Leaving Cert class of 2023, have you made your CAO application yet?
Donegal Career Guidance Counsellor Rory White is advising students to make the application NOW and then take time to make smart choices.
Article by Rory White:
The early bird deadline to apply to CAO is coming up at 5.15pm on Friday 20th. This means that you can apply for a reduced rate of €30- it will rise to €45 after this until the February 1st deadline (Late Registration opens in early March for a €60 fee).
Students should note that it is enough for now to simply register your application with CAO. Your final course choices do not have to be made at this stage*. A Change of Mind facility will also open up in a few months time for you to make any adjustments.
(*The exception to this is if you are applying to a ‘Restricted’ course. These are those courses that require additional elements such as a HPAT, Portfolio or Audition. These courses must be added before the February 1st deadline)
To apply to CAO, go to www.cao.ie and click on ‘Apply’. Potential applicants are advised to consult the CAO Handbook for all the important application information. An online version of the CAO Handbook is available through this link.
When you have made your application you should take your time to decide on which courses you add. Going to college is an exciting and very important time in any student’s life and care should be taken with your application in order to give yourself the best chance of getting on to a course that suits you.
Put plenty of thought into your course choices
Unfortunately, every year there are many students that drop out of college early when they realise the course they applied for isn’t what they imagined it would be. This should not be something that you want to happen to you so you need to do all you can at this stage to prevent it. The potential for this situation to happen to you can be lessened if you take your time and thoroughly research both the colleges and the courses that you put on your CAO application. There are quite a number of things that you can and should do to become better informed.
Attend Open Days
Nothing beats visiting a college to get the vibe of the place. It’s crazy really if you apply for a course somewhere that you haven’t even visited. Colleges have already held Open Days in the Autumn but there are Spring Open Days planned around now so make the most of them. You can check out the Events Calendar on Careers Portal for a list of these. There are also many online platforms that you can check out. College marketing departments now run a huge array of virtual events such as open days, college tours, webinars, talks and live Q&A sessions to get their information across to interested students. A lot of the time the recordings of these are then uploaded onto their websites. Students (and parents) could tune into these for a closer look at what they have to offer.
Check out the college socials
All students should also pay attention to the social media streams from the colleges and other career guidance accounts. Look them up and follow their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, many of them are also now on TikTok. These pages are often very active and allow students to see in more detail what a college is like and what a course entails. Some colleges get current students to take over their account for the day and this can also provide an alternative view of a college or course.
Drill down into your course choices
Some students can be a little lazy and only look at the title of the course. They like the sound of it and stick it down on their application. To leave things like that is extremely foolish. Students should go deeper and find out as much as they can about what the course involves before committing to it. What modules will you be studying? Do they look interesting to you? Is there any Work Experience included? What are the typical career paths for graduates afterwards? Is there an option to travel during the degree? All of these are important questions that can be answered when you look into the finer details.
Where should I look for more information?
CareersPortal has all of the information that a student needs when researching a career area. Their CourseFinder has over 4,000 courses listed, each one is clearly explained and will contain links to any related information, news and video content for that course. It also has an easy to use filter system which allows you to quickly whittle down your options and find the courses that are best suited to you.
They CareerExplorer also has over 1,000 careers profiled with everything you need to know about what the career involves, the type of person suited to it, how you can enter the career, what the pay is like and even what the job prospects are like. There are literally hundreds of videos and career stories there as well that can give great insights.
It’s good to talk…
Everyone applying to college should try to get as much information as they can from the people who have been there and done that. Talk to your Guidance Counsellor in school, ask them questions or if they know anything else about a course. Maybe talk to some of your teachers, they can often know you quite well and what you may be suited to. Many of you will also know someone who has either been to, or is still at college, who could have some little nuggets of good information for you. Ask them what they think of it, what is the best part about it, what is the hardest part of it, have they any advice for you. Talk to your parents, friends and relations, they can often know you better than you know yourself!
The more information you gather, the better decision you will be able to make.
It is YOUR choice at the end of the day and it is important for you to be your own person and try to make a rounded judgement of your own. Just because someone says they love or hate the course, might not mean the same for you. Take what they are saying on board but keep this in mind.
Finally, some other key considerations to think about.
There are also some extremely important questions that you should give due consideration to-
- Do you want to study close to home or would you prefer to move away?
- What will the financial implications be? Fees, accommodation costs, etc
- What are your career prospects likely to be when you finish?
Selecting the course you will be studying next year is quite a big decision, and big decisions should be given time and really should not be rushed into. Put the time and effort into it and hopefully it will all be very worthwhile, you owe this to yourself. Best of luck!
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