COLLEGE CHOICE:THE SENSE of anticipation for tens of thousands of students as they logged on to the CAO website yesterday morning was intense.
It was a frustrating day, however, because of the cyber-attack on the website.
So what was the good news?
By 5pm yesterday, more than 23,000 students had already accepted their CAO offers, a broadly similar pattern to this time last year. Students also received their CAO offers by post.
What to do next:
All applicants who received an offer yesterday have until 5.15pm next Monday, August 30th, to accept their place.
If you do not accept the place offered to you by that date, the offer will lapse. If you do accept that place – and you have higher preferences which are still in play – you could be offered a place in the second round in 10 days’ time, if points come down.
Essentially, you can transfer your acceptance to any place then offered, or you can decide to stay with the course you originally accept.
The choice is yours.
What to do if there is no offer:
If you have not received an offer yet, there is a Vacant Place facility within the CAO application process.
Colleges who have not filled all available places in round one will publish those places on the CAO website from noon today.
If you wish to accept one of these places, simply amend your existing CAO record, placing the vacant place course at the top of your list of choices.
If there is any course that you would still prefer above the vacant place that you are still hoping to receive an offer for – either through a drop in points or an upgrade following a recheck of your exam papers – you should list that course ahead of the vacant place.
In that way, if you are offered the vacant place in round two offers, you are still in line for your higher preference if it becomes available in later rounds.
Rechecking your exam results:
Today is your last opportunity to return the form you received with your Leaving Certificate results to your school.
This move will enable you to view any of your scripts on September 3rd and 4th.
You must of course be personally present to view the scripts.
You cannot send someone to do so on your behalf.
You can bring someone with you on the day, and it can be a different person for each paper.
So, if you want to ask along a teacher or teachers in your school, you should give them plenty of notice of your request.
Having viewed the script, you can then decide to have the paper rechecked. This process will cost you €40 per paper.
The process takes about five weeks, so you will not have the result of the recheck until mid-October.
If you are upgraded and receive additional points, you will at that stage be offered any higher CAO preferences you become entitled to.
You may have the option to take the place up this year, depending on how many weeks of lectures you have missed, or you may choose to defer and hold your place until next year.
More tomorrow
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