Students to log on for first-round offers

AROUND 38,000 college places are up for grabs when the Central Applications Office (CAO) makes first round offers on Monday.

Tens of thousands of applicants are expected to log on to www.cao.ie at 6am when they can check if they have been made an offer of one of their course choices.

This year’s 63,200 applicants include more than 42,500 students who sat the Leaving Certificate last June, of whom around 2,000 were repeating this year.

The remaining 20,000-plus prospective college entrants are a mix of mature students, people with further education qualifications and those transferring from other courses or applying from overseas.

Around half of the places on offer through the CAO will have been accepted by students by the end of the week, although many applicants may hold out for their first preference courses.

Institute of Guidance Counsellors president Frank Mulvihill said it was important to take time and think about the various options.

“For those who are offered their second or third choice courses, or even a lower preference, it is probably a good idea to maybe accept it for now,” he said.

“If they are not subsequently offered their first choice, they should think hard about whether it’s really what they want to do before deciding to repeat the Leaving Certificate in the hoping of getting it next year,” Mr Mulvihill said.

He also urged students to consider applying for one of the 20,000 places available on Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses, as the qualifications from many of these offer opportunities as an alternative method of entry to third-level education.

But for those who are comparing their points tally from the results they received Wednesday with requirements for their preferred courses last year, there is no way of telling how things might change.

The CAO advises that its website is the most popular method of checking and accepting offers. It is also the safest way to do so without making mistakes, as the traditional postal method allows simple errors that might be questioned online to go unchecked.