CAO choice help

LittleNicky86

Hi guys,

I need some CAO choice help.

I applied via CAO for this year to study mature entry medicine and have just realised i didnt add Galway. I know i can add an additional medicine choice up until 1st March as i already had medicine down before 1st feb but im wondering if it 'looks bad' and maybe i shouldnt do it? Has anyonr here done this and been ok?

Also while googling to try and find the amswer i saw a thread on here from the CAO about adding choices to always have a plan b and never be left with nothing. Have people ever done this? Like fot example apply for nursing/physio/healthcare as a backup career or general science as a 'backdoor to medicine'? Does it not look bad like you dont really know what you want? My application is very geered to medicine but im dubious about getting a place. Not sure peoples thoughts on this?

Anybody done either of these things and been successful. Thanks

DeeAvery

LittleNicky86 wrote: »

Hi guys,

I need some CAO choice help.

I applied via CAO for this year to study mature entry medicine and have just realised i didnt add Galway. I know i can add an additional medicine choice up until 1st March as i already had medicine down before 1st feb but im wondering if it 'looks bad' and maybe i shouldnt do it? Has anyonr here done this and been ok?

Also while googling to try and find the amswer i saw a thread on here from the CAO about adding choices to always have a plan b and never be left with nothing. Have people ever done this? Like fot example apply for nursing/physio/healthcare as a backup career or general science as a 'backdoor to medicine'? Does it not look bad like you dont really know what you want? My application is very geered to medicine but im dubious about getting a place. Not sure peoples thoughts on this?

Anybody done either of these things and been successful. Thanks

The colleges don't know what order or what other choices you have, heck I applied for multiple courses in Maynooth and Trinity and the individual courses didn't know I had applied for the other. You could go to your interviews and say its your first choice to help you get an offer, when you know its the last of your list, how are they to know? As long as you don't miss application deadlines for when it has to be on your CAO it doesn't matter. Every year, in all entry routes there are people constantly chopping and changing.

As regards to having a back door, you need to do a bit of cost-benefit analysis. If you get offered plan B you still have to do that degree for 3/4+ years, so you better want to still do that degree. Also that will use up any undergrad grants, beta etc. you may be entitled to. Then you'd presumably apply to graduate entry medicine which presumably is just if not more competitive then traditional/mature entry. TCD's Mature Student officer said to me that she gets the most inquires about Medicine and Social Work. What I'm saying is, you need to question is it worth it for YOU going through trying to get in to medicine again in the 3/4+ years time, or just waiting another year and then trying again.

Another option if you don't get it is doing an access course or below level 8 course for the year and then try again. Most of the mature students I meet in Trinity have done something before whatever degree they are on now. Its all luck at the end of the day, they get more applications then places unfortunately.