This article is from page 4 of the 2008-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE long wait for more than 1,200 leaving cert students from Clare will end tomorrow as exam results will be delivered to schools and published on line.
In the same week as the Department of Education announced that third level fees would be a possibility for some families in the future a record 68,112 students will be hoping to be offered a college place this year.
The figure of those applying for college this year is 2,200 higher than last year and has been declared an
all-time high.
Guidance experts have advised stu- dents not to panic if they are disap- pointed when they get their results.
While they may not get the course they were hoping for in the first set of offers, second and third round of- fers could manifest themselves in the coming weeks.
Students are also advised to con- sider other courses that could lead them down their preferred career path eventually.
Interest in nursing, physiotherapy, law and built environment courses has declined this year, while arts,
medicine, science, education and veterinary are more in demand.
The first round of the CAO offers will be published on Monday, and will be available on line at www.cao- ie from 6am on Monday, August 18.
The deadline for acceptance of round one offers is August 26 at 5.15pm.
Meanwhile, celebrating students are advised to be drink aware while partying on Wednesday night.
As many prepare to celebrate their success, drinkaware.ie is urging stu- dents to eat before they head out, carry an ID card, look out for their
friends and plan ahead how they will get home safely.
Ms Fionnuala Sheehan, Chief Ex- ecutive of MEAS said, “We would encourage students to plan ahead and check out the drinkaware.ie website to ensure their night 1s one to remem- ber for all the right reasons.”
As students prepare to celebrate the Minister Batt O’Keefe has been ac- cused of being a party pooper by the NUI Galway Students’ Union.
It has accused the minister of en- gaging in scare tactics by announc- ing third level fees are back on the agenda.