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Opinion Shouldn't we give freshers more time to make life-changing decisions?

In a two to three week period we expect our young people to make massive life decisions – we could make the whole process much easier.

THE SOUND OF wasps buzzing, brightly coloured T-shirts and the autumnal chill brings back memories of starting in UCD. I was the only person from my secondary school starting and I was nervous. I remember the embarrassment of having my mother escort me around the campus, yet I was glad of having someone for support. I remember the panic and anxiety associated with checking I had all my academic matters prepared. Oh, how I had wished I had more time.

Only three weeks ago students across the country received their Leaving Cert results, and starting from this week thousands will begin their journey of discovery in third level. Parents are scratching their heads asking themselves how they will pay the student contribution of €2,750 and other expenses. Their ‘fresher’ is panicking about where they are going to live, how they should register, and how to get to college.

In a two to three week period we expect our young people to make massive life decisions. In fact I made decisions in that period the scale of which I wasn’t required to make again for another ten years.

The recent ESRI Report Leaving School in Ireland has thrown a necessary spotlight on the difficulties new students face transitioning to higher education. However, these results are not surprising to those working in the industry. The HEA had earlier this year reported that 9% to 16% of students fail to progress. The loss of these students from colleges results in a loss to the Exchequer but even more so it acts to demoralise our young people.

Both of these reports highlight the importance of third level transition policies. Transitioning takes time, so one has to ask how these policies can be practically implemented in such a narrow timeline. Many would question why it takes so long for students to receive their Leaving Cert results; why cant they receive their results mid-July? A fair question and the response might be that we must ensure that we protect the integrity of the marking system of our state exams. I am certainly in favour of this but third level institutions across the world grade thousands of final year papers annually in a much shorter time frame.

Why does it take over two months to provide 57,000 students with their exam results? Then we only give them three weeks to make the greatest decisions of their lives. In order to assist the transition to third level and improve retention rates, it might be wise to consider giving students more time.

I have visited third level institutions such as Princeton, Pace and Rutgers Universities in the US and they begin their orientation programmes from early summer. Connecting with their students and forming a relationship, giving students adequate amounts of time to make decisions. Surely this would make sense? Shouldn’t we aim to relieve some of the pressure on our young people and their parents? We could do this by providing the Leaving Cert results in mid-July.

Research has shown that all new students must adjust intellectually and socially to their new college and this adjustment generally requires a degree of physical separation and emotional detachment. Students are separated from significant others who were important during school, such as family members, and are required to make new connections. During my time as Orientation Project Manager in UCD, I was lucky to be in a position to help students and parents through that stressful transition.

The benefits of providing students with their exam results earlier will allow time to make decisions, plan financially and prepare for one of the biggest steps of their adult lives. It will allow more supports to be provided for students who have successful exam appeals – and who currently end up starting mid-term, in some cases.

I am still in university – an eternal student one might say – so perhaps those first few weeks didn’t go too badly. So, for all those beginning third level in the coming weeks can I offer the following advice: I cannot overstate the value of making friends. Orientation week is an excellent opportunity to do this, so make sure you go and go to all of it.

I would ask you to remember three key messages:

Don’t panic – everybody around you is starting too.

Ask for help – ‘a stitch in time, saves nine’ and colleges have teams of students and staff to help you get settled in. If you are worried about something seek help. Don’t worry they have heard all the questions before.

However, the most important piece of advice I can give is to say hello, to the person sitting beside you, in front of you and behind you. Who knows, those people could be your best friends for life and all because you said ‘hello’.

There is a range of supports available to students starting college. Some to consider are mabs.ie, pleasetalk.ie, headstrong.ie, ahead.ie, studentfinance.ie and, of course, your third level institution support service should be your first port of call.

Vivian Rath is a PhD student researching the experience of students with disabilities at third level. He worked as UCD Orientation Project Manager from 2009-2012. He has been involved in the promotion of equal opportunity for people with disabilities for many years and sits as a Director on the Board of AHEAD (Association of Higher Education Access and Disability); is a member of the Kanchi sounding Board; established the first third level wheelchair basketball team in UCD, and founding member of the national third level mental health campaign Pleasetalk.ie

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    Mute Shane Kearney
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:38 AM

    I planned on going to college straight from school. Picked a course I wasn’t fully interested in, and ended up dropping out very early…………took some time out and actually figured out what I wanted to do.
    Did a plc course in Sports and Rec, and I am now near completion of an online course in Personal Training. The point is I am not even 20, but have a much clearer view of where I want to go with life now as oppose to when I was 17.
    It’s not the end of the world if you don’t rush into Uni just for the sake of it, or because it is what your friends are doing.

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    Mute SeanieRyan
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    Sep 4th 2014, 12:50 PM

    Going to University isn’t the be and end all that it is made out to be.

    Training and life long learning are essential these days but telling people that if you don’t have this or that degree by 21 that it is all going pear shaped is the biggest load of b0llo8ogy ever uttered.

    The days of a job or career for or a job type even lasting a life time are well over for most people. That has good and bad sides but that is the supper we are all being served.

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    Mute Niamh MacSweeney
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 9:44 AM

    As a student who just completed her Leaving Cert, this article really reflects the nervousness and excitement I have felt over the past few weeks. It is ridiculous that we have to wait until mid august to receive our results and then we are expected to be ready, both physically and emotionally, for college within 3 weeks! Having viewed my exam scripts last weekend, I am rechecking three papers. One would think that with nearly two months to correct the papers, it would be done so with the utmost care. How wrong we are! Adding errors, half questions not corrected, and just pure carelessness. I found 7% in one paper which cost me 10 points. Thankfully, I secured my first choice in college but it was the whole principle of it that frustrated me. Hours of work and preparation went into those exams and to be corrected like that??? I now must wait until mid October to receive the results of the re-checks. For those who missed out on their course by 5-10 points, what good is getting the results they deserved then? Courses have already started and many of them are full. Things need to change!

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    Mute Sarah Collier
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:03 AM

    Freshers? Are we suddenly sending our children to college in the USA

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    Mute Inntalitarian
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:06 AM

    I agree that it’s an awful term, but people have been calling first years “freshers” for years. There’s nothing sudden about it.

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    Mute Conor
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:11 AM

    First years were called freshers in Ireland since the dawn of time….

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    Mute fergalreid
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:46 AM

    Seeing as it’s derived from the slightly antique term, “freshman”. Which should be self explanatory!

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    Mute Jack Dermody
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:38 AM

    Sarah,
    What Is the Origin of Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior and Senior?

    Rather than referring to a student’s year of study, in U.S. high schools and colleges, first year students are freshmen, second years are sophomores, third year students are juniors, and the most experienced are seniors.

    Yet although this practice seems uniquely American, its origins date back several centuries to Cambridge where in 1688:

    The several degrees of persons in the University Colledes . . . Fresh Men, Sophy Moores, Junior Soph, or Sophester. And lastly Senior Soph.
    That said, the origins of these individual terms go back even farther.

    Freshman
    A child of Modern English, “freshman” dates back to the mid-16th century where it has invariably meant either “newcomer” or “novice.” Its use to denote a “university student in first year,” also dates to the 1590s.
    http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/04/origin-freshmen-sophomore-junior-senior/

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    Mute fergalreid
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:30 AM

    Vivian was in my year in Arts. I remember him well. In truth, all I remember from Freshers Week was the hotties in society hoodies. It was a crash course in Southside 101.

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    Mute Adrian De Cleir
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:39 AM

    These aren’t life changing decisions. They are your life from 17 to 21 changing decisions. And not even if you decide to drop out and do something else.

    The problem isn’t the time they have to decide (they can be looking into their options at any time, you don’t have to wait for your results to start thinking), the problem is the belief that they are making the greatest decision of their life when in fact that’s only a tiny segment of your life.

    I was lucky enough to finish computer systems on very cheap education fees, but went on to become an aircraft mechanic. I’m coincidently back in programming now, and that has nothing to do with my degree (I practically failed that degree, couldn’t programme and am pretty sure they just about bumped me up in the end to give me the pass).

    Point being if you are 17/18 when you start college. If you hope to live until you’re 90 then relax a little and know that you will always have other options if mess up your decision on college.

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    Mute StephenEganPolitics
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:09 AM

    Are we talking here about the Dublin 6 young adults where 99% proceed to third level…or Dublin 17 where a mere 15% get to participate.

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    Mute Fred O'Connor
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:36 AM

    Definitely good advice to make friends early. Aside from the craic we had, the info my friends had on essays and registration stuff etc. saved me so much time and stress. College is a very complicated world in the first few weeks.

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    Mute Anne M Golden
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 9:17 AM

    When I went to college it started in October, so you did have more time. I assume earlier start nowadays due to semester system – and LC results system hasn’t had to respond, so as you say, freshers get squeezed. And I totally agree with that hello to those around you – best way to meet people.

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    Mute Jake Race
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 8:38 AM

    No. Make em’ squirm like we all had to!

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    Mute Elaine O'Neill
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 12:49 PM

    It’s a massive shock going from primary to secondary with no idea what to expect, then you’re thrown into that spectrum again going from secondary to third level. It’s all frightening and nerve wreaking, with little or no time to adjust. Although there are people commenting “I was thrown out the door back way back when, not a bother on me, kids these days etc etc”, everyone is different, everyone adapts differently and times have changed regarding the pressures and issues people face going into third level.

    For me personally, I went to college as a teenager, I dropped out because I was unhappy. I’m now 27, I went back as a mature student, now going into my third year in my degree. I’m a lot happier since I know who I am and what I would like to do for the rest of my life. At 18 you don’t know the answers to those.

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    Mute John B
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 12:54 PM

    Elaine are you also suggesting more time to adjust to secondary school? You personally may not have been able at the age of 18 to make choices but that is not the same for everyone.

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    Mute Elaine O'Neill
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 1:16 PM

    Well that’s what I said John, everyone is different. Yes, for me especially secondary was a shock and for a lot of kids it is too. It’s completely different from primary.

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    Mute Zoë Georgina
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:58 AM

    I don’t really understand this to be honest. It’s not like no-one thinks about their choices until they get their results. Back in the mid 90′s we were encouraged to think about our subject choices at Junior Cert level, and really began thinking about post secondary plans in transition year. By the time we got to 6th year most people I know had a decent handle on what they wanted to study or move into once they finished. The decision process doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

    I agree that it would be great if results came out earlier, more from a practical point of view so you can begin to look for accommodation etc once you know what course you’re going to get. But where this idea of having to make all your choices in a 2-3 week period comes from I don’t know. If you hadn’t realised that you need to pay a registration fee, or that you’d need accommodation, or how to register then you obviously didn’t do your research at all before applying to the course of your choice. That’s not timing, that’s laziness. I decided on my CAO choices in the February, studied for my leaving and got offered a place- not my first choice but whatever. After that it was all very easy. The college sent me all the details I needed to pay fees, register, find accommodation, get to orientation… At 18 you should be making these decisions anyway. You’re an adult. If you can drink, drive and vote then making a decision about your careers isn’t exactly difficult.

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    Mute Jason
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 11:12 AM

    Exactly Zoe. I did my leaving in 1992 and it was a case off here you are, get on with it. Modern parental practises of practically leading children/teenagers by the hand somewhere is kilo ing their self determination, individualism and sense of responsibility. You can see it in primary schools every morning with parents crying over their “lil man” – I’ve a 6 year old girl and she has more strength of mind than some 17 years old that I know.

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    Mute Shaun McClenaghan
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    Sep 4th 2014, 1:56 AM

    I’m just after choosing my coarse my coarse for university and can safely say it was the 2 most anxious and stressful weeks of my life. A lot more stressful than the exams themselves. CAO Should follow in the foot steps of UCAS and allow more freedom to allow students to change courses after getting their results

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    FMan
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    Mute FMan
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 10:24 AM

    Yeah, good idea. After all; they’re just primary school kids, only bigger!

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    Mute John B
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 12:51 PM

    Welcome to the real world. We all go through stressful tines during our lives. Starting school. Going to big school. Starting secondary. Going to college. Our first job/house/baby. This is part of life and trying to molly coddle people through every event will surely be to their detriment. Everyone has to learn to stand on their own two feet in life. Also, if I remember correctly, when I filled my CAO was the time I made decisions. not after the leaving cert results. And many months or even years are spent considering CAO choices.

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    Mute Elaine O'Neill
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    Sep 3rd 2014, 1:57 PM

    Think there’s a huge difference between molly coddling people and giving the right support which is the reason why a lot of young people in this country have mental health issues. We will have to agree to disagree John. G’luck.

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