Dont have sufficent points but looking at going to college

mike0c

Hi,

I'll try and make this as short as possible. Basically I finished my Leaving Cert last year. I'd consider myself a bright enough character but for about a year leading up to the Leaving Cert I battled with depression, things had hit rock bottom and I seriously considered taking my own life. I ended up getting help and thankfully I am now ready to get on with my life and make the most of it.

Unfortunately this meant that my attention was elsewhere and studying was the furthest thing from my mind. I ended up doing quite poorly in the exams and don't have the required points to attend university. I would now like to go to college but not sure what is the best way of going about it. I really don't want to have to go and repeat my leaving as all my friends are already in college. Does anyone have any suggestions on what my best route to university would be?

Thanks in advance for any replies, it will be a big help.

Tom Dunne

I would suggest you do a Post Leaving Certificate course.

Find your nearest PLC college (ring your local VEC) and see what courses they offer. Specifically, some courses act as a stepping stone to Institutes of Technology, they are probably the ones you need to look at.

WalterMitty

mike0c wrote: »

Hi,

I'll try and make this as short as possible. Basically I finished my Leaving Cert last year. I'd consider myself a bright enough character but for about a year leading up to the Leaving Cert I battled with depression, things had hit rock bottom and I seriously considered taking my own life. I ended up getting help and thankfully I am now ready to get on with my life and make the most of it.

Unfortunately this meant that my attention was elsewhere and studying was the furthest thing from my mind. I ended up doing quite poorly in the exams and don't have the required points to attend university. I would now like to go to college but not sure what is the best way of going about it. I really don't want to have to go and repeat my leaving as all my friends are already in college. Does anyone have any suggestions on what my best route to university would be?

Thanks in advance for any replies, it will be a big help.

PLC or diploma in subject you like would be best route. MAybe you should think about repeating leaving though as it would get you straight on to a degree course and give you time to think what you really want to do and give you a good routine/structure to build on. College is a big transition and lots of drinking etc makes it difficult for those prone to depression. You can still meet up with friends on nights out while studing for leaving rest week in an adult orientated educational establishment or at home in your own time while sitting exams externally.
You will only be a year or two behind your friends in college and sure you will meet extra new friends when you start
in college.

Althalu5

mike0c wrote: »

Hi,

I'll try and make this as short as possible. Basically I finished my Leaving Cert last year. I'd consider myself a bright enough character but for about a year leading up to the Leaving Cert I battled with depression, things had hit rock bottom and I seriously considered taking my own life. I ended up getting help and thankfully I am now ready to get on with my life and make the most of it.

Unfortunately this meant that my attention was elsewhere and studying was the furthest thing from my mind. I ended up doing quite poorly in the exams and don't have the required points to attend university. I would now like to go to college but not sure what is the best way of going about it. I really don't want to have to go and repeat my leaving as all my friends are already in college. Does anyone have any suggestions on what my best route to university would be?

Thanks in advance for any replies, it will be a big help.

Best thing you can do is repeat the Leaving. PLC courses are all well and good but at the end of the day all theyll do is bring your points up a bit and probably just get you into an IT. Repeating gives you the chance to get as many points as you are willing to put the effort in for. It also gives you more time to decide on a course and gives you a better foundation in the basic subject areas youll focus more on in college.

bren2001

If its a case of you know what course you want to do and are 100% sure then arrange a meeting with the co-ordinator and ask them what the best route in is. A diploma would probably be the easiest.

However, (I dont know what age you are), if this may only be your first course and you are not a mature student i.e. over 23 then repeating the Leaving Certificate would make the most amount of sense because you can transfer around courses once you are in the University.

khoran

First of all Mike, its great that you're obviously on the mend. To be honest, you have a fair few options here. Is there a particular field you want to get into? If money isn't a problem, you could look at courses in fee paying colleges like the american college dublin, DBS etc. Failing that, you could look into which courses were AQA (all qualified applicants) in the last leaving cert to see if any of them interest you. They might well be AQA again this year and so would accept you regardless of points once you met the other qualification criteria.

If there is a very specific field of study you're interested in and there aren't private or AQA courses that suit you, a PLC really is a great way to get onto a relevant course.

the_syco

Just came across this now. Best advice: look for the college course you want to do, ring the college, say you got X amount of CAO points, but have a great interest in said subject (briefly list hobbies/certs that are directly related), and ask are there any PLC courses that would help you get into the course.

Example: I did a one year cert in Ballyfermot PLC that gave me entry into a course in Carlow IT.