Leaving Certificate students across the country will be waiting with anticipation ahead of the release of Central Applications Office (CAO) Round One offers later today.
Students will be able to access their offers from 2 pm on the CAO portal, or through their email or by text.
The CAO system is used to allocate the majority of third-level places, working on a points-based system, with students earning points based on their Leaving Certificate results.
Almost 73,000 students applied to the CAO back in February according to their annual applicant statistics, showing a 0.1 per cent decrease on last year’s figures.
Billy Bennett, registrar at Letterkenny IT and a CAO board member, says it is not game over if you do not get your top choice:
"Remain calm, you have got a few days to respond to the offer and look at the offer carefully. If it is something that you are interested in, do respond and accept the offer.
"You always have the opportunity of getting another offer in round two, and if there is something higher on your list that you got the points for, you may get that offer again in round two."
Leaving Cert results were issued on Monday morning, with the Class of 2020 achieving record grades from the calculated grades process.
This year’s results increased on average by 4.4 per cent across all subjects, leading to fears that the improved results would see CAO point requirements shoot up.
The points requirement for each course is determined by demand, with popular courses requiring more points.
Pupils from previous Leaving Cert classes have said they feel like they are now at a disadvantage due to this year’s inflated results, which may see them miss out on third-level places.
In a move to ease demand for college places, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has announced over 3,000 additional third-level places.
High demand
Health courses are by far the most popular among students applying to the CAO this year according to their statistics.
Over 12,300 students placed Level-8 Health courses, which includes medicine, nursing and physiotherapy, as their number one preference, with over 65,600 pupils placing these courses somewhere on their application.
Business and Administration are the next most popular Level-8 courses, with over 8,200 putting it as their first choice, and over 46,400 placing it somewhere on their application.
Students will have until September 16th to accept their offer, while Round Two offers will be made on September 23rd.
