What's not to love about those who control monopolies. The last few days have been hell for all those final-year students who are planning on going to college here. The CAO controls the application process for all the colleges here and their web site has been unable to cope with the surge in demand as the deadline approaches.
Yesterday the CAO washed their hands of the problem saying "students had their application packs for months and had been urged not to leave it until the last minute". Today, the CAO's Operations Manager said that there was "no need to extend the deadline as most of the applications were in". I guess if you're not among the "most" you're out of luck.
The problem is entirely of the CAO's making, but they've decided that there's no need to do anything to alleviate the problem, like extend the deadline. I wish I could understand why the deadline is so important that they must add a little torture to teenagers' lives. The college year doesn't start for another 8 or more months. What's so urgent that the deadline can't be pushed back a week?
The CAO did agree to accept all applications (snail)mailed by 5:15 today. Of course, postal applications incur an extra €10 fee. Well played, CAO. Well played.
