The first round of CAO college places opened today with more than 6,000 applicants being offered a place in third level.
A total of 6,207 CAO applicants received an offer a college place in Round A, the first round of college offers to be released this year. Of those who received an offer, 4,884 received a level 8 offer and 2,500 received a level 7/6 offer.
The CAO said 1,177 applicants received an offer on both the level 8 and level 7/6 lists.
The offers were made available on the cao.ie website at 6am today. Successful applicants will also receive a paper offer notice by post, an email and a text message (if they have selected this option) with details of their offer.
Round A offers mainly concern mature applicants, mature nursing/midwifery applicants, and deferred applicants, but offers are also issued to some applicants who have completed an access course, or those who may be required to make visa arrangements.
Speaking about the offer process, CAO communications officer, Eileen Keleghan, commented: "We urge all mature, deferred and other applicants who may be expecting an offer at this stage to log in to their CAO accounts after 6 am today to check if they have received a Round A offer.
“Successful applicants will also receive an email to the email account that they have registered on the CAO system.
“Offers must be accepted by 5.15 pm on Thursday next, 12 July - failure to accept an offer by the reply date will result in the offer being cancelled” she added.
The next round (Round Zero) will take place on August 2nd and mostly concerns additional mature applicants, deferred and Access applicants, graduate entry medicine applicants, and applicants presenting QQI FET/FETAC qualifications for entry to courses with a quota for QQI FET/FETAC applicants.
For all other applicants, Round One offers will be issued on Monday, August 20th.