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No idea what to put on my cao?

  • 27-01-2016 10:38pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 511 ✭✭✭


    I know I've posted this before but I'm still no closer,
    I'm 18, don't really want to repeat and I don't know what course I want, what area/field or what college.
    The only career I've ever really wanted was medicine but that was a pipe dream, I don't do chemistry (can do a 6 year course instead) and I doubt I would get those stupendously high points.
    I don't fancy any career in the medical field other than studying medicine/being a doctor. I don't want to work under the career I wanted to have.

    So I really don't know what to do. I won't be repeating unless I really and truly feel like I've no other option but medicine.
    Any ideas?


Comments

  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,088 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Take a year off, volunteer in some quasi medical setting in a developing country and see do you feel the same after a year.

    If you do, it will stand as great experience to give you the impetus to come back and do a Leaving with the subjects you don't currently have, and if you don't feel the same, then that's better than going headlong into something you may not like at all.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 511 ✭✭✭TheBiz


    I don't think that would work, I'll be 19 by the time I finish the LC and 21 if I repeat after the year volunteering and I don't have the means to fund a year volunteering


  • Registered Users Posts: 893 ✭✭✭mhackett102


    If I were you I'd take a year out. Dont go rushing into a course that you arent sure about - there's nothing worse than not liking something that you are then stuck doing.

    As spurious said above, try get into that line of work (offer to volunteer and you would probably have a better chance of getting in) and then you will know if you like that line of work and then establish what pathway to go to get into that position.

    As I said already, do not go into a course just becuase "you didnt know what to put down on your cao and that course seemed grand". The amount of people I know who have dropped out of their courses because they didnt know what it involved is incredible.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,088 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    TheBiz wrote: »
    I don't think that would work, I'll be 19 by the time I finish the LC and 21 if I repeat after the year volunteering and I don't have the means to fund a year volunteering

    There are volunteering schemes such as those run by the EU where they pay you a small allowance and money towards your fare. Volunteering doesn't have to cost you anything. There are plenty disadvantaged places in the EU could do with help.

    I wouldn't worry about the age thing, one extra year is nothing. If you do go for Medicine you'll be 30 odd realistically before what many would see as settled into your career.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 855 ✭✭✭TSMGUY


    Usually I agree with Spurious but here I'm gonna have to disagree. I just turned 19 and decided to do the LC again like a fortnight ago. Even though I got 510, I'm 15 points away from the course I wanted so I feel your pain! Don't settle for less and don't waste a year procrastinating! You wanted to be a doctor so you're probably very intelligent, I presume your problem is a poor work ethic. You have 132 days until the LC. Used properly, you can get the points you need to do medicine and then spend the next year studying for the HPAT.

    “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”

    ― Jim Rohn


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 511 ✭✭✭TheBiz


    I've gone through the motions of wanting to do nothing but medicine yet I'm still stupid enough to not do the work, so I may be intelligent but if I can't apply it I may aswell not have it.
    If I was to repeat I'd need to go to somewhere like the educational institute or Yeats because the reality is; when I pm doing subjects I have no interest in (Irish French etc) I do everything and anything possible to avoid extra work). When/If I get into medicine it would be far more tangible and real.
    I don't know, I've gone through this a lot, too often and yet I'm still here again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 468 ✭✭aine92


    TheBiz wrote: »
    I don't want to work under the career I wanted to have.
    ?

    I stumbled across the LC forums, it's been almost 6 years since I did my LC. I wanted to do medicine, and this sentence really struck me as so bizarre. Infact, it's very shortsighted and ignorant.

    I was 20 points short, didn't get medicine, took my 9th CAO choice, and while I wouldn't advise everyone to do the same, I lucked out and absolutely loved my course. I did neuroscience in UCD, I work as a neuroscientist and it's great; challenging but great.

    I don't know why the idea of "working below a doctor" is even on your radar. The scientific field is so large, I think you need to check yourself..!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 511 ✭✭✭TheBiz


    aine92 wrote: »
    I stumbled across the LC forums, it's been almost 6 years since I did my LC. I wanted to do medicine, and this sentence really struck me as so bizarre. Infact, it's very shortsighted and ignorant.

    I was 20 points short, didn't get medicine, took my 9th CAO choice, and while I wouldn't advise everyone to do the same, I lucked out and absolutely loved my course. I did neuroscience in UCD, I work as a neuroscientist and it's great; challenging but great.

    I don't know why the idea of "working below a doctor" is even on your radar. The scientific field is so large, I think you need to check yourself..!

    I don't mean it in the sense that I'd hate to take orders from a doctor, what I meant to say was I'd hate to work under a doctor knowing that that was what I was striving for and the sole reason I didn't achieve it was because of my laziness.
    I've always wanted to work in healthcare..


  • Registered Users Posts: 468 ✭✭aine92


    TheBiz wrote: »
    I don't mean it in the sense that I'd hate to take orders from a doctor, what I meant to say was I'd hate to work under a doctor knowing that that was what I was striving for and the sole reason I didn't achieve it was because of my laziness.
    I've always wanted to work in healthcare..

    It's a long way until the exams, if you want it then go after it. If you don't get it, then repeat. Apply for England. There's an abundance of ways to get there if you want it enough. I didn't repeat, I was intending on going in graduate entry, but by the time I finished my degree I realised it was no longer what I wanted to do. It's hard to know what you want to do when you're so young; take your time and make the right decision. Do biomedical science with the intention of going into graduate entry, and if not you are still left with a great degree.


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