Round One of the CAO offers are in: you can find all the points at each institution on our dedicated CAO site here.

THE FIRST ROUND of CAO placements have been published, offering 74,657 places in college, university or another educational institution to 51,513 applicants. 

CAO applicants can check to see if they have received an offer by logging on to their account using the ‘My Application’ option at www.cao.ie from 2pm. Offers must be accepted by 5.15pm on Friday, 23 August.

The results of this year’s Leaving Cert exams were distributed to students last Wednesday. The results total up to a final number of points, which are then used in the Central Applications Office (CAO) system to apply for university and college courses.

Students will have had an idea of whether they got their preferred course based on last year’s points – but this afternoon’s Round One offers is official confirmation (there are seven other CAO rounds). 

There were 77,706 applications to the CAO this year, a slight increase on last year, 47,624 applicants to the CAO are presenting Leaving Cert results from this year. There were 8,943 mature applicants (which is defined as over 23-years of age).

Of the offers given out today, 43,851 are Level 8 courses, and 53% of those (or 23,129) are first preference offers. 81%, or 35,389, are the first, second, or third preference of the students who applied for them.

Of the 30,806 Level 7/6 Round One offers, 89% are first preference courses, and 98% are first, second or third preference offers.

Individual institutions

Maynooth University is expecting to admit 3,225 new first year students this year – the university’s largest ever intake, representing an increase of 3% from last year.

Entry points have risen for a number of the University’s degree courses such as:

• BA Psychology (from 473 to 495 points)
• BSc in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (from 445 to 462)
• BSc Science with Education (from 434 points to 451).

Demand for STEM subjects at NUI Galway also grew. Among the programmes with the greatest increases in points were Civil Engineering (509 CAO points), Electronic and Computer Engineering (509 CAO points) and Energy Systems Engineering (532 CAO points). Points for other courses include:

• Biomedical Science (533 points)
• Biomedical Engineering (519 points)
• Podiatric Medicine has increased by 43 points (434 CAO points).

Trinity also saw a strong demand for STEM subjects including engineering, maths and science. A fifth of all CAO applications went to the university. Points rose for Global Business (566 points), Engineering (497 points) and Theoretical Physics (565 points). 

Points for other courses include: 

• Film Studies (478 points)
• History (531 points)
• Medicine (730 points)

A short video guide explaining the CAO Offer and Acceptance process is available to view on the CAO website.