PE and clinical speech
Two courses - physical education in UL and clinical speech in TCD - do not make any offers in round one.
The cut-offs in round two were 490 (down five on 1999) and 495* (down 20 on last year) respectively.
Arts
There was very little movement in omnibus arts programmes, other than a drop in five points in NUI Maynooth, bringing the cut-off to 355*, and a similar drop in St. Angela's (listed under NUI Galway), down to 340.
Commerce/business degrees
Again, there was very little change in round two. The points required for commerce in UCD and NUI Galway were unchanged, while they dropped by five at UCC to 445*. Random selection was cleared in NUI Galway.
Business studies in DIT, DCU, WIT and UL and BESS at TCD were unchanged. Commerce with German fell by 10 in NUI Galway, while commerce with French and commerce with German at UCC fell by five.
Omnibus engineering degrees
At DIT points fell by 15, from 305 to 290 while in TCD points fell by 10 to 420. There was no change in UCD and NUI Galway's omnibus entry programmes.
General science degrees
Once again, the points dropped dramatically for DIT's applied science degree. Last year, the round two cut-off of 245 was a drop of 60 on the round one cut-off. This year, the fall was even steeper. The cut-off dropped from 280 to 215.
In UCC's chemical, mathematical and physical science degree there was adrop of 20 to 340. At DCU, TCD, UCD and NUI Maynooth there was no change in the cut-off levels for omnibus science degrees.
Primary teaching
There was very little movement in the cut-off levels in round two. In Froebel College, there was a drop of 10 to 430* while in Mary Immaculate points dropped by five to 440*. And, in St Patrick's, Drumcondra, there was a drop of 15 in the points required to secure a reserved Gaeltacht places. Otherwise, points remained at round one levels.
Reading the points charts
If no points are shown, this means no offers were made in round two. If the points are the same as round one, in the great majority of cases only a few offers were made; in some cases only a single offer may have been made, perhaps to take account of errors in round which were not the applicant's responsibility.
The acrynom AQA means places were offered to all qualified applicants. One degree and 77 certificate/diplomas are registering AQA as their cut-off.
Accepting a place
If you wish to take up a round-two offer, you must return the offer notice to the CAO by September 11th. This must be posted or delivered to the CAO; faxes, emails or telegrams are not acceptable. There is no acceptance fee so you don't need to send any money.
If you wish to reject an offer then you should simply ignore it. If the CAO doesn't receive an acceptance by 5.15 p.m. on September 11th, it will deem the place rejected and will reoffer it to another applicant.
Vacant places
Vacant places, which were advertised on courses that were not filled in round one are now being snapped up, in some cases by people with high points, according to the CAO.
If you wish to apply to the CAO and you have not applied previously you must get an application form (CAO, Tower House, Eglinton Street, Galway; tel: (091) 509800; website: www.cao.ie) and pay a fee of £18.90.
If you have applied already there is no further application fee. On application, a printout of your form will be returned to you and you must insert the course(s) with vacant places in your order of preference.
You must insert your vacant place choice(s) higher in your list of preference than any offer which you have received to date. You may not re-order your original course choices.
Applicants for vacant places must meet the normal minimum educational requirements for the course(s) in question. For a list of courses with vacancies log on to the CAO website (www.cao.ie). Tomorrow's final College 2000 column in The Irish Times will carry a full listing of all vacancies available to date.
Webcast
The Irish Times on the Web, ireland.com, will host a question and answer session on the web tomorrow morning. I will put your questions to Irish Times helpline counsellor Vivian Cassells. If you have a query you would like answered, then e-mail it to education@irish- times.ie.
The webcast will be available from 10 a.m. tomorrow in both audio and text format at www.ireland.com/education/ cao/2000/
If you have a problem you wish to discuss please use our telephone helpline (1 850 74 74 24) from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today and tomorrow.
