There's more good news for college applicants. Yesterday the Central Applications Office (CAO) made offers to almost 50,000 applicants. It also announced that the £30 acceptance fee demanded by the universities and the Dublin Institute of Technology is not necessary at this stage.
The reprieve comes despite the insistence by these colleges earlier this month that the CAO should not process an application unless the fee was paid.
A Central Applications Office spokesman said the CAO will now record an acceptance without payment of the £30 referred to in the blue sheet which accompanies offers.
Students just need to return the appropriate part - C1 or C2 of the offer notice.
"Our experience of dealing with early offers to mature applicants at the beginning of the month indicated that there would be severe practical difficulty in round one if we enforced the requirement of DIT and the universities that £30 must accompany an acceptance of an offer," the spokesman said.
"The logistics of dealing with thousands of payments in postal orders, cheques or bank drafts would be simply overwhelming." Any fees due may now be paid directly to the institution on registration.
This year, for the first time, CAO applicants can view their college offer on the CAO website. This facility requires a student to key in his or her application number.
However, many students found it difficult to access the site yesterday because traffic was so heavy.
Students who didn't get an offer in yesterday's post or who don't want the offer they got can try today to check the CAO website (www.cao.ie), which is due to list vacant places this morning.
Last year, more than 50 courses advertised vacancies immediately after round-one offers were made.
Applicants must accept their round-one offers by August 30th. The CAO spokesman reminded applicants that acceptance of offers cannot be made by telephone, fax or telegram.
"Only the arrival in CAO of part C of an offer notice will secure a place," he said.
"When posting an acceptance, be sure to get a certificate of posting." Applicants who wish to reject an offer do not need to inform the CAO.
If an offer is not accepted by the deadline, it will be deemed to have lapsed.
A second round of offers will be posted on September 4th.