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THERE’S SOME INTERESTING news for Ireland’s Leaving Cert students this morning with the release of CAO data regarding the initial phase of college applications.
Business and Administration courses top the poll, with 103,780 students choosing such a course, 21,218 of which are first preference.
This is followed by Arts / Social Science courses (101,500 choices, 19,721 first preference), Science (80,114 choices, 16,092 first choice), and Engineering (64,411 choices, 16,654 first choice).
The more students who apply for a course the tighter the points race for it should eventually be, although this varies depending upon how large the capacity of a course is (Arts for instance will generally have a very large capacity, Veterinary much less so).
Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry courses are the lowest subscribed in the country with just 6,287 choices, and 2,145 first preferences between them.
Courses that saw a big increase in applications since 2014 include Education (up 550 in choices) and Other Healthcare (occupational therapy for example – up 1,083 in choices).
Arts (5,653) and Science (6,143) both saw big drop-offs in take-up, as, rather worryingly, did Nursing (2,098, or 6% less applications than in 2014).
As might be expected Dublin saw the largest amount of applications with 17,146. Leitrim (525), Longford (630), and Carlow (881) bring up the rear with the least amount of applications made.
Leinster counties (37,098) saw almost twice as many applications as Munster (19,368).
A total of 74,424 applications were received by CAO by the 1 February initial closing date, an increase of roughly 1,300 applicants from the previous year. The male-female split of the applications is quite close with 51.9% female applicants versus 48.1% male.
There were a total of 10,763 mature applicants, i.e. over 23 years of age, a slight reduction on the previous year.
The CAO’s Change of Mind facility will remain open for students until 1 May. General Manager of the CAO Joseph O’Grady sought to reassure undecided students that they will still be able to avail of the facility until that date.
“The majority of CAO Applicants will be permitted to use the ‘Change of Mind’ facility when it opens on 5 May to add, remove or re-order course choices, which will result in changes to the figures released today,” he said.
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Shock that a course like nursing has seen a big drop off; who wouldn’t want to spend years pouring work into a discipline only to be taken advantage of and treated like shite at the end of it.
Not surprising that there’s a drop off in nursing applications, where’s the motivation to study something when you know there won’t be a job at the end of it.
Nursing is an international career, with opportunities for travel and work worldwide.
Very well said Sean. I did Nursing…retired now. Loved every minute..travelled & worked abroad too.. USA & UK. I can honestly say it was the makings of me. A wonderful Profession, not greatly paid I’ll admit, but the satisfaction one gets, no amount of money can compensate that.
Id recommend it to anyone.
After spending the best part of the last 3 weeks in Beaumont hospital, I decided if my 17 yr old daughter told me she wanted to study nursing, I would be devastated. I would encourage her to do ANYTHING else. Horrendous working environment, bad wages, treated like crap by the government and security needed to protect you in A&E! Nursing prepares you for one thing and one thing only….A one way ticket out of Ireland.
Students see what’s happening in Health service.Why would any one want to be a nurse.Abuse and jaw wages.
The two biggest growth sectors – pharmaceutical and IT have low application numbers.
Although they are growing quickly only a portion of any new jobs are science and engineering positions. They still need accountants, HR, etc. No harm really considering those positions are easily transferable across industries.
Is anyone surprised ?
Excellent to see so many arts students. May I suggest geography it is nothing like the leaving and has plenty of career opportunities that you can travel with. I am almosy finished my 3rd geography degree, 2nd masters and my plan is to map coral reefs around the world. These are the kinds if opportunities arts (geog!) can open up!
I would be more concerned about all those indoctrinated students who managed to acquire a student loan of +-€30K.
Most students seem to be living in the fallacy that they will be offered a great job once they qualify but this isn’t the case for most of them.
People should never forget that a university is just another business and they couldn’t give a shite if you have to pack shelves in Tesco’s for the next 30 years in order to pay back your student loan.
This isn’t America, college is an affordable price here with various grants to apply for if one can not afford to go to college. I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone in Ireland with a €30K student loan and I don’t know many who had to take any kind of student loan.
Just as well this isn’t American mentality otherwise I would really be worried.
Student loan debt currently stands at $1.349.508.765.000 and counting.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The €30K was just a hypothetical number but the point being is that 3rd level education isn’t free and I know some people are fortunate enough to be offered a grant but this doesn’t apply to 95% of students.
Above all else you need to pick something you enjoy, that will make you a reasonable living rather than something where there’s loads of jobs at the moment. Your working life is very long and its awful if your doing something you dislike or are not interested in. I’m speaking from experience, I would have loved to be a nurse (too late now) regardless of the pay, etc. but due to very ill health throughout school it was not possible. Go with your heart.
What’s the applications PER HEAD? Who has the Highest / Lowest applications tell us nothing!
Nursing points unreasonably high, not enough places, numbers drop, no surprise
have your say