Confused about the whole CAO process? Relax. Brian Mooney explains how it works and (below) answers your key questions about what to do next
As both you and your parents digest the results of your Leaving Certificate results this morning, the CAO is feeding them into their computer system, in order to calculate the points score of all applicants for places in all of the higher education institutions throughout Ireland.
Just over 100 candidates will be eligible for a place on any course they want, having scored the maximum of 600 points. A little over 1,000 students will have scored between 550-595 points putting them within the range required for places on medical-paramedical courses.
A further 4,000 students will have scored between 500-545 points making them eligible for a place on most degree programmes.
All of the above students make up eight per cent of the Leaving Certificate class of 2006, which shows how difficult it is for students to secure a place on the most sought-after courses.
The vast majority of students secure scores between 200-500 points.
Next Friday, the admissions officers of all of the 43 colleges in the CAO system will meet to decide on how many places to offer on each course.
Some places will already have been offered and accepted. This occurred in Round Zero in early August, when students who had deferred a place from 2005, plus mature applicants, were offered places.
Having done this, admissions officers now have to make their most difficult decision of the year: how many places they will offer.
Colleges are like airlines, in that they will offer more places than they have, because they know that there will always be those who do not take up a place that is offered, for a variety of reasons.
Once the number of places on each course is decided, the data is fed into the computer system and those places are offered to applicants.
They are ranked in order of points, on both Level 8 (Honours Degree), or Level 7 (Ordinary Degree)/Level 6 (HigherCertificate) lists.
The points of the last student offered a place is published in the newspapers as the minimum points required for that particular course.
So the CAO or the colleges do not set the points; they are simply the score of the last person offered a place.
Having said that, a number of colleges have now set a minimum points score for some of their courses.
They justify this on the basis that students below a certain score are unlikely to be able to cope with the demands of the course.
What happens if, for instance, there are five places left on a course and there are 10 candidates on that point score?
When a student settles on their course choices, after the July 1st application deadline, they are allocated a randomly generated number.
The five highest of these numbers secures the five places, and an asterisk is printed beside the minimum entry point in the newspaper, to indicate that not all students on that point secure a place on the first round of offers. This process is referred to as random selection.
Between now and 6am next Monday (21st August), the CAO will be processing all this data. At 6am on Monday, they will put the offers live online at cao.ie. Each student has an individual CAO application number to access his or her own file.
The paper offer notice will be posted on Monday and should arrive in each candidate's home on Tuesday morning. Candidates have until 5.15pm on Tuesday 29th August to accept a place. Places can be accepted online or by post.
If you are applying for a place by post you need to make sure that you get a certificate of postage. These are printed on the inside back cover of the CAO handbook.
If you are accepting a place online, you must print off a receipt of the acceptance before ending your online session with CAO.