DIT Points Drop

[PTB]

Wow. I expected the DIT points to fall a bit this year, but I never expected them to fall from 590 to 544. What could have caused such a drop?

[rira]

perhaps the three new courses?

what I'm shocked about is how quickly CIT/UCC jumped up to 3rd ahead of UL ... must be the greatness of the real capital!

[Bren88]

Im still amazed that so many people misunderstand the points,

They are probably 3rd ahead of UL, as UL offer more places

[rira]

I completely understand the mechanism of CAO.
I'm just surprised thats all, I would have put WIT and CIT/UCC on a par and CIT/UCC have well outdone them in attracting a higher calibre of student.

And according to qualifax (the database for guidance counsellors) UCC/CIt offer 35 CAO places while UL offers only 25

[Bren88]

Have UL not expanded to a full 50 places? Maybe not.

UCD-525
DIT- 544#
UCC-510
UL-510
WIT-470

I would of rated UCC ahead of WIT. WIT is still fighting the IT label. There was actually no difference in points between UL and UCC this year.

[rira]

Yes, but CIT/UCC didn't have to go to round 2 as UL did

[Zygnoth]

Class size is up this year - above 60

[PTB]

Yup, and all 61 First years have to fit into a class which took 35 students last year.

Just temporary, though. The rest of the year will be spent in Linenhall

[massamann]

Have to say, a points drop in all of the architecture courses wouldn't surprise me that much. If the great building boom of the Celtic Tiger years is over, then work and jobs could very well dry up (and anecdotally, that's exactly what's happening).

The life cycle of the architect could well be back to the bad old days of Graduate > Emigrate. Which may well not sound as attractive as other sectors of the economy which are doing better....

[Bren88]

Have to say, a points drop in all of the architecture courses wouldn't surprise me that much. If the great building boom of the Celtic Tiger years is over, then work and jobs could very well dry up (and anecdotally, that's exactly what's happening).

The life cycle of the architect could well be back to the bad old days of Graduate > Emigrate. Which may well not sound as attractive as other sectors of the economy which are doing better....

I don't know what city your living in. Jobs are certainly not drying up. Companys are fighting over graduates, There are more jobs available than graduates each year. Some of the countries biggest building jobs are being planned now.

[massamann]

Was talking about what the job situation may well be like when the students who are entering college this year begin to graduate... As for the downturn, that just comes from people I know who are working down the country.

I think the number of people applying for any course will drop if they believe that jobs will be hard to come by on graduation - it's exactly what happened to the IT courses around the time of the dot.com collapse. Programmes like the McWilliams one last night or the previous Future Shock can have an impact. And even though it's only an opinion, I don't believe that there will be as much work around in six or seven years as there was in the last four or five.

[NSJ]

UL takes in between 26-30 students and don't intend to expand to 50 or 60