IE Explains: First-round CAO offers released — what now?
Checking Their Boal/collins The Outside Photos Dhele Education, Dublin Alisha Mcdaid, From Duilan And Sam Of Results Dublin Institute Sun, Picture: Caoimhe
After the Leaving Cert results were issued to students last week, Wednesday saw the release of first-round offers by the CAO for level 8 and level 6/7 courses at colleges and universities around the country.
At 2pm, applicants have received their round-one offers for a college place. If they received no offer at this point, they’ll have received a statement of applications email with instructions to check their CAO account.
Michelle Flynn, a career guidance counsellor and career advisor at careerhub.ie, talked us through it all.
“Each applicant has their own unique access password for the candidate self-service portal to enable them to log on to the My Application section of the CAO website where they can view their offer or offers,” she said.
As in previous years, the marks that students received in this year’s Leaving Cert exams were artificially inflated.
This was down to a Government decision that due to the disruption caused to students during the covid-19 pandemic, each cohort of Leaving Cert classes in recent years would do no worse on aggregate than the previous cohort.
It also means that this year’s class aren’t at a disadvantage if competing for places with students who had grades artificially inflated in previous years.
This system has led to record grades and points totals in the last few years, and fierce competition for places.
It is however, something of a mixed bag when it comes to the points requirements for this year.
As a whole, points requirements have dropped for 44% of courses and risen for 38%. They were unchanged for 12.7%.
Because students are achieving higher grades than they were before the pandemic due to the artificial inflation, it means that the very high-points courses such as medicine, dentistry, engineering and others have numerous top-performing students applying for them.
Universities will have a cap on how many it can admit to a course each year so it’s led to situations where some applicants who met the points requirement for a course won’t actually have been offered that course via a lottery.
It is terribly unlucky for the students who did achieve enough points for that course, but they may still receive an offer for this course in the second round.
The acceptance date for round-one offers is no later than Tuesday, September 3, at 3pm.
Round-2 offers will then then be made from 2pm on Monday, September 9, with a deadline of Wednesday, September 11, at 3pm for acceptance of those offers. You can only accept an offer by doing so online.
Ms Flynn said: “It’s important to say if you do nothing with the CAO offer you received it will be removed and passed onto the next applicant. If some reason, you don’t want the offer just leave it be. Don’t do anything.”
That is up to each candidate, but it is worth noting that accepting an offer lower down your list of preferences now doesn’t preclude you from accepting an offer for a course higher up your list in the next round.
Here’s what the CAO has to say on this: “Accepting a lower preference course in an earlier Offer Round will not prevent you from receiving an offer in a subsequent round of a course higher up on your course choices list if you are deemed eligible.
“Should a place become available in a later round, and if you are entitled to this place, you may receive an offer which you can choose to accept or ignore. Accepting the new offer will automatically cancel the previous acceptance.”
However, students have also been told to be careful when making this decision.
“You are not guaranteed to get another offer in subsequent rounds,” Ms Flynn said. “It’s important to assess the offer you get. If it’s not your first choice you may feel disappointed, but you must consider the current offer, go over the course content, the modules etc.
“If you decide not to take the offer you get, you may not receive another.”
If you want to defer a place until next year, do not accept the offer. What to do instead is to email the admissions office of the university or college immediately.
The CAO said: “You must give your name as it appears on your CAO application, quote your CAO application number and the course code of the offer you wish to defer, and set out the reason(s) for the request. Applicants must mark “DEFERRED ENTRY” clearly in the subject line of the email.”
This email must arrive in the admissions office at least two days before the reply deadline on the offer notice.
To take up the deferred place, you must re-apply through the CAO next year and follow the instructions carefully to indicate you’re taking up a deferred place.
Many students will have taken up the option of having one or more of their results rechecked. If results are upgraded on appeal, your position on the “order of merit” list will be changed to reflect your new grades.
“If you are deemed entitled to a place on a course based on your upgraded Leaving Certificate results you will receive an offer,” the CAO said.
“If all of the places for that course have already been allocated, you will receive a deferral of the offer for the following academic year. The decision to offer a place is made by the [institution] in question and not the CAO.”
This can of course be a stressful time for both students and parents, as they navigate what to do next.
Ms Flynn said: “A free helpline has been set up to offer support for those facing such important decisions.
“The number you can call if you need help is 1800 265 165. The helpline will be staffed by professional guidance counsellors who will give one-on-one support to those who need it.”