PSN Guidance and Counselling

Important Notices January 2011

CAO Application

Payment

CAO online application is available at the reduced rate of 30 euro until 21 of January. Students can pay the fee in the bank using the form available from the guidance counsellors or use a credit or laser card. Students who pay using the form can still apply on line by quoting the receipt number the bank issue.


Completing the Form
Students are welcome to complete the CAO application in school with the help of the guidance counsellors but need to remember to bring in the laser/ credit card or the bank receipt. It may also be done at home and parents or guardians with any queries are welcome to contact us.

HEAR and DARE Applications

A HEAR application advice clinic takes place on the 22nd of January in the National College of Ireland at the IFSC. Parents/guardians and students are welcome to attend. It seems to be a drop in event and runs from 10am to 2pm

HEAR refers to the Higher Education Access Route for groups in the population who have not previously accessed third level education easily. Allowance may be made on points for courses if students meet the criteria and provide the necessary documentation to the CAO. More information is available on the website www.accesscollege.ie but briefly students whose parents did not attend third level education when they finished school may qualify. They must also meet the income requirements and qualify for a medical card or live in a disadvantaged area.

DARE applications allow a student with a disability or long term illness, which affects school performance, to have this taken into consideration for entry to college, with a possible allowance on points and possible extra supports while studying. Supporting documentation from a medical professional is required. Additional information is supplied about this on www.accesscollege.ie also

Students intending to apply for either or both of these schemes should indicate this on the CAO application.

Points to Remember

It is possible to apply for twenty courses on the CAO form. We advise that students apply for as many as possible. Naturally it needs to be a course they would like and be interested in but keeping that in mind a wide range of colleges should be considered (not just the nearest one !) and level 6 and 7 courses, where they are available should be included. These can lead to honours degrees so students should put any relevant to them on the form.

Courses must be listed on the CAO form in order of preference. That means that what the student most wants should be first and the course he or she most wants next and so on.

A dream course or courses which you would love should go down, first, if it is what you want most, even if you think you might not get the points. Points may go down or you may get better results than you expect. But be practical as well as ambitious. There should also be courses for which you expect to reach the points level and some, maybe at level 6 or 7, which you could put up with if you do worse than you expect.

Remember there is change of mind ! You do not sign your life away filling the form in this month. You can make changes.

For CAO website click here


Click here for video giving an overview of the CAO process

5th Years

It obviously makes sense to get as much college information as possible together this year before the pressures of sixth year kick in. With that in mind UCD and NUI Maynooth both have events coming up which may kick start the process for you.

The UCD UniLife Summer School takes place between the 8 and 11 of June, on campus. The cost is 25 euro for one day and 50 euro for those subjects having two days of lectures.

Architecture 8 of June
Science 8 and 9 of June
History 9 of June
Law 9 of June
Engineering 9 and 10 of June
Business 10 of June
Computer Science 10 and 11of June

Application form and further information available from


NUIM University Days : Saturday 24 April
Saturday 26 June (programme to be decided)

NUI Maynooth’s university days provide sample lectures, tours, advice for prospective students, a talk for parents, application information for mature students etc. Further information on www.nuim.ie