How do I pick the right list of course choices?
Selecting the correct college programme after leaving second level education is a major challenge for any student.
This is particularly so this year, given that the interactions between students and guidance counsellors were governed by very strict protocols due to Covid-19 restrictions in the first semester before Christmas. This situation has been further exacerbated by the closure of schools over recent weeks, at the peak of the CAO application season.
If for that reason any reader has not as yet had the opportunity to sit down with a guidance counsellor to tease out course options and discuss in depth his/her hopes and aspirations and possibly undertake a battery of aptitude and interest tests, I will attempt to advise you now how to proceed until you get the chance to work face-to-face with your own guidance counsellor in the months ahead.
There are a number of providers who offer online interest inventory tests which a student can take online themselves. A long standing test used by many schools is MyUniChoices, offered by My Future Choices at www.myfuturechoices.com .
A new provider in this market in 2021 based in Cork has launched an interest inventory instrument to assist students identify their CAO course choices at www.yooni.ie
The outcome of both these tests provided students with very valuable information to enable them to explore the study opportunities in as wide an area as necessary to match their skills, interests, and aptitudes.
How to search for courses
Students carry out these course searches on Qualifax, (www.qualifax.ie ), the national database of all programmes offered at FE, undergraduate, and postgraduate levels in Ireland.
Once a prospective student has identified one or more key search words, which relate to their course searches, he/she can enter them into the search field section.
Students can make their course searches as wide or as narrow as possible, for example, prospective students can search for courses at a level, ie, from Levels 5 (FE ) to 10 (PhD ), or within a certain CAO points range, or in a city or geographic region.
To ensure you end up on a course you will enjoy, ensure that you read the full prospectus details of any course you intend listing on your CAO or FE application. That way, you are less likely to drop out of your programme, because you do not enjoy or engage with the actual content of the course you eventually accept.
How to check out if courses are the right ones for you
Having identified a range of potentially suitable courses, students should normally discuss them with their guidance counsellor and parents, before entering them on their CAO application record or FE college application.
In this Covid-19 world it is perfectly OK to list by February 1 these choices, without necessarily having a meeting with your guidance counsellor, as you have complete freedom in the months of May and June to amend them fully, and to introduce at any point on your course list new programmes, excluding restricted course which need to be listed now. You will have ample opportunity to sit down with your guidance counsellor at that stage of the summer.
It is also very advisable to visit the web site of the colleges you are considering applying too. These websites have attempted to replicate online the virtual experience of college open days, which cannot take place this year.
Colleges are also offering online information events for students throughout this year. The details of all such events are on the colleges own websites, as well as on the Qualifax careers event calendar, which is on the homepage of www.qualifax.ie
Why do students often select the wrong courses?
Many students end up on the wrong course and either fail through loss of interest or drop out before the end of first year. How can this happen and what can students or their parents do, to avoid this pitfall?
1. Do not select courses without discussing them fully with your guidance counsellor.
2. Read the course literature carefully. Every year, thousands of students drop out because they do not like the subjects taught on the course, yet these subjects are clearly set out in the college prospectus.
3. Select your course based on what you genuinely want, and not based on where friends are going, or which college has the coolest image, the highest points, or the best social life. All these considerations pale into insignificance, if you end up hating your lectures and eventually dropping out of the course.
4. You may take great care in researching your top choices but become careless with lower preferences. Remember, depending on your Leaving Certificate result and the points required for each of your course choices, it is possible that you will be offered any of your choices, so research fully all those that you intend to list.
When must I apply?
Most students can exercise a change-of-mind facility up to the final date which is July 1, at the end of the week of the last Leaving Certificate examination towards the end of June. This is of course dependent on there being a normal Leaving Cert in 2021. Sin scéal eile.
