You don’t always need high CAO points to pursue a degree in law
Entry to courses leading to law and related careers has always been competitive. Even when the numbers applying for law courses decreased during the recent economic downturn, the minimum points required to gain access remained high. As well as traditional legal careers, there is a need for legal expertise across various business and industry sectors, particularly in relation to compliance in areas such as aviation, finance (anti-fraud), security and data analytics/ protection.
In 2018, CAO applicants needed to achieve a minimum of 533 and 522 CAO points for entry to the Trinity College and UCD law degree programmes, respectively. This is a challenge for even the most academic students, but that doesn’t mean anyone who wishes to work in the legal profession is excluded if they are not able to attain such points. There are a number of different routes open to Leaving Cert students Trinity College Dublin – Feasibility study
The Trinity Feasibility Study is entering its fifth year. This access route reserves 10 places on its Law programme for applicants. Applicants who are interested in being considered for this are asked to complete supplementary application when they are listing TR004 Law on their CAO. They are judged on a combination of Leaving Cert results, how their results compare with other students in this school, and a personal statement. PLCs
A large number of law programmes reserve places for applicants from post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses. These include all the universities — with the exception of Trinity and University of Limerick — and a number of institutes of technology, including DIT, Letterkenny IT and Carlow IT. Minimum entry requirements to PLC courses include five passes in the Leaving Cert and an interview. Arts degree
Alternatively, students who do not achieve the high points needed to go directly into some law courses can consider an arts degree with a law element. There are many of these available. At Maynooth University, the MH101 Arts guarantees students who successfully pass first year law a place on its Law programme in second year. In 2018, minimum CAO points for the law course were 130 higher. Postgraduate diploma
Additionally, those who come late to the idea of law can consider a postgraduate diploma — an 18-month course which can be accessed after any undergraduate degree.
Qualifying as a solicitor has challenges, but CAO points don’t need to be one of them. If you feel you cannot achieve over 500 for a traditional university law degree, this doesn’t mean you cannot become a lawyer.