“By no means did I think I was going to end up in the High Court over a simple adding-up error.” These were the words of 19-year-old Rebecca Carter, an aspiring UCD Veterinary Medicine student from Castlebridge, Co. Wexford.
“Ever since I was young I have always wanted to be a vet,” explained Rebecca, speaking to AgriLand.
Rebecca applied for Veterinary Medicine in University College Dublin (UCD) and had hoped to begin the course in September 2017 but, unfortunately, was 12 points short of the course’s points requirement.
She accepted Commerce instead (also at UCD) but, given that Veterinary Medicine was her true calling, she spent much of her time attending Veterinary Medicine lectures.
She decided that she would discontinue Commerce, repeat her Leaving Certificate and try to get sufficient points for the veterinary course.
When my results arrived this year, I was six points short. I got 554 points and veterinary was 560 points in the first round. In the second round it dropped to 555, leaving me one point short.
On August 31 this year, Rebecca went through all her papers to see if there were any mistakes in her grading. She noticed on her business paper that three of the sub-totals were added up incorrectly.
After four days on the phone to the State Examinations Commission she had made no progress, so decided to ring a solicitor.
The matter was then taken to the High Court and, from there, the judge ordered the State Examinations Commission to re-correct her exam paper and to rectify the grading mistakes.
When the error is corrected and the database is updated, Rebecca is planning to accept the new offer. She explained: “I’ll wait for the course offer from the Central Applications Office (CAO) and then I just have to press accept.”
She hopes to begin her (new) course in UCD next Monday.