- College offers were issued to thousands of college applicants at 2pm today
- 56 per cent of CAO applicants secured their first choice college, while 83 per cent secured one of their top-three places
- Random selection was used in a total of 23 courses, including high-points programmes such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, business, management, engineering and others
- Students who achieved maximum points - 625 - were chosen on a lottery for two courses: UCD’s economics and finance at UCD and dental science at Trinity College Dublin
- What’s up and what’s down? Check entry points for all CAO courses in our table below
- CAO helpdesk: Put your questions on 2023 college offers to our guidance counsellors from 1pm
CAO offers are out: 56% get first choice but more than 20 courses on random selection
A total of 56 per cent of college applicants have received their first choice in today’s CAO round one offers.
Most applicants (83 per cent) have secured one of their top three offers.
However, more than 20 courses are on random selection, which means a lottery will be used to select these applicants.
In two cases courses random selection was used to select candidates who achieved a maximum of 625 points for economics and finance.
These courses are economics and finance at UCD and dental science at Trinity College Dublin.
The courses where random selection has been used this year include:
UCD: medicine (graduate entry); economics and finance (625 points); actuarial & financial studies (612 points), veterinary medicine (589 points)
Trinity: mathematics (589); integrated engineering (556 points); management science and information systems (613 points); integrated engineering with management (613 points); and dental science (625 points) and global business (601).
UCC: pharmacy (613), occupational therapy (566), medicine (graduate entry),
MTU: physical education studies with business at the Kerry campus (451)
Atlantic Technological University: education, home economics and biology - with concurrent teacher education (510); education, home economics and Irish - with concurrent teacher education (429); education, home economics - with concurrent teacher education (476)
RSCI: medicine - undergraduate (732 with Hpat points), graduate entry medicine,
University of Galway: medicine - undergraduate (718 - including Hpat scores).
University of Limerick: physiotherapy (590), electronic and computer engineering (443)
IADT: applied psychology (389 points), design for film (680 - with portfolio points);
What should I do when I get a college offer?
Brian Mooney has this advice for students who receive a college offer this afternoon.
As he points out, if an applicant receives an offer of their first choice,it is the only offer from that list they will receive.
If they receive an offer of a lower preference they may, depending on the number of acceptances received by colleges, receive an offer of a higher course choice at any stage up to as late as mid-October.
However, this applies to a very small volume of courses.
CAO 2024: Waiting on an offer today? Here’s how to respond to it – The Irish Times
How much is college accommodation this year?
It’s the first dilemma facing CAO applicants after they receive their college offer - can I find a place to live?
Katie Mellett has compiled a very useful guide to the cost of accommodation across Irish universities.
It’s no surprised to see that rental costs for most part are only going one way; that’s if you can find a place.
The gong for the most expensive accommodation goes to UCD at Roebuck Castle, where a catered, en suite apartment costs a whopping €12,063.55 for the 2024/25 academic year.
CAO points 2024: the good news and the bad news
It’s a twitchy time for students -- and parents. You’ve got your grades, but do you have your college place?
We won’t officially find out until 2pm, but we have some significant indicators.
First, the good news: it is expected that close to 60 per cent of CAO applicants will secure their first choice college place this year, while up to 85 per cent are likely to secure one of their top-three places.
The not-so-good news: random selection will be used to select candidates on some prestigious courses such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, business, management, engineering and others, according to higher education sources.
We’ll have all of the latest updates, news, and analysis as the offers go out live here.
You can read more on what we know so far in this news story here.
