Nursing points soar as students get college offers

THE points needed to study nursing have risen at almost all third-level colleges, by more than 115 points in some cases.

The Central Applications Office (CAO) is sending offers of college places to almost 45,904 of this year’s 63,289 applicants today but students can check the CAO website rather than wait for tomorrow’s post.

With almost 5,000 mature students and other applicants already offered college places earlier this month, 13,168 people are still without an offer this morning. But, based on figures from previous years, up to 1,000 of them can expect to get good news in the second round of offers due out on Friday week, September 3.

Many students who might have thought, based on last year’s points, that their Leaving Certificate results were enough to gain entry to nursing courses could be disappointed. The points rose for all but a handful of more than 30 nursing degrees on offer via the CAO.

Psychiatric nursing at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology rose by 115 points to 375, and by 90 points to 335 at Dublin City University.

Medicine courses again require the highest points, with 570 being the lowest score to get into any of the country’s medical schools.

Physiotherapy, pharmacy, psychology, veterinary and dentistry make up most of the 20 courses for which at least 550 points are needed.

There was a mix of rising and falling points needed for third-level science and engineering degrees, without any indication of a strong move away from or towards those courses.

Almost 14,500 of the 32,772 people receiving at least one degree offer have been offered their first choice from the CAO’s degree list. A further 9,500 have been offered either their second or third choice, but could be offered a higher course on their list later.

Of 35,775 applicants offered a diploma or certificate course, 74% have been offered their first choice.

The CAO website (www.cao.ie) opened for students to check and accept offers of a college place at 6am. Every CAO applicant will receive written notification tomorrow. Acceptances must be received by August 31.

Advice on the CAO system, exam appeals and other issues is available from the National Parents Council (Post Primary) helpline on 1800-265165 from 8am-10pm until Thursday, and 10am-4pm on Friday.