Increase in Science points?

biohaiid

Everyone has been talking about how science course points are meant to increase hugely this year, has anyone else heard this?
I wonder would Psychology be considered as one of these courses?
Some people consider it a science, others dont.
And some colleges award a BA and some a BSc, so I dont know.

Incompetent

Yup

Career experts are predicting a dramatic increase in points for many courses when the CAO publishes its first round of college offers next Monday.

...

There is increasing concern that some students with high CAO point scores could struggle to gain places on much coveted courses in science and technology. The requirement for some of these courses in the main universities is set to break the 500-point barrier this year. Six years ago, students could study science in UCD with just 300 points.

Cruel Sun

I don't think Psychology will see much of an increase, but for some science courses, particularly CS ones, ridiculous increases are possible- 70 or 80 points in some cases.

Incompetent

Cruel Sun wrote: »

particularly CS ones, ridiculous increases are possible- 70 or 80 points in some cases.

Hopefully not more than 100

biohaiid

Cruel Sun wrote: »

I don't think Psychology will see much of an increase, but for some science courses, particularly CS ones, ridiculous increases are possible- 70 or 80 points in some cases.

Hopefully not.

rainbowtrout

biohaiid wrote: »

Everyone has been talking about how science course points are meant to increase hugely this year, has anyone else heard this?
I wonder would Psychology be considered as one of these courses?
Some people consider it a science, others dont.
And some colleges award a BA and some a BSc, so I dont know.

More likely to be an increase in the laboratory science courses... biochemistry, environmental science, etc. Agricultural Science in UCD has had a massive leap in points in the last two years.

Couple of reasons for rise ( if there is one on Monday): students have been told for the last number of years 'do science and technology that's where the future and jobs are' so students are starting to pick these courses in greater numbers

People are shying away from courses which were popular pre-recession : construction, architecture, law etc, which puts greater pressure on the science and technology applications.

The extra points for honours maths this year will push up the points for those taking it, and I guess the likelihood is that those students that are science oriented would generally be good at maths also, so I would imagine that a considerable proportion of those applying for science/engineering courses would have HL maths which would raise the points for those courses and perhaps put those applying with OL maths at a disadvantages more so than say those those applying for language oriented courses where there might be a lower proportion of HL maths candidates overall.

Before anyone who is not aiming at a science course has a hissy fit and says they did HL maths, it's just a general observation. There are loads of people on here who do Physics/Chemistry/Applied Maths/HL Maths combinations, more so than arts subjects and HL maths.

Also given that anyone applying for Medicine/Dentistry/Physio/Pharmacy (i.e. the high points, small number of places courses) will also more than likely have HL maths and need it for points in competition for places, not all of them will be offered their first choice and may take a place on another science related course, which would suggest HL maths may have a knock on effect on science course points this year.


However there is no point worrying until Monday as it is all speculation until the offers come out.