Some candidates miss the courses they desire due to avoidable mistakes including:
1. Applying for the most competitive courses (medicine, architecture, engineering, pharmacy, surgery, etc. ) across all the four choices. These courses normally have very limited capacity for Government-sponsored students, and all the best performing candidates tend to apply for them. Hence, the competition for the slots is fierce.
We advise candidates to be pragmatic with their choices. For example, submitting engineering courses across all the four choices, or going for medicine as choice one followed by nursing, engineering and architecture means that if a candidate misses the first choice, the candidate is likely to miss the rest.
It is a good idea to balance the lists by selecting other emerging but lucrative courses in the last slots.
2. Assuming that the indicated programme cut-off point of the previous placement year is the actual cut-off point for the current placement process.
The actual cut-off points are computed at the end of the placement process, and may vary from the previous cut-off points depending on the number and performance of applicants for the specific programme in the given year, the available programme capacities and the general performance for the year.
3. Further, many of the candidates assume that because they satisfy all the minimum requirements for a course, they will automatically secure the course.
While all applicants qualify for the programmes that they apply for, applications are subjected to a competitive process for limited vacancies. Only those with the highest cluster weights among the applicants get priority, and the capacities for any given course often get filled up before all applicants are placed.
So, what's next for the 2019 KCSE candidates who missed the courses they selected in the First Revision of Choices?
The Placement Service has opened the application system for the second revision of choices. We call upon these candidates to log in and choose courses afresh. The deadline is April 15, 2020.
Even though some of the courses they could have fallen back on but ignored at the first revision are no longer available, they should choose the best they can find among the available programmes.
There will be an opportunity for them to change the courses and possibly move to those that they prefer. This will be possible during the inter-institutional transfer window at the end of the placement process.