1 What should I do before I head off to my school to collect my Leaving Cert results?
You should bring the point's calculator on page 3 of this supplement with you, so that you can calculate your CAO points immediately. The points required for entry into all CAO courses, will be published in College Choice 2013, a supplement with next Monday's Irish Times. These points, once published, will determine whether you will or will not be offered your registered course choices.
Last year’s points requirements, published on pages 7-9 of today’s supplement, are a good guide regarding what the points will be this year, although there may be some small movement up and down in points requirements due to increases or decreases in the numbers of places on offer from colleges, and the popularity of particular courses in a given year.
2 How do I calculate my points score?
When you open your results envelope the first thing is to calculate your CAO points score. Remember you can only use the results of your best six grades. This process is not as simple as it seems. Not all colleges operate the same points system. A growing number of colleges, particularly institutes of technology, offer some points for grades A and B in foundation level maths and Irish. At the other end of the spectrum, bonus points for higher level maths are offered to all students who pass. Consult your CAO handbook for details of all points variations.
3 What happens next?
This Friday the admissions officers of all the colleges will inform the CAO how many places to offer on each course. Thousands of college places have already been offered and accepted in two rounds of college place offers in July, when students who had deferred a place from 2012, 2013 mature applicants, and those students who secured a place reserved for those holding Fetac level five awards were offered places.
Colleges are like airlines in that they will offer more places than they want acceptances because they know there will always be those who do not take up a place offered, for whatever reason.
Once the number of remaining places available to this year's Leaving Cert applicants is determined, the data is fed into the CAO's software, and places are offered to applicants, in points rank order, according to their preferences, on level eight (honours degree), level seven (ordinary degree) or level six (higher certificate) lists.
Next Monday The Irish Times will publish a table listing each course and the corresponding points score of the last student offered a place on the course. It should be noted that the CAO or the colleges do not determine these minimum entry point levels; they are simply the scores of the last students on the list of applications, ranked in order of their examination results, offered a place.
4 When will I know if I am getting an offer from the CAO?
At 6am next Monday, the CAO will place all offers live on cao.ie. Each student has an individual CAO application number to enable them to access their own CAO file. The CAO will also post out all offers to candidates, which will arrive on Monday morning.
You will have a week to accept a place. Places can be accepted online or by post. If post is being used, students need a certificate of postage from the post office. They are printed on the inside back cover of the CAO handbook. If accepting online, students must print off a receipt of their acceptance before ending their browser session on the CAO website.
5 How do I apply for a
deferral?
Individual colleges deal with requests for deferrals – not the CAO. If you wish to defer a place offered to you next Monday, you must immediately write to the college setting out your reason for seeking a deferment. Mark "deferred entry" clearly on the envelope.
You must attach the appropriate part of the offer notice to the letter, ie showing the offer you wish to be deferred. The request must arrive at the college in question by Friday, August 28th. The college will let you know its decision immediately. Most colleges offer deferrals when requested.
The most important point for deferred entry students to remember is that they have to apply to the CAO again by February 1st, 2014, placing the deferred course as the only one on their application form.
6 Will I disqualify myself from other offers, if I accept/refuse any offer I may receive next Monday?
No. You are entitled to be offered any place that may become available, higher up the order of preference on either of your level eight honours degree or your ordinary degree/higher certificate, CAO lists.
Whether you have accepted a place in another course or not is irrelevant, you will be offered the newly available place anyway. If you choose to accept the new offer, you will simply have any registration fees you paid to the first college transferred to the second one.
7Can I be offered a place in a course I have not applied for but now want?
You can do this only if vacancies are advertised for the course on the CAO website, cao.ie. This will occur only if the original list of qualified applicants to the CAO is exhausted, or if a college has offered a new course since July 1st. Be sure to check you meet all the minimum entry requirements before you add any "vacant place" course on your existing list of course choices.
8Do I have to pay a fee when returning my acceptance to CAO if I am offered a place next Monday?
No payment is required when returning the acceptance of a place to the CAO. The college will send out any bills for tuition fees, etc separately. All enquiries about such fees should be directed to the fees office of the college offering the place – not to the CAO. Students will have to pay registration charges when they are registering at their new college.
9 If I feel my result in any subject is not a fair reflection of my work, and am successful in appealing my grade, how will that effect any offer I hope to receive from the CAO?
The State Examinations Commission will notify the CAO automatically in mid-October, in the event of a successful appeal of any grade you receive this morning. Following that, you will be contacted regarding any new entitlement to a course this upgrade may open up. In most cases, upgrades happen a month to six weeks after courses start.
Many colleges may offer you the option to take up the place immediately, although due to the size of the existing class group, some courses may not offer you a place this year.
If you want a newly offered place, but cannot attend this year, you can accept the place as a deferred entry for next year.
10 What if I don't want to collect my results from school?
Results are available online and by phone from midday today, WednesdayAugust 14th, 2013.
Access to the online results service, which requires the candidate’s examination number and unique candidate personal identification number, is through examinations.ie.
Candidates also have the option of accessing their results by telephone using their PIN and examination numbers.
Details of the service, which requires a touch-tone phone, are 1530-716016 for callers within the Republic of Ireland (33c a minute, including VAT. Calls from pay phones and mobiles may cost extra.), or +353-1-6885312 from outside the Republic of Ireland.
