Leaving Cert helpdesk: FAQs

What if my daughter does not receive any offers from the Cao, because she doesn’t have enough points for the chosen courses. What can she apply for?

No one will know the 2016 points for courses until Monday so don’t lose all hope yet. There are still plenty of choices available and there is still time to apply.

Option 1: CAO Available Places. Each year vacant places appear on the CAO website. Applicants for these places will be accepted by CAO from next Tuesday, August 23rd. Places will be available until all offers have been exhausted. Your daughter may be interested in one of these courses.

Option 2: Many private colleges have courses that are not in the CAO. Direct application must be made. However, these colleges will charge fees. The fees are tax deductible.

Option 3: Further Education Courses (PLC'S)

Colleges of Education exist all over the country. Most colleges offer courses at Level 5 (one year) and Level 6 ( two years). Such courses prepare their students to enter the working market and or to use their results from their PLC course to progress to Higher Education. The entry requirement tends to be five passes at Leaving Cert level. I would advise you to check with the college of interest. Applicants apply directly to these colleges.

Option 4: Apprenticeships/ Trades

There is up to twenty six apprenticeship programmes coming on track. Please check the Solas website for more information www.solas.ie

Option 5: Studying in the UK

UCAS is the UK equivalent of the CAO system. You can apply now and enter into wha’ts known as the clearing system. Check www.ucas.com

Option 6: Teagasc also offer courses outside of the CAO. Their website is www.teagasc.ie

My daughter has applied through CAO but doesn’t get her A level results till tomorrow. Do CAO contact her please as with the leaving cert applicants? Secondly do you happen to know the point equivalent for A levels and English at TCD please?

Yes, your daughter will be treated the same as Leaving Certificate applicants in terms of contact re offers. The first round of offers will be available next Monday on the CAO website from 6am and will be issued by post, email and SMS.

Hello, I repeated the leaving cert and got 495 this time around, however got 505 the first attempt. Will last years results be taken for this years CAO?

CAO will choose last years results automatically. They will always take the Leaving Cert sitting that scored the highest points.

I needed 526 or so for psychology but got 455 is there any other routes re detached etc rather than repeating the leaving.

Some Psychology courses were under 455 points last year. No one will know the points for 2016 until Monday. Many third level institutions accept FETAC applicants onto their Psychology courses. You should investigate this route and also look at the institutions that offered Psychology courses below 455.

If I don’t want to take my first choice (which I have the points for) can I decline and will I be offered my second choice ?

No. If you look at some earlier posts we refer to this. You can hope to move up your list of preferences but not down. If you are offered your first preference everything below that disappears and hence you are not going to be offered anything else.

Hi, if you get papers rechecked and you find your grades increase, can you use the revised points for 2016 entry into college? I would have thought October is too late to enter into a course.

If your appeal is successful and you then meet all requiremenst and points, the institution(University or IT etc) will offer you a place on this course. It is your decision as to whether you wish to stay at the course you are currently on, move to the new course (providing that there is space) or defer this new offer until the next academic year.

My daughter got 585 points plus 184 in the HPAT so 741 adjusted points . She has TCD medicine as her first choice. The points were 733 last year. Do you think the requirement will rise this year ?

In the applicant statistics from CAO the number of applicants in the Human Medicine category has dropped by 2per cent from last year. This would generally indicate that courses in this area are not going to rise but we don’t know definitively what the effect of these stats will be on individual courses. However, I think your daughter is in a very good position.

My daughter got 370 and her first choice course was 350 last year. Her concern is that there are only 15 places available and that people with higher points than her who also have it as their first choice will be offered it first.

All the people who apply for a course are listed in order of their points, person with the highest points for a course at the top and the person with the lowest points at the bottom. In your daughters course, the top 15 people will be elligible for an offer regardless of the position of the course on their preferential list. If the course is the highest one they are entitled to they will be offered it. If all accept then there will be no more offers for this course in round two.

My daughter achieved 465 points..she is hoping to study business studies in DCU,last year points were 465,would you say she has a good chance of obtaining a place? If you accept a place in round 1,is it possible to get a round 2 offer?

Courses in the Admin / Business area have had a jump in applicant numbers in the region of 4/5% this year, but we have no way of knowing what exact effect this will have on specific courses including DCU Business Studies. There is a chance that the points for this course could go up slightly but you will have to wait until Monday to know definitively.

If you get offered a place in round one, you will stay in the running for a higher preference place and be offered it in round 2 if you become entitled to it. Eg if you get offered your 5th preference course in round one, then everything below this is wiped from your file and you will remain in the running for courses from your 4th preference up.