The Irish Times CAO helpdesk has been dealing with a variety of queries this week from students as grade deflation kicked in for the Leaving Cert class of 2025.
An analysis of 36 of the most popular degree programmes in Irish universities showed 22 had increased points requirements, six remained unchanged and eight had lower points than last year.
Given the reduction in enhanced grades for the Leaving Cert, this was an unexpected trend, prompting many queries from readers. Here are some of the key questions that arose this week, and answers for those planning for the future after this week’s college offers.
1. What are my chances of a successful appeal of results? And how will it impact on me if i’ve already started a course?
RM Block
About 20 per cent of appeals succeed each year. The appeal results will be published on September 26th.
Students already studying on a lower-preference course have the choice of remaining there or accepting a higher-preference course that they are entitled to based on revised results. This can happen immediately if given the option by the offering college. But if all of the places for that course have already been allocated, you will receive a deferral of the offer for the following academic year. There will not be any additional charge for taking a level eight undergraduate first year twice in such circumstances.
2. Could I lose a college place if my results are graded downwards on appeal?
A handful of papers are downgraded each year and I have never come across a case where a student was forced to give up a course in those circumstances. Contract law where you would have already paid a registration charge would seem to preclude such a possibility.
3. Can I secure a college place using the Dare (Disability Access Route to Education) scheme?
Contrary to the impression among some students and parents, there are no “Dare points” or any such scores, awarded to those who succeed in achieving Dare status.
The colleges that operate within the Dare scheme allow each course head or faculty dean to determine how many places within a course to ring fence for those who meet the criteria for both Dare and Hear (Higher Education Access Route). These numbers have remained relatively constant at a maximum of four or five places per course since the schemes launched 12 years ago.
The faculty dean or course head is also given the authority to determine who are the most deserving applicants, particularly where an applicant qualifies under both schemes. Those handful of applicants then receive an offer of that place through the normal CAO process. All the other applicants who are not chosen and have not made the minimum points requirements don’t receive an offer of that course.
The numbers applying through Dare grew again in 2025 by 17 per cent to more than 12,000.
4. How does the CAO course choice list work?
When you are offered the highest course preference to which you are entitled all other courses listed below disappear from your application record. If you get your first choice, you cannot opt to take a lower preference. If you secure your third choice, you are still in play for your first or second choice if CAO points requirement drop in later rounds of offers in the coming weeks.
5. How common is random selection and how does it work?
Every applicant has a randomly generated number attached to every course preference they list on their CAO account. For example, in the case of a group of 10 applicants for the same course having the same CAO points score and there being only five more places available, the 10 random numbers are extracted and the highest five numerically get the places.
Random selection operated in 25 out of 1,110 level eight courses on Wednesday, two of them in Trinity where the students involved had secured maximum points of 625.
