Anyone here using the CAO (Republic of Ireland’s UCAS) ?

Anyone here using the CAO (Republic of Ireland’s UCAS) ?

I’m the only one in my school and I’m applying though it without the guidance of someone.

I applied and sent my qualifications on the 20th of November to CAO, and I didn’t get a email saying they got it, and I had to send them an email to confirm and they said they got it. Yea.

But I feel insecure. I applied, got the all Uni courses I wanted to join and sent them the qualifications.

And I still haven’t got any acknowledgements if the Unis I’ve applied to got my applications or if CAO has even sent to out the Unis or anything.
The fact that CAO doesn’t seem to come with a “Send application” button has made me feel more insecure, as I have no idea if its really been sent out or if the uni has it.

So, if anyone can help me?
When do they normally respond back to me? By email or postal mail?
Does it matter if the courses are in order? I’ve filled in all 20 slots because I feel its bad luck to leave an empty space. And this list of unis you want to join, Level 8/7. Are they in order of which one you want most?

And all I’ve got is an email from London Met (using UCAS) saying Happy New Year

And thanks for cheering me up

Reply 1

cbv2005

I used CAO last year. My advice to you is forget about it entirely! It sounds like you've done the application correctly and now you won't hear anything back from CAO until you get your final A level results. Around the 23rd August you'll find out the highest choice on your list that is giving you an offer and then there's a second round of offers a few days later. Seriously, don't worry about it and try to forget about it because it'll be yonks before anything happens with your application! Good luck!

Thank you!

No universities will reply to you! It's an entirely impersonal system. The CAO is basically the middleman. Once you have confirmation that the CAO received it, that's fine. You will get a change of mind form around March from the CAO. You yourself can email them anytime you want but DO NOT EMAIL/PHONE last week of January/first week of February. OR around the closing dates for the late deadline, or the first 2 weeks of June (Leaving Cert) OR results day (usually around 15th august). They get so inundated and they're understaffed. 20 gaps, whyyy did you fill them all in!! I filled in 3 in the Level 8 section. Didn't see the point in filling it up.

THEY HAVE TO BE IN ORDER OF YOUR PREFERENCE- NOT in order of the grades needed. What happens is the CAO look at your first choice first and if you don't have enough points for it/don't fulfill entry requirements, they move onto your second and so on. Therefore you could have medicine, what you really wanted but put down last. Your first choice, say, English, you will automatically get. You can never get offered anything lower, but you will always get offered something higher..if it becomes available/points drop/your grades go up in the rechecks (might not apply to you?)

If you applied online, you will get your offers online. They'll come in the post too. If you applied by post, you will get your offers by post. The change of mind form will come by post.

Reply 4

Nalced

i kinda messed up my CAO application. and its too late.
Mine are not in order and after reading every tiny bit in the CAO booklets, looks like i had to send a Personal Statement. Which i didn't do. so.....(bad word). UCAS is so much better. THis is what I got in my Irish CAO thing.

Level 8 Course Choices:
1. DT401 - Dublin Institute of Technology - Hospitality Management - BSc
2. WD091- Waterford Institute of Technology - Hospitality Management - BA (Hons)
3. GC405 - Griffith College - International Hospitality Management - BA (Hons)
4. DT412 - Dublin Institute of Technology - Tourism Marketing - BSc
5. WD148- Waterford Institute of Technology - Tourism Marketing - BA (Hons)
6. SN001 - Shannon College of Hotel Management - Business Studies in International Hotel Management - BBS
7. GA380- Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology - Hotel and Catering Management - BA (Hons)
8. TL180- Institute of Technology - Hotel Management - BA (Hons)
9. DN061- University College Dublin - History, Politics and International Relations - BA (Hons)
1 LM022- University of Limerick - Politics and International Relations - BA (Hons)

Level 7/6 Course Choices:
1. AL018- Athlone Institute of Technology - Hospitality Business Management- Bachelor of Business
2. CR041- Cork Institute of Technology - Business Studies (Tourism)- Business in something
3. CR042- Cork Institute of Technology - Hospitality Management- Business in something
4. DK750- Dundalk Institute of Technology - Business - Hospitality Management- Bachelor of Business
5. LY307- Letterkenny Institute of Technology -International Tourism and Hospitality Enterprise at Killybegs- BB
6. GA370 Hotel & Catering Management
7. DT408- Dublin Institute of Technology - Hotel and Restaurant Management- BA
8. DB533- Dublin Business School -Business in Marketing- certificate
9. BN017 International Business
10. SG534 Business in Marketing in International Marketing

Thats what I got in my application thing. I don't really know what I'm doing since I'm more use to the UCAS stuff and I'm pressured by my dad to apply to a Irish Uni.
All i can say, I would like to go to, Dublin Institute of Technology and Shannon College of Hotel Management because they look good from the website.
lol, I'm lost in a way, I have no real advice to go to about Hospitality. I'm just guessing from the Uni's name and how pretty the website looks like. Help and guidance would be nice.

Reply 5

Nalced

And I've already send them a email asking if i can get my offers earyer because I live in Thailand, and I'll need more than a week between August and September to move my entire life to Ireland.

Reply 6

chester.

You'll only get an offer in a "Round" i.e. Round Zero is July, or Round One in mid-august etc...and only if they have your results.

Reply 7

RadiantJewel

Yeeah Nalced i have the same problem. Its insane isnt it!!! I already got my grades, do I really have to wait this long too?!

Reply 8

Nalced

Irish system are suck cocks. Not as user friendly as UCAS.

i suspect i'm not gona get what i want or hope. cao didn't tell me if they got my letters about my grades or that i had a personal statement missing.

if i make it through, i don't think i'll go. since i'll know my ucas unis in or not by late june i think. i have to be feeling pretty lucky if i don't chose a ucas uni and hope i get in to the irish system. my bad anyway. i didn't read the fine print in the booklet and no one to ask for help and advice about cao.

Reply 9

StarsAreFixed

The CAO rocks. It's completely impartial, anonymous and treats everyone the same. THERE IS NO PERSONAL STATEMENT, DO NOT SEND ONE.

No, it's not user-friendly. They're completely understaffed and are barely able to cope before the Feb 1st deadline, around the Leaving results, and the offers.

The reason you won't know before Round Zero (count yourself lucky, Irish Students won't know until August 21stish), is because there are no grade predictions. Everything is based on your actual results, that's the only thing CAO use.

They're not going to contact you, except to send out confirmations of the order of your choices, and the Change of Mind form. If you have any questions, PM me.

Reply 10

Nalced

Bit bored. But just want to ask on advice.

I have three Unis to chose from in the UCAS.

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Second highest female to male in the country. Nice shinny new campus and £2,000 cheaper-ish. Good chance to be first choice. Pretty city

University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

City centre campus, old crappy looking buildings but at the end of the course I should get quite a lot of nice qualifications, like membership to certain hospitality organisations and recognised by the right people. Not the greatest city.

Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies

City campus, much like Ulster but in Birmingham.

Where should I go to? I made Queen Margaret first choice because of the campus. I rather want to be in a nice shiny pretty place where I’ll feel happy and motivated to work, rather than being in a dull, brown depressing building all day.

Reply 11

foireannj

Nalced

i kinda messed up my CAO application. and its too late.
Mine are not in order

oh yeah... that actually isn't a problem, cao make you enter your course choices and then they lock the site for awhile so you can't change anything, but soon enough, some time during march think they'll unlock it and you'll be able to fiddle around with your choices to your heart's content until the end of june. so yeah, basically put your choices down in the order of what you want most.

and ye guys don't like the cao? i thought it was great, send off my money and i dont have think about it again til i'm finished my exams! unlike ucas, running 'round for a fortnight writing things and getting people to do grade predictions! boy that was a mess, plus, at least with cao you know that everyone is treated the same because it is so damn anonymous.

and also a few people said about getting offers early... i wouldn't be sure but i would imagine it wouldn't happen, basically the universities themselves don't really consider students, the whole system is based purely on how many people want a course and what points they get in their leaving cert, which obviously the colleges don't know until august when everything is released. therefore i couldnt see them accepting anyone before that time. however its easy enough to see what students in previous years were asked for in terms of leaving cert results, if you can convert that into your own results system you can make an educated guess about teh level of results you're likely to need.

Reply 12

Nalced

I've check. In May I can change and fix my choices.

And in August (when ever I get my results). I'll send them up along with my personal statement. Which i didn't know.

And I think I got rejected from Shannon. I got a call 3 weeks ago saying we'll have an interview and I'll get the times for it and so on within the next few days.
tossers. They should have told me on the spot that i was rejected rather than get my hopes up.

So far, since I don't really know what I'm doing in the CAO (i found UCAS much nicer), and i discovered i had to send my personal statement like in November but no one told me i didn't included it. Man, i sent them my semi-qualifications and no one told me if they had it or not. Or if it was "correct". I felt so lost and disconnected.

But doesn't matter. If i can get a good seat in DIT, Dublin Inistute of Technology. I'll be happy, the website looks pretty. lol. No idea if its good.

Anytimes anyone??