A total of 27,947 students, or nearly half of applicants, received their first choice in Round One of CAO offers today.
At 2pm, the Central Applications Office (CAO) issued 85,894 course offers to 57,296 CAO applicants.
54% of Level 8 offers are for the applicant's first choice, and 82% are for one of their top three preferences.
Applicants can now check to see if they have received an offer by logging in to their account on cao.ie.
Level 6 & 7 courses
Some applicants received two offers - one for a Level 8 course and one for a Level6 or 7 - but they can choose only one.
The deadline to accept an offer is is 3pm on Wednesday, September 14th.
Eileen Keleghan, Head of Communications for CAO, asks applicants to carefully consider any offers received in this round.
“One of the common queries that we receive at the offers stage is around order of preference. Applicants who receive a lower preference offer can accept this offer, and it will not prevent them from receiving an offer of a course higher up on their courses list in a later round should a place become available and they are deemed eligible."
“Those who have received an offer in this round should also consider the current offer carefully as it may be the only one they will receive."
Round Two
Round Two offers will be available to view on the CAO website from 10am on September 19th.
This means that those who did not receive or accept an offer in the first round may be offered a place, but this is not guaranteed.
Offers are then issued on a weekly basis to fill any remaining places.
Guidance counsellor Betty Mc Laughlin told students it is usually best to accept whatever they are offered:
“They need to think carefully,” she told Newstalk.
“However, the rounds will continue until courses are filled and that often goes into the middle of October.
“It is recommended to students to accept whatever offer they have been given - provided you’re interested in that course because there is no guarantee you will be offered a higher course up on your list in subsequent rounds.”
