Give yourself the best chance of getting a CAO offer

There has been a huge acceptance rate among CAO applicants for places offered so far. The CAO has received up to 30,000 acceptances on level 8 honours degree and level 6/7 ordinary degree and certificate courses.

Some were shocked to get no offer however. There are a number of reasons this may have happened. You may not have met one of the entry requirements for the course (check it out on qualifax.ie).

In this case, you can repeat this one minimum entry requirement subject. Register with the State Examinations Commission (SEC) to sit this subject and then reapply to the CAO in November, listing the courses or course you want to be considered for. Make sure to give it details of this year's application so they know you have a previous Leaving Cert.

Remember points may go up next year, so cover all possibilities in your course choices.

Or you may have ignored a letter from the CAO in May saying it was missing some information it required to make you an offer. If that is the case, contact them now and you may get an offer in the second round on August 27th. Students who failed to inform the CAO of an Irish or foreign language exemption fall into the same category.

Some unfortunate students have the published minimum points required for their course, but didn’t get an offer because of random selection.

Associated with your application for a place on each course is a randomly generated number, which has no significance other than in this situation. If, for example, there are five places left on the minimum points score and 10 applicants, those with the five highest CAO numbers get the places. This is the only fair way to distribute places when there are more applicants on the same points than there are places available. Colleges try to offer places to as many people as possible caught in this situation in round two offers next week.

Available places

At noon today the CAO will release the Available Places list of courses that colleges have yet to fill. Any existing CAO applicant who has yet to get an offer they want can place an advertised Available Place in any slot on their application record. The CAO will accept new applications from any person interested in courses, but only in courses on this list.

If you are still hoping for any course on your existing list of preferences, make sure to place the newly introduced course below this course. If you don’t, you are permanently excluding yourself from an offer, if it becomes available, as you would have been offered the higher preference Available Place.

For example Maynooth University, which requires 350 points for its arts degree, will offer places on its first arts programme on its Kilkenny campus through Available Places on cao.ie today, for students with the minimum entry requirements. Places will be allocated in the normal way through the second round offers and subsequent rounds.

Students who complete first arts on the Kilkenny campus will transfer to the main Maynooth campus next year.

Some private colleges have places on many courses in computing, psychology, business etc. They generally charge fees of €5,000-€6,000 a year; if you are liable for the €3,000 registration charge, after tax relief the price difference is not that great.

The Irish Times Helpdesk has dealt with many enquiries about second-round offers. These places, offered by the CAO on August 27th are simply those first-round courses which are not accepted by next Monday. The Irish Times will publish another supplement on August 27th to support students considering second round offers. Students who are short of points for their desired courses and wish to review their scripts must return the form (it was in the envelope alongside your Leaving Cert results) to the school by today. Scripts will be available to view at the school on the Friday/Saturday August 28th /29th.

Another person

You must be present to view your scripts but can bring another person along, who can be different for each paper viewed. If you ask your subject teachers when they return to school next week, they may be available to view scripts with you.

One benefit of this process is you see your exact percentage grade. You are more likely to be upgraded in papers where you are 1 per cent short of the next grade than 4 per cent, so the review process is worthwhile.

If you identify a calculating error in the marks on the front page of your script, it will be corrected and rectified by the SEC and CAO immediately and you will be offered any new course higher up your preference list, which you then become entitled too.

If you decide to have any of your papers rechecked, return the form (available from your school) to the SEC by September 2nd. This process will cost you €40 per paper, but you will not get the results until mid-October. You may therefore have to wait until September 2016 to start any course you may be offered. If your appeal for a recheck is successful, the €40 will be refunded.

Tomorrow: Alternative options outside the CAO