More than 15,000 CAO applicants have rejected an offer of a college place. It is estimated that more than 20 per cent of those who apply for third-level places are now opting to go directly into paid employment, as the economy continues to boom.
As the second-round offers are released today, new figures from the Central Applications Office show that more than 51,000 students have received one or two offers to date, but only 35,000 have accepted a place.
With students enjoying an abundance of choice this year, it is now clear that four out of every five students who applied have been offered a college place.
It is still unclear why offers were declined, but it is thought, on the basis of the pattern in recent years, that about a fifth went directly into the workplace and a quarter decided to repeat the Leaving Certificate. Another 15 per cent accepted places on a post Leaving Cert course and 12 per cent accepted places in third-level colleges in Northern Ireland or Britain.
Some 20,000 applicants have accepted a degree place at the close of round one, while more than 15,000 have accepted a certificate/diploma place.
The publication of today's second-round points show that, ironically, it is the applicants with the highest points who often experience the most difficulty in securing their desired college place.
The two courses requiring the highest points in the first round - medicine and law with French at TCD - remain unchanged at 570. There were no offers made for law and French in the second round of offers which applicants received today.
Medicine at TCD continues to sport a random-selection asterix, which means some applicants with 570 points did not get an offer in today's post.
There were dramatic drops in the points required for a number of courses, with TCD's manufacturing engineering and management science degree falling by 100 to 330 and applied languages in Tallaght IT falling by 140.
Overall, the picture remains good for college applicants. More than 3,600 applicants received an offer in today's post, bringing the proportion of applicants with an offer to 82.9 per cent.
The reply date for second-round offers is next Monday, September 11th, and any remaining places will be re-offered on an individual basis. More than 100 courses are still advertising vacant places (see www.cao.ie).
The College 2000 telephone helpline (1 850 74 74 24) is also available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today and tomorrow.