Refused a place in Design Communication

radar0976

My sister in law has been refused a place in Design Commuincation despite having what has been acknowledged as a fantastic portfolio. She has done a number of courses over the past three years including graphic design and animation. She is 21 and had applied for this course through the CAO. She does not know what to do do now and is quite angry and upset having thought she had a good chance and did not get any explanation as to why she was refused?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, is it worth ringing other colleges ?

mahamageehad

Is it possible her LC points weren't good enough?? No idea otherwise

philiporeilly

radar0976 wrote: »

My sister in law has been refused a place in Design Commuincation despite having what has been acknowledged as a fantastic portfolio. She has done a number of courses over the past three years including graphic design and animation. She is 21 and had applied for this course through the CAO. She does not know what to do do now and is quite angry and upset having thought she had a good chance and did not get any explanation as to why she was refused?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, is it worth ringing other colleges ?

I would recommend that she contacts the Head of Department and ask for feedback on why her application was not successful. There are strict grading and marking structures in place for all applications and this information is available upon request. The staff in that Department are very friendly and approachable and should have no problem in advising her.

It may be that her application was very good but there may be limited places and the other applicants excelled in other areas. The only way to find out is to ask.

Also as she is 21, she might be able to apply directly to the college as a mature student and not through the CAO. Tell her to ask about this as well and contact the careers office if necessary www.careersandcounselling.com

mahamageehad

philiporeilly wrote: »

I would recommend that she contacts the Head of Department and ask for feedback on why her application was not successful. There are strict grading and marking structures in place for all applications and this information is available upon request. The staff in that Department are very friendly and approachable and should have no problem in advising her.

It may be that her application was very good but there may be limited places and the other applicants excelled in other areas. The only way to find out is to ask.

Also as she is 21, she might be able to apply directly to the college as a mature student and not through the CAO. Tell her to ask about this as well and contact the careers office if necessary www.careersandcounselling.com

Philip do you not need to be 23 to apply as a mature student?? That's what I always thought anyways

radar0976

Thanks for the replies. I thought she had to be 23 to apply as a mature student too but I'll get her to check anyway.

I think what she really needs is some feedback to figure out why she did not make the cut. Her score was 210 which means nothing because we don't know what that is out of or have any more detailed breakdown of the assesment.

Hopefully she'll be able to get something sorted.

evil-monkey

radar0976 wrote: »

My sister in law has been refused a place in Design Commuincation despite having what has been acknowledged as a fantastic portfolio. She has done a number of courses over the past three years including graphic design and animation. She is 21 and had applied for this course through the CAO. She does not know what to do do now and is quite angry and upset having thought she had a good chance and did not get any explanation as to why she was refused?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, is it worth ringing other colleges ?

You need to be 23 to apply as a mature student. Other than that entry is based on CAO...in which case, for this course, she would have to have done six subjects and got two higher grade Cs in the Leaving Certificate. I'm surprised she got her offer before the first round results came out in August after the LC results. Are you sure you've got the telling of this story right??

Other than that, my only guess was that her portfolio wasn't what they were looking for. I hate to say it, but from what I've seen, the standard of multimedia based courses in CIT is VERY high, and what's considered by some as a great portfolio may not be so great in the eyes of others... I'm sure she'll find something else; tell her not to dwell too much on this setback.

mahamageehad

evil-monkey wrote: »

You need to be 23 to apply as a mature student. Other than that entry is based on CAO...in which case, for this course, she would have to have done six subjects and got two higher grade Cs in the Leaving Certificate. I'm surprised she got her offer before the first round results came out in August after the LC results. Are you sure you've got the telling of this story right??

Other than that, my only guess was that her portfolio wasn't what they were looking for. I hate to say it, but from what I've seen, the standard of multimedia based courses in CIT is VERY high, and what's considered by some as a great portfolio may not be so great in the eyes of others... I'm sure she'll find something else; tell her not to dwell too much on this setback.

Not sure how it's done in CIT but I applied to IADT and the portfolio was marked out of 600, as was the leaving cert. So you could get a maximum of 1200 points. Needed about 760 points in 2009. BUT if your portfolio got lower than 300 points it was automatically deemed a failure.

If your portfolio scored over 300 points you still had to wait til CAO in August to ensure you got enough LC points as well as 2 higher grade C3s

philiporeilly

mahamageehad wrote: »

Philip do you not need to be 23 to apply as a mature student?? That's what I always thought anyways

Apologies about that one!

Deliverance

evil-monkey wrote: »

You need to be 23 to apply as a mature student. Other than that entry is based on CAO...in which case, for this course, she would have to have done six subjects and got two higher grade Cs in the Leaving Certificate. I'm surprised she got her offer before the first round results came out in August after the LC results. Are you sure you've got the telling of this story right??

Other than that, my only guess was that her portfolio wasn't what they were looking for. I hate to say it, but from what I've seen, the standard of multimedia based courses in CIT is VERY high, and what's considered by some as a great portfolio may not be so great in the eyes of others... I'm sure she'll find something else; tell her not to dwell too much on this setback.

23 as a mature student is correct. Also the standard is indeed very high. The students on this particular course from what I have seen are producing an amazing standard of work. Their work from what I have seen is worthy and then some of the profesional circuit even before they graduate.

That is not to say that the OPs original application was substandard by any means at all. If anything it means that they may need to do some research on the course i.e.
1. contact the lecturers and the head of the dept beforehand and make your interest known.
2. Contact students on the course and look at their work, get some feedback from them.
3. Research the course as much as possible, and attend the forthcoming exhibition for inspiration to see what might be needed to update the portfolio.
4.Re-apply next year and do not give up and as mentioned above dwell on this initial setback.

Definately don't give up.

nayroul

deliverance when will one of those exhibition's be held, would there be an end of year one coming up soon, i am interested in doing the course in 2011, thanks!

Deliverance

Should be early June based on last exhibitions. I will check and find out the exact dates and times and put them up as soon as.

nayroul

Thanks a million; I would really appreciate an update on the exhibition deliverance

Deliverance

11th of June in the student centre. The student centre is the new building. the show usually from past experience starts around 7pm. Definately well worth a look for any prospective student.

tallulah_crack

hello, I'm a student in CIT, nearly completed the fourth year visual communications course. It does seem odd that her portfolio wasn't accepted, especially if she has had previous graphic design teaching, but I am aware that the lectures focus heavily on drawing and artistic skills when marking the protfolios as opposed to any computer generated work. As others have said, it would be worth contacting the head of the department for feedback.

The third year students have their exhibition on friday (the 28th) upstairs in the student centre and our will be on the 11th which is shaping up to be a very good night so try and make it if you can!

Deliverance

nayroul wrote: »

Thanks a million; I would really appreciate an update on the exhibition deliverance

Update: http://media.cit.ie/graduateshow10/multimedia.html

Where: Nexus Student Centre
When: Opening Friday June 11th at 6:30pm
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 10am to 4:30pm

Martina05

I hate saying this but maybe she's as well off. I did the course & have worked as a professional designer for years but the job market is shrinking & shrinking, the money is slowly getting lower while the stress factor is constantly through the roof. I've worked in london & Manchester as well as over here & I'm seriously considering retraining....as are a lot of design associates.