What is DARE?
DARE allows admissions offices in more than 13 universities, colleges and Institutes of Technology to offer places to students with disabilities below the required CAO points.
Each college admissions office sets aside a number of places on each course for students with a disability who may not achieve the required CAO points. If a course accepts only a small number of students there may be only 1 such place. Courses with large numbers of places could reserve up to 5% of its places for applicants with a disability.
TCD reserves 22% of places on every course for 'non-traditional' students, including students with disabilities, students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and Mature students, and applies a 15% reduction in points for DARE eligible students. You can download a reduced points scale to calculate how many points will be reduced on the course of your choice in Trinity. For information on the number of DARE places available in other colleges, you can check the quotas list.
More information on DARE statistics please contact us for a text accessible version.
DARE has its own website which explains the application procedure. Colleges and universities that take part in the DARE scheme run a number of information days and open days throughout the year for guidance counsellors and students who are thinking of applying to college http://www.accesscollege.ie/dare/events-and-media.php
What you need to know:
- If you are eligible for DARE you are eligible to compete for a college place on reduced points. It does not mean you will automatically be offered a college place.
- If you are ineligible for DARE you may still be offered a college place based on the points you acheive.
- Applying to DARE is not noted on your Leaving Certificate.
- Whether you are eligible for DARE or not, you can still be supported by the Disability Service in college.
- For some disabilities there is a time limit on the disability evidence required. This is needed to provide a picture of current functioning during senior cycle education.
We asked our DARE students for their advice to this year's Leaving Certificate students
Our advice:
- Practice the CAO and DARE online application procedure using the interactive demo provided by the CAO.
- Check the 'Evidence' required for your disability.
- Check the 'Criteria' for eligiblity.
- Take note of the deadlines.
- You should submit your application, evidence and any other documents yourself. Hundreds of applications were ineligible last year because they did not arrive before the closing date. Post your application yourself, by registered mail, and keep the receipt!
If you have any questions concerning DARE please post them on our Blog We asked our first year DARE students if they had any advice about DARE applications:
Applying to DARE
With the DARE application my advice would be get it in quickly and be as clear as possible.
When applying for CAO through DARE make sure to state all relevent interests/experience with regard to the area of studies you wish to fulfill when completing your dare application. Do not hold back in describing all of the things holding you back in your studies as all of these difficulties can be helped through the various support systems put in place in TCD.
What's done is done and applying through DARE is a personal support to help you make the most of yourself in college and is not there for others to judge you or put you in a different category than anyone else. That was my biggest fear and I now realise that I was silly to think that its anyone elses business but my own.
Choosing a course
My advice to Leaving Cert students would be choose the course carefully and choose the courses you are most interested in.
Choose what you have a passion for.
Make sure to put down courses with a range of points on your CAO as you will not find out whether or not you have been allocated DARE until after the exam period. A few of my friends who believed that they were suitable candidates did not in fact end up with a DARE allowance and therefore were not served well by their CAO choices. Choose a course that you know you will enjoy and that you feel suits you, therefore you will be happy and willing to work hard at whatever difficulties may arise for you in your chosen course.
Your disability should have no influence on your course choice, if there is a particular course you are interested in there is nothing holding you back as long as you fully understand your disability and there is support put in place to help you achieve the results.
You will find that college work is far different to Leaving Cert subjects and if you pick a course that you have a genuine interest in then you will find the subjects you have more enjoyable to study.
Managing college
Make sure to access all help in college and to become aware of all the disability allowances available to you at the start of the year so that if any issues arise for you, you feel comfortable going back to the disability service for help and it is not something entirely new. Learn to manage your disability in conjunction with your college life, do not see the two as separate. There are more people than you think in each of your classes or even sitting beside you with disabilities and if not with everyday struggles like ourselves. Enjoy everyday of your college life, and seek help from the disability service without a second thought it is what they are there for.
Once you get to college the amount of points you got or A1s you got in your Leaving Cert becomes completely irrelevent and no one is looking to find out what you got in your Leaving Cert. When you get to college do not hold back in using the services put in place by the disability services they are there for you so any issues you have with any of your subjects or any issues your having with regards to your disability do not be afraid to express these problems to the services.