that the answer isn't to change the system, but to make more places available. However, the working group has found that to reduce the points required for medicine to 500, another 500 places would have to be provided, bringing the total number to more than 800.
That is not going to happen. The medical education system is struggling as it is. It can barely manage on the Government funding it gets now - €8,000 a student compared to €36,000 a student in Glasgow, which is why medical schools continue to bring in more fee-paying non-EU students.
When medical courses are taken out of the Leaving Cert picture, a drop in points requirements overall is expected by some. However, more than 36 university subjects, other than medicine, require at least 500 to 590 points.
These are unlikely to drop significantly simply because medicine is removed from the system.
Nor are we likely to see a drop in the points required for the "therapies" - physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and so on. The medical school deans do not envisage making these a part of the new medical education system.
If a degree was required before studying one of these therapies, qualification would take seven years or more.
It is believed that this would not be worthwhile considering the relatively low payscales for these professions, compared with medicine.This column will appear each day until Friday.
The helpline will resume on Tuesday, September 2nd, the day of second-round CAO offers.