PROBLEM: Our daughter is in first year of university in Dublin. She is deeply unhappy with the course and due to return this week. She would like to leave and reapply for another course through CAO this year. But we we feel it would be better for her to finish her exams in May.What advice can you give us?

ADVICE: Your daughter's predicament is not uncommon, as we highlighted in last week when we revealed large dropout rates among first-year college students.

Your daughter might be in the wrong course or might be experiencing temporary difficulties. To cover all possibilities, I would suggest the following course of action.

Firstly, she should seek an appointment immediately with the student-support services at the university prior to lectures recommencing. She should also sit down and, on two sides of a page, list the positives and negatives of her experience of the academic side of her course and the other aspects of being a third-level student in the college.

It is very important that she clarify in her mind the issues that are causing her such unhappiness. When she meets the member of the support staff, she will be in a far better position to discuss her options.

Secondly, I would immediately have her register with the CAO today, at a cost of €25, to give her the option of applying for a new choice in autumn. If she leaves it until after January 20th, the cost will rise to €40. Having covered both options, she should then reflect on the advice she receives from the student support service.

If she feels she is in the wrong course, she should withdraw from it immediately, notifying the admissions office in writing that she is doing so.

In that way, she will not be billed for the second half of the year of any new course she starts into in the coming academic year. She will be billed for one half year of the funding that the new college would have got from the Higher Education Authority had she not already have had the benefit of state funding for her first term this year. This cost for a half year will vary from €3,000 upwards – depending on the faculty in which she selects her new course – on top of her €3,000 registration charge. If she leaves her withdrawal for a few more weeks, she will end up having to pay this cost for the full first year in her new course choice.

Finally, if she decides to withdraw, she should step back for a few months and possibly for a year or more to reflect on what she really wants to study in college. She might choose to take a gap year, work for a period of time or in some other way give herself time to recover her confidence and clarify her career goals.

• Your questions answered by education analyst Brian Mooney. Email queries to askbrian@irishtimes.com