I Thought Medicine Was Over for Me. Then Course Compass Changed Everything

If you told me this time last year that I would be sitting here planning to study Dentistry in Trinity and eventually become a plastic surgeon, I genuinely would have laughed at you.

I always thought I was going to do Medicine.

Like, always.

I was that girl in school who had it completely figured out. Medicine was the plan, and there wasn't really a Plan B because, in my head, there didn't need to be one. I worked towards my points, studied for the Leaving Cert and spent so much time thinking about getting into Medicine.

Then came the HPAT.

And it absolutely destroyed me.

I didn't get the score I needed for Medicine and, honestly, I was completely lost. I was up in a heap for days. I remember just feeling sick about it. Everyone around me seemed to know what they were doing, and I felt like my entire future had just disappeared overnight.

It sounds dramatic, but when you're 17 or 18 and you've spent years convincing yourself that one course is your future, it genuinely feels like the end of the world.

I didn't know what I wanted to do anymore.

I didn't know whether I even wanted to go to college. I didn't know what course I'd actually enjoy. And I definitely didn't want someone telling me to just "pick something else."

I ended up in a really bad place mentally. I was so upset and stressed about the whole thing that I fell into a bit of a depression. I kept thinking that because Medicine hadn't worked out, I'd somehow failed.

Then, completely randomly, Course Compass came up on my TikTok For You Page.

I had seen loads of things about CAO points and college courses online before, but this was different. It was basically an assessment designed to figure out what you're actually suited to rather than just asking what course you think you want.

So I thought, sure, I'll give it a go.

And honestly, it was probably one of the best decisions I've made.

I did the Course Compass exam and it actually made me stop and think about what I wanted rather than what I had convinced myself I was supposed to want.

It looked at my interests, personality, strengths, subjects, academic ability and the type of career I wanted. What surprised me most was that Medicine wasn't just completely thrown out because I didn't get the HPAT.

Instead, it showed me different routes that could still get me towards the career I wanted.

That was the first time I realised that not getting Medicine straight from school didn't mean I had to give up on becoming a doctor.

It just meant I might have to take a different route.

One of the pathways that came up was Dentistry.

At first I was like, Dentistry? Me?

But the more I looked into it, the more it actually made sense.

It still gave me the medical and scientific side that I loved. It was competitive, challenging and practical, and most importantly, it could still be part of a bigger plan.

Now I'm hoping to start Dentistry in Trinity this September, and for the first time in ages, I actually feel confident about where I'm going.

Obviously, anything can happen with CAO, but I'm genuinely feeling really good about my chances.

And the funny thing is, I don't feel like I'm settling anymore.

My plan now is to do Dentistry, then eventually go down the graduate entry Medicine route, and from there specialise in plastic surgery.

That's the dream.

If you'd asked me a year ago what I was going to do if I didn't get Medicine, I probably would have just cried because I genuinely had no idea.

Now I have an actual plan.

And I think that's what Course Compass gave me more than anything else.

It didn't magically fix everything or tell me exactly what my life was going to look like. It just gave me a starting point when I had absolutely no idea where to start.

I think that's something a lot of Irish students don't realise.

We're put under so much pressure to know exactly what we want to do at 17 or 18. You get your CAO form, everyone asks what course you're putting down, and somehow you're expected to make a decision that could shape the next 40 years of your life.

But what if you don't know?

What if you change your mind?

What if you don't get the points?

What if the HPAT doesn't go your way?

That doesn't mean you've failed.

Sometimes you just need to find another route.

And honestly, I'm so glad I found mine.

So, if you're sitting there after your Leaving Cert or your HPAT feeling completely lost because you didn't get the result you wanted, I genuinely understand.

I was that girl.

I thought my entire future had fallen apart.

Now I'm hoping to walk into Trinity this September to start Dentistry, with a plan to eventually become a doctor and specialise in plastic surgery.

Funny how quickly things can change when you realise that one result doesn't decide your entire future.

Chloe Barett