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ALMOST 10,000 APPLICANTS had accepted college places through the CAO website as of 9am today.
About three quarters of Leaving Certificate students who had applied for Level 8 courses through the CAO system received offers for one of their top three preferences.
That number increased to 95 per cent for Level 6/7 courses. Altogether, a record number of students have been offered entry into third-level education.
As teenagers and parents awaited points and offers anxiously this morning, Joseph O’Grady, operations manager at CAO, advised them not to panic.
“Read the CAO handbook and forms that come by post carefully. Due to the large numbers of people involved, it can be difficult to reach the CAO by telephone or fax during the offer stage and so we invite people to get in touch with us by email through the website,” he said.
Students have until 27 August to accept first round offers.
Those who did not receive an offer in round one will get an email and postal notification confirming their status. Round two offers will be available from 30 August. From tomorrow, the ‘available places’ facility will open on the CAO website.
The CAO website has been “very busy” this morning, particularly between 6.10 and 6.30am but traffic has “eased significantly” since then.
In numbers:
With the 25 bonus points awarded for Higher Level maths this year, it was expected that points for STEM courses would increase and that has been seen today.
Across the board, points for science, technology, engineering and maths courses increased with science courses breaking the 500 mark for the first time in Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway and University College Dublin. Points for engineering and technology jumped as much as 70 points, while maths courses saw massive increases also.
The impact of the bonus points, however, does not seem to have spread to the arts or other studies not focused on maths.
Áine Hyland, a former Professor of Education, told Morning Ireland, that the system had, therefore, had the desired effect.
She also said that the higher cut-off points for STEM courses should see a fall in the number of people failing or dropping out. The biggest leap was seen in the University of Limerick’s Mathematics and Physics course which jumped from 390 to 535 points in the year.
Points for primary school teaching remained the same for NUI Maynooth (Froebel) and Mary Immaculate but fell by five points at St Pat’s in Drumcondra.
There was increased demand for nursing courses, with points rising by as much as 30 in Trinity College. Children’s and General Nursing in UCC increased to 525 (from 500 in 2011), while it was 515 in UCD (up from 500 last year).
Continuing the recessionary trend, points for building-related courses declined further while architecture studies remained relatively static.
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I sat the leaving cert in 2004. Science in UCD was 290, now it’s 500. Such a difference.
Just looking at those points, I’m still surprised that some Software courses are not that high. Computer Science in UL is 325?
Computer Science in UCC is 340, now third lowest points. Above Arts and International development and food policy. In ’09 CS was 300.
aine hyland claims that the raise in entry points for maths based courses will lead to a falling off in the failure rate on those courses (as students had previously found them too difficult)
you get 25 extra for higher maths. the course requirement goes up by 25. so, you will obviously be far more able for the maths. 25 points extra and the resultant rise in entry requirements hve magically improved students ability to do maths?!!! irish solution etc
Is it 25 bonus points for higher level maths no matter what result you get? Or is it 25 bonus points for an A1 and then dropping by five points each grade after that? That’s what it used to be in UL right?
25 points for anyone who passes (so a D3)…
Seriously? With project maths? Are they having a laugh. They’re all going to fail first year if the course has a maths module that’s even remotely difficult. The engineering courses are going to see huge fail rates.
Well the individual courses should really have a maths requirement to get into them if they are mathematically focused. That would prevent those that arent’ capable from taking them up.
They do. But it’s no good if the maths course isn’t up to scratch. It’s wildly underestimating the students. It’s patronising and insulting and it’s a cheap copout to avoid hiring and training better maths teachers for secondary schools.
Thankfully I had more than enough for my first choice in Trinity but sadly a lot of students were disappointed. For example one course went up by 115 points.
have your say