Confused about the submitting information to the CAO.

dazftw

I signed up today and paid the fee for the CAO. I filled in all the relevant information including the personal statement. It says it's all submitted but I really feel like I'm missing out on something?

I was led to believe the personal statement was a big deal but it was only 1000 characters. I didn't know either there was only one for all the courses you were picking. I now feel like it wont be good enough cause i'm not going into detail for each of the 4 courses I've picked? I gave an overview basically of why I want to go back to full time education and what I hope to achieve at the end. How the course's I've picked have in one way or another been apart of my life since leaving school.

It's such a weird system.

Also it says make sure to post them all relevant information regarding results. I only put in I did a PLC course back in 2010. Is this all I need to send?

paperclip2

Most people type and post their personal statement with their docs, as you're right, the 1000 characters can be quite limited. I'm not sure if you can change it now if you wanted to, but you could check with CAO. If you feel you gave a good rationale for wanting to study the field you selected then you probably won't need to change it. However if you chose courses across a number of subject areas then being able to include a longer statement can be helpful.

Regarding your supporting documentation you usually have to send copies of any certificates you mentioned in the application form. So if you ticked the FETAC box send your FETAC cert, if you also ticked further education or higher education you need to send copies of those certs also.
If you only have the one FETAC cert then thats all you need to send. If you have them to hand it is no harm to include your LC results if you did one. But CAO can get these from the SEC if you include your old LC number.

dazftw

paperclip2 wrote: »

Most people type and post their personal statement with their docs, as you're right, the 1000 characters can be quite limited. I'm not sure if you can change it now if you wanted to, but you could check with CAO. If you feel you gave a good rationale for wanting to study the field you selected then you probably won't need to change it. However if you chose courses across a number of subject areas then being able to include a longer statement can be helpful.

Regarding your supporting documentation you usually have to send copies of any certificates you mentioned in the application form. So if you ticked the FETAC box send your FETAC cert, if you also ticked further education or higher education you need to send copies of those certs also.
If you only have the one FETAC cert then thats all you need to send. If you have them to hand it is no harm to include your LC results if you did one. But CAO can get these from the SEC if you include your old LC number.

Thanks, yeah I felt I gave a good reason for wanting to go anyway. I guess its all down to the interview now.

The subjects I choose were

Social Science
Fine Art
Multimedia
Journalism & Visual Media

So they're kinda the same.

I'll post off my stuff today so.

emalou

my understanding is that you also should include a copy of your birth cert or similar as proof of age

paperclip2

emalou wrote: »

my understanding is that you also should include a copy of your birth cert or similar as proof of age

Where does it say that emalou?

emalou

can't find any exact wording from cao website, but just on a lot of college sites i.e http://www.lyit.ie/admissions/matureapplicants/

says evidence of age is required under the part concerning what documents should be sent... i'm not full sure of it myself it could just be a recommendation, I will be sending a copy of my birth cert though just incase

dazftw

It can't hurt I suppose.

I'll send a copy of mine as well.

I'm going to type up a paragraph or two for each course explaining my reason behind choosing them as well. My statement is very broad and brief.