Only 3,600 offers were made in the second round of the CAO offers process. This brings the proportion of CAO applicants who received an offer of a college place this autumn to 82.9 per cent.

The number of offers being made in the second round of the CAO process has been declining. In 1998, more than 6,600 offers were made; last year, more than 4,500 offers were made. This year, the number dropped to 3,612.

There was good news this morning for 624 applicants who had not previously received an offer. The remaining offers were higher-preference choices made to applicants who had already received one or more offers. At this stage, 80,253 offers have been made, a decrease on last year's total of 82,278.

The number of offers exceeds the number of applicants (63,145) because a proportion of applicants were made offers from both the degree and certificate/ diploma lists. They could accept only one of these offers.

More than 40,000 offers have been rejected to date. The Commission on the Point System, which published its final report in November 1999, notes that the numbers being offered places and not accepting them remained fairly constant over the past four years. This year's numbers are in line with this trend.

A survey carried out for the Higher Education Authority, and cited by the Commission on the Points System, notes that factors influencing the respondents' decision to reject offers included almost one third being unhappy with the place(s) they were offered; one quarter changing their mind about career plans; one-10th concerned with the financial costs of going to college; and fewer than six per cent saying they had not been adequately informed about choices when applying to the CAO.

The closing date for the acceptance of round-two offers is September 11th, and the process of re-offering places which have been refused will continue in the coming weeks. There are, at present, more than 100 courses, mostly in the institutes of technology and the private third-level colleges, with vacant places.

The round-two offers comprise 1,371 degrees and 2,241 certificate/diploma places. By the end of round one, 35,924 applicants have accepted places. This compares with 35,189 at this stage last year.

There was a small increase in the acceptance of degree offers, with 20,172 acceptances, at the end of round one, compared to 19,457 last year. At certificate/diploma level, acceptances closely parallel last year at 15,752 compared to 15,732 last year.

A corollary of the fewer offers being made in the second round is that the there is relatively little change overall in the cut-off points, particularly in the high-points courses.

At degree level, there were drops of 20 points or more in 17 courses. The most dramatic fall was in manufacturing engineering with management science at TCD, which dropped by 100 to 330. Applied science at DIT fell by 65 to 215 while maths at TCD fell by 60 to 420.

At certificate/diploma level, there was greater movement, with points dropping by 20 or more in 44 certificate/ diploma courses. There were dramatic falls in applied languages in Tallaght IT (down 140 to 105), applied chemistry in Tralee IT (down 95 to 135), medical laboratory sciences in DIT (down 80 to 280) and medical device engineering at Galway-Mayo IT (down 75 to 105).

This is an inexact science: some courses dropped their cut-off levels to take in all qualified applicants (AQA) and so did not register a round two cut-off.

While points are largely comparable across colleges and courses, it should be borne in mind that UL awards bonus points for higher-level maths, while the universities and DIT give lower points for the Leaving Certificate Vocational link modules than other institutes of technology.

DIT awards bonus points for maths and some science subjects in the case of its electrical/electronic engineering degree. And, in some courses, points exceed the theoretical maximum of 600 because they include points for assessments, portfolios or interviews.

High points courses

As might be expected, there was very little change in the cut-off of the courses requiring the highest points in round one.

At the top of the list, medicine in TCD continues to require 570*, while law and French, also at TCD, was unchanged at 570. So some of those still waiting on random selection for places in medicine in TCD must be bitterly disappointed.

It is somewhat ironic that it is often the students who did best in the Leaving Certificate who are the most disappointed when it comes to college offers. If they have their hearts set on one or two particular courses, such as medicine, law or dentistry, then it is still a very competitive process although, overall, more than four-fifths of college applicants have received an offer of a third-level place.

The maximum of 600 points was required to secure a scholarship based on Leaving Certificate points to study medicine at RCSI. No further offers were made in round two.

In DCU, there was some good news for high-points applicants, with financial and actuarial-maths losing its asterix. This means those applicants with 500 points who didn't get an offer in round one were made an offer in this round. In UCD, actuarial and financial studies remained at 550.

There was a fall of 15 points for applied psychology at UCC, down to 505*, while psychology at UCD fell by 10 to 500*. In TCD, pharmacy fell by five to 545 and human genetics also dropped by five to 525. Medicinal chemistry at TCD also fell by 10.

Medicine/paramedical

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the second round of offers was the drop in points required to study medical laboratory sciences at DIT. This fell from 360 in the first round to 280 in this round. This has been a very popular course in the past and the drop to below 300 is unexpected.

However, points remained in the 400s in the two other colleges offering medical lab sciences. In Cork IT, points fell by 10 to 435 while in Galway-Mayo IT, they dropped by 15 to 420. DIT has a requirement for a higher-level C3 in chemistry and this may have been a stumbling block.

Still with certificate/diploma courses, the physiology/health course in Carlow IT remained at 415, while health science with physiology at Sligo IT retained its round one cut-off of 310. There was no change in the points required to study medicine at RCSI (545), TCD (570*), UCD (555) and NUI Galway (550*), while the cut-off level at UCC dropped by five to 555*. So random selection now applies in three colleges, leaving some applicants with excellent Leaving Certificates very disappointed.

Some of those waiting on random selection for places in veterinary medicine in UCD were similarly disappointed, as the cut-off remained at 540*.

No further offers were made to dentistry applicants at UCC, while TCD's cut-off remained unchanged at 540*. There were small drops in the points required for physiotherapy at TCD (down 10 to 530*) and the RCSI (down five to 510). No further offers were made in radiography in TCD and UCD and in optometry in DIT.

The points required for human nutrition and dietetics in DIT dipped to 490 (a drop of 15 on round one). And points for occupational therapy in TCD fell by five to 475*.