Points in medicine have fallen in four out of five faculties in this year’s second round of CAO offers. New places were also offered by NUIG on 721 points, the same level as they were in round one last week.

The fallout this year from the restructuring of the Hpat marking scheme, to determine who gets undergraduate medical places, continues in round two offers this morning.

Points for medicine dropped from last year in all five medical faculties in round one last week, by between 14 and 18 points.

Amazingly, they have continued to drop in round two, with 64 places being offered this morning across all five medical schools, representing 15 per cent of all medical places available this year. Points are down by three in RCSI, by two in UCC and UCD, by one in Trinity and NUIG offered places to all applicants holding 721 points.

Students seeking places on other programmes in Trinity College will be pleased to find that 32 courses are offering places in round two. Points have decreased in 23 of these programmes. In contrast NUIG is offering places on only three courses, one being medicine. DCU offered a number of places in one programme, athletic therapy and training.

The large number of courses still to be filled in TCD may indicate that they offered insufficient places in round one and are now hoping to secure acceptances from those students still open to accepting a level eight programme.

Nursing and paramedical programmes have also seen a drop in points across a number of colleges. Nursing is down five points in UCC to 440 (random selection). Optometry is down five to 500 in DIT. Dentistry is down five in Trinity, as are radiation therapy and medicinal chemistry.

A number of places are offered under random selection, where not all applicants on these points got a place. These random selection offers include: veterinary medicine, down five in UCD to 575, as are veterinary nursing at 460, physiotherapy at 550, child and general nursing 490 and psychology 510. Some 38,239 applicants had accepted an offer from the CAO on round one by the closing date last Monday. This morning the CAO is offering a further 3,320 places to 3,125 people. The additional places offered by universities, institutes of technology and private colleges bring good news to these 3,125 students. Some 1,494 course places are offered at level eight and 1,626 at level seven/six. A number of students therefore have received offers at both levels.

For 761 students at level eight and 1,256 at level seven/six, today’s post brings an offer of their first choice on their list of course preferences. The number of applicants who will receive an offer today represents a little over 6 per cent of those who did so in round one on August 18th.

The numbers getting places at level eight in an arts programme at 429 is down 63 on 2013, as are the numbers securing a science course offer at 128, down 59. Some 291 applicants got a business course offer, 57 more than received one in 2013.

Medicine

The 64 course places offered in round two for medicine is 15 per cent of the overall places on offer. This is an increase of 25 places on the second round offers last year. These medicine places were offered last week and were either deferred or not accepted.

Eight per cent of the total number of places available in nursing degree s, or 116 nursing places, are also offered this morning, an increase of 40 on 2013.

In physiotherapy one person secured an offer in the second round in 2013, where as 23 fortunate applicants did so this morning.

Engineering/technology applicants saw 163 courses with places offered today at level eight and 343 places at level seven/six. At level seven/six almost half the places (590) offered today are in business programmes.

Arts (298 offers today) and science programmes (362 offers) programmes make up the majority of other offers at this level. There has been a surge in applications for level seven/six science programmes this year, and this is reflected in the increase of 113 places over last year offered this morning.

Some of those places which are been filled today are in courses that did not fill once all the suitably qualified applicants were offered places after the Leaving Cert results. Some programmes have been available to all applicants on the CAO available places list over the past week. Where any of these programmes has proved particularly attractive and drawn a substantial number of new applicants, above the number of places remaining, the normal CAO rules apply, where those with the highest points secure the remaining places.

Points increasing

In a small number of cases this will result in points increasing over and above round one, where the last person to secure a place in this round has a higher points score than the equivalent person in round one.

This list of available place courses will continue to be published on cao.ie over the coming weeks, for as long as course places are on offer. Any existing or new applicants can still, over the coming week, place any of the remaining published “available places courses“ onto their application record on the CAO website, and get an offer of a place in the weeks ahead.

Several hundred offers were made this morning to students where data errors either within the Leaving Cert results, or in the information in students’ own CAO files, were discovered over the past week. These candidates include those who had failed to inform the CAO of a previous Leaving Cert where they met the minimum entry requirement. This failure to inform the CAO of vital data precluded them from an offer in round one for which they were qualified.

Some 123 courses at level eight have seen a drop in points, where the level of acceptances for round one offers was not enough to fill the places available. The colleges in question instructed the CAO to offer an additional number of students on the list of eligible applicants a place on the course in question. With these courses, the points published in this supplement have dropped down from round one. Where the list of initial applicants, who met all of the minimum entry requirements, has been fully exhausted, the college will indicate this by indicating “any qualified applicant” or AQA.

Also offered courses this morning are those who had previously secured an exemption in Irish, but have failed to register it with the National University of Ireland. To their credit, colleges where possible have this morning offered places to such applicants.

Unfortunately, where the level of round one acceptance by applicants is very high, colleges can sometimes not have any places available, following round one acceptance, to remedy these anomalies. Errors in the provision of accurate information by applicants can result in the loss of a place that would otherwise have been secured.

Also receiving offers this morning are candidates who received and accepted one of their choices, other than their first choice in the first round of offers last week. They are now given the opportunity to move up to a higher choice on their list of preferences.

If you receive such a choice this morning, you can choose between remaining with the place you accepted in round one, or you can accept the place in round two, and transfer your acceptance over to that course.

If you have been offered a place today, you have a week to accept or reject the place.

Any places not accepted by next Wednesday’s deadline, will continue to be offered by the CAO over the coming six weeks.