The Central Applications Office (CAO) has today (Monday, 20 September) issued 4,135 offers to applicants in Round Two of the CAO offers process.

A total of 2,859 Level 8 offers, and 1,276 Level 7/6 offers, were made to 3,619 CAO applicants in this round. 1,452 applicants are receiving an offer for the first time.

Of the recipients of Level 8 offers, 1,346 received an offer of their first preference course; for Level 7/6 offer recipients a total of 1,063 applicants’ first preference offers were received.

Applicants receiving an offer in this round will have until Wednesday, 22 September at 3pm to accept their offer.

CAO communications officer, Eileen Keleghan, advises applicants to carefully consider their options and to be mindful of Wednesday’s 3pm reply date by which an offer must be accepted.  She said; “Many of the applicants receiving a second round offer today may have already accepted an offer in Round One, and it is important that they take the time to decide between these courses and inform CAO before the reply date of this Wednesday, 22 September at 3pm if they wish to accept the new offer. Accepting the new offer will automatically cancel a previous acceptance.

“If this is an applicant’s first offer, they can choose to accept this offer and this will not prevent them from receiving a higher preference course in a later offer round if they are deemed eligible. It is important to note, however, that the majority of offers have been issued at this stage and this may be the only offer that they will receive.

For those who have been unsuccessful in receiving an offer (or their desired offer) there are many options, including further education courses which offer qualifications in their own right as well as opportunities to progress to third-level; apprenticeship schemes; reapplying through CAO next year; or repeating the Leaving Certificate. The Available Places facility also has almost 200 courses advertised, and some additional offers will be issued on a weekly basis from today until mid-October” she added.

Applicants can check if they have received a Round Two offer by logging in to their CAO account using the ‘My Application’ facility. Successful applicants will also receive an offer notification by email and SMS text message if they have selected this option. There will be no paper offer notices for Round Two.

For applicants who have already received an offer in a previous offer round, CAO provides the following advice:

1. Accept the new offer by the ‘Reply Date’ of Tuesday, 22 September at 3pm if you prefer this course to the one that you have already accepted – this action automatically cancels your previous acceptance.
2. If you do not wish to accept the new offer you can simply do nothing and your previous acceptance will still stand.
3. If you wish to defer your current offer you must contact the Admissions Office of the offering institution immediately by email with the text ‘Deferred Entry’ in the subject line of the email. See CAO Handbook page 19 or the CAO website for more information.

The CAO Available Places facility remains open, with almost 200 courses with available places advertised – this facility is free to existing applicants, and open to new applications for a fee of €45. Available Place offers are issued from Round Two. Round Three offers will be available to view from 10:00 on Tuesday, 28 September.

For more information about the Offer and Acceptance process or Available Places visit the CAO Handbook (also available online) and watch the CAO video guides at www.cao.ie