Options after Leaving Cert

1. The Role of the Central
Applications Office (CAO)
O To process applications for 1st year undergraduate
courses in Irish Higher Education Institutions in a
fair and efficient manner.
O Offers are issued and acceptances are recorded
by CAO.
O Students should carefully read the CAO
Handbook, available at www.cao.ie/handbook
which contains information on all of the courses,
restrictions, deadlines, fees and application
guidelines.

2. CAO Dates & Fees
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
ONLINE APPLICATION FEE
CLOSING DATE
Discounted Rate €30 20th Jan
2024
Normal Rate €45 1st Feb
2024
Late Application €60 1st May
2024
Change of Mind 1st July

3. National Framework of
Qualifications
• Level 5 Certificate – 1 year
• Level 6 Higher Certificate - 2years
• Level 7 Ordinary Bachelor Degree – 3 years
• Level 8 Honours Bachelor Degree – 4 years

4. Stage 1
Research

5. O Research is vital to rule out as well as consider
courses.
O Shortlist CAO Courses
O Pay attention to Specific Course Requirements
O Details about courses may be found in HEI
prospectuses and on websites
O www.cao.ie
O www.qualifax.ie
O www.careersportal.ie
O www.accesscollege.ie
O www.studentfinance.ie
 DISCUSS
Options with the guidance counsellor, family, friends, teachers,
Universities, Institute of Technology / Technological Universities
etc.

6. Stage 2
Completing an Application

12. Two Applications in One Form
O There are two course choice lists and
applicants may make up to ten course choices
on each list.
O 10 choices may be made on the Level 8 list
O 10 choices may be made on the Level 7/6 list

13. Codes are
available in the
CAO hand book
and on the CAO
website
On all Third
Level institutes
Websites
On careers
portal and
qualifax
websites

16. O Your choices on one list do not affect your
choices on the other list. They may be
considered two separate applications on
one form.
O It is possible to receive an offer on both
lists.
O You may then decide to accept either
your Level 8 or your Level 7/6 offer.
O Alternatively, you might not wish to accept
either offer.

17. Take Note…
O Applicants can add or take away courses on their
CAO Form free of charge up until the closing date
– 1st February 2024.
O The applicant cannot add restricted courses after
this date.
O A Restricted Course is any course that has an
audition/ HPAT/ portfolio etc. These courses MUST
be inserted on the CAO form before the 1st Feb
deadline.
O Details of restricted entry courses are in the
Handbook (www.cao.ie)

18. Order of Preference
O It is extremely important that you
place your course choices in genuine
order of preference!
O To do otherwise is a mistake.

19. Stage 3
Statement of Application from CAO

20. The Statement is important for two reasons:
1. The Statement of Application Record is sent at
the end of May, the purpose of this e-mail is to
instruct you to log in and verify that all of your
information has been recorded completely and
correctly on your CAO account.
2. The Statement lists your personal details,
course choices that you have applied for,
examination number etc.
O If any mistakes or omission have been
made now is the time to rectify any errors
contact CAO immediately.

21. Stage 4
Change of Mind

22. Change of Mind Facility
O The C.A.O online Change of Mind facility
opens in early May and closes on the 1st July.
O Applicants can use the facility as many times as
you like to introduce, remove or re-order your
courses free of charge.
O You cannot introduce restricted courses using
the Change of Mind facility, but you can
change the order of restricted course that
were already listed on your application form.

23. Stage 5
THE RESULTS

24. Minimum Entry Requirements
 Level 6 & 7
 Grade O6 or H7 in five subjects
 Level 8 Courses
 2 H5 and 4 O6/H7 in six subjects
 For each course the applicant has applied for the CAO first
determine if the applicant has met the minimum entry
requirements for the course.

25. Specific Entry Requirements
O NUI Colleges (UCD, UCC, NUIM , U.G ,RCSI and
St Angela's Sligo) have a 3rd language requirement
(e.g. French or German)
O N.B. Some exceptions for Science, Engineering,
Nursing and Agricultural Science Courses.
O H4 in Irish Primary School Teaching
O H5 in Chemistry Veterinary Medicine
O Higher level Chemistry Pharmacy
O For each course the applicant has applied for the CAO first
determine if the applicant has met any specific course
requirement for the course.

26. POINTS SYSTEM
Selection system used in Irish 3rd Level
Colleges is the POINTS SYSTEM
OPoints are calculated from ONE sitting of the
Leaving Certificate only.
OPoints total is calculated from SIX best subjects
OIf the applicant meets the minimum entry
requirements for the course, the applicant’s points
are calculated for this course choice.
OAll eligible applicants are then placed on a list, in
order of academic merit for each course that they
applied for.
OMinimum Entry Requirements + Points Score =
Position on Order of Merit List.

27. Stage 6
Offer and Acceptance of Places

28. The Offer Process
O Following the release of the Leaving Certificate
results CAO will send a communication to all
applicants.
O If no offers have been made, a Statement of
Application Record will be sent which you
should check carefully to make sure all
information on it is correct.
O Applicants may check for and accept offers on
the C.A.O website.

29. O If you are entitled to an offer, you will be sent an
e-mail of your offer(s).
O If TWO offers have been made simultaneously,
only ONE may be accepted.
O If the applicant wishes to accept an offer of a
place, they must carry out the instructions on
the offer notice before the closing date.

30. O There can be no delays at the offer/acceptance
stage.
O Any offer not accepted by the closing date for
receipt of acceptance of offers in CAO will be
offered to another applicant in the next round of
offers.
O You will receive an e-mail acknowledging your
acceptance.

31. Allocation of Places
O To explain how courses are allocated we will
look just at Level 8 courses in the next example
but exactly the same process will take place
with Level 6/7 courses, and at the same time.
O The importance of the applicant placing
courses in genuine order of preference will
become apparent in the following slides.

32. These are the applicants for CK101 Arts in UCC.
The examination results have not yet been released, so
these applicants are in no particular order. We are
going to trace the progress of the applicant marked in
red.

33. Applicants are placed in a queue for each course
they applied for, their position in the queue is
determined by their points. The applicant with the
highest points is placed at the top of the queue.
The points achieved by the applicant in red
determines his position in the queue for each course
he applied to.

34. OThe HEI’s have instructed the CAO to allocate 6
places for CK101, 7 places for DN 201 and 5
places for AL 033. The applicants marked in green
have enough points to be offered places.
OThe applicant marked in red has enough points for
his second preference.

35. The applicant in red is offered his second
preference, the highest preference course that
he has enough points for, and he will now
disappear from the queue in all his lower
choices. Placing DN201 as his second
preference meant that he would prefer to receive
an offer on DN201 than on any other course
except CK101 - which is his first preference.

36. • Having been offered his second preference he
must now decide to accept it or to do nothing.
If he does not accept the offer the place will
be offered to another applicant in the next
round of offers.
• Regardless of whether he accepts or not he will
still be considered for an offer on his first
preference if a place becomes available.

37. In the second round of offers three more offers
are made on CK101 and our applicant, who was
second in the queue, now receives an offer.
He may do nothing and remain in DN201 or he
may accept the offer and begin in CK101.

38. Remember!
OTry not to guess what the points are going to
be for the courses you are interested in.
OSimply list your courses in genuine order of
preference from the highest preference 1, to
the lowest preference 10.
OIf you are entitled to an offer, you will be
offered the highest preference that you are
entitled to.
ORead the CAO handbook online.
OResearch all courses you are applying for.
ORead all e-mails sent by CAO carefully.

39. Finally…
The most common mistakes that students make
when filling out CAO form are as follows…
O Paying 30 euro but not putting down any
courses
O Not placing courses in genuine order of
preference
O Not ticking the box stating that you are a
current Leaving Cert student
O Not reading the Statement of Application
Record accurately
O Not applying for Irish/Third Language
Exemptions on time