CAO lottery causes high achiever to miss college place

Galway City Tribune – A Galway student has told how she feels ‘overlooked’ and ‘demotivated’ after falling victim to random selection in her CAO offers.

Joanna Keita from Salthill, a former student of Yeats College in Galway City, was overjoyed with her Leaving Cert results, achieving 590 points.

However, her hopes of studying dental science at Trinity College Dublin were dashed when, two days later, the CAO offers came out and despite getting the required CAO points, Ms Keita did not receive an offer.

Following several calls and emails to the CAO, it became clear to Ms Keita that this was as a result of random selection – something the CAO uses when a situation arises for example, where 50 offers are made, and candidates 48 to 52 all have the same points, but there are only three places between them.

Each applicant is given a randomly generated number for each course prior to offers being made. “The random number is exactly that; it is not associated with the CAO application number; it does not depend on when the applicant applied; it has no connection with anything. It is totally random, like lottery numbers,” the CAO handbook states.

For Ms Keita, this has caused huge distress and left her wondering why she has been left behind, given she achieved such a good Leaving Cert – 590 points, just 35 short of the highest number of points possible.

“I am helpless to the system,” said the 18-year-old.

“They are picking points from a hat – I feel they are almost laughing in my face. I cannot make peace with it.
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