Thousands of students have received second round offers of college places through the Central Applications Office (CAO).
A total of 3,370 offers were issued to 3,024 applicants in round two of the process, with 2,364 offers made for level 8 courses and 1,006 offers at level 7/6. Some 1,226 applicants are receiving an offer for the first time.
Those who have received an offer today will have until Wednesday, September 10th at 3pm to accept it. Of the recipients of level 8 offers, 1,050 (44 per cent) received an offer of their first preference course. Some 788 (78 per cent) of recipients of level 7/6 offers were getting their first preference.
Many of the applicants will have already accepted an offer in round one and must now decide between the courses available to them before Wednesday’s deadline. Accepting a new offer will automatically cancel a previous acceptance.
RM Block
Students are advised that if you do not wish to accept your new offer, you can simply do nothing, and your previous acceptance will stand.
“If this is an applicant’s first offer, they can choose to accept this offer, and this will not prevent them from receiving a higher preference course in a later offer round if they are deemed eligible,” says Eileen Keleghan, head of communications for CAO. “It is important to note, however, that most offers have been issued at this stage and this may be the only offer that they will receive.”
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Applicants can check if they have received a second-round offer by logging into their CAO account and using the “My Application” facility from 2pm. Successful applicants will also be issued an offer by email and SMS text message if they have selected that option.
“For those who have been unsuccessful in receiving an offer – or their desired offer – there are many options, including further education courses which offer qualifications as well as opportunities to progress to third level; apprenticeship schemes; reapplying through CAO next year; or repeating the Leaving Certificate,” Ms Keleghan said. “The Available Places facility also has approximately 140 courses advertised, and some additional offers will be issued on a weekly basis from today until early October.”
If an applicant wishes to defer their current offer, they must contact the admissions office of the offering institution immediately by email with the text “Deferred Entry” in the subject line. The points charts will be available to view on the CAO website from 4pm today at www.cao.ie/points.
