Tens of thousands of students snap up college places

Chances look slim of any course being offered to over 17,000 third-level applicants without a place so far, as tens of thousands snapped up their places yesterday.

The Central Applications Office (CAO) made offers to 52,289 people online and by post, and nearly 6,600 of them were accepted in the first hour after applicants began logging in at 6am. By mid-morning, the number of acceptances had passed 18,000 and it had passed 25,400 by 4.30pm, 2,000 more than at the same time a year ago.

Further college places in subsequent rounds will be very limited, as most people receiving offers yesterday were offered their top choice of course. This would mean that those places offered to them cannot become available by them accepting a place on a different study programme later.