Dublin: The first round of CAO offers for college admissions in Ireland will be available from 2pm today.
The majority of applicants who receive an offer in the first round will have to compete based on their current year or previous year Leaving Certificate grades.
This round includes the results of the General Certificate of Education (GCE) in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the British Crown Dependencies, and a few Commonwealth countries, particularly Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia and Singapore.
You can view and accept online offers through the ‘My Application’ feature at http://www.cao.ie/ . Successful applicants will receive an e-mail and a text message if they have selected this option.
The first phase of offers will close on Wednesday, September 16 at 3 pm. The second round of offers will be available on Wednesday, September 23 at 10am.
Offers must be accepted through online. Applicants will receive an e-mail from the CAO when they accept the offer online. The second round of offers ends on Friday, September 25th.
The third offer will arrive on Thursday, October 1st. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) will initiate registration and issue Certificate of Leaving Certificates. The third round of offers will close on Tuesday, October 6 at 3pm.
The fourth round of offers will be available from Thursday, October 8th. It ends Tuesday, October 13th. There will also be a fifth round of offers. But no dates have been set for this.
If you decide to accept an offer, you must accept it before the due date. If both lists get the same offer in a round we have to choose which one we want. You can only accept an offer from the Level 8 or Level 7/6 list in an offer round.
Accepting an offer in the first round does not preclude accepting an offer of a higher priority course in subsequent rounds.
If you receive an offer for a course that is not your first priority, you can accept that offer as well. If you are eligible then you will be considered for the offer in the next round.
Your previous offer will be canceled upon receipt of a new offer. If you receive an offer for a third priority course, you will not receive any offers for the courses below the course choice list. The offer of a high priority course will be available in the later round and you can accept or ignore it if you are eligible for it.
If you accept an offer online, you will receive an authorization email. You can also check if your offer is registered with the CAO online.
The best way to communicate with the CAO during application processing is through the Correspondence section of the CAO account. To answer the question and make sure to check the frequently asked questions first, you should provide as much detail as possible in the email inquiry form.
If you wish to conduct a general inquiry with the CAO you must provide your application number, full name and date of birth.
You can also contact the CAO at 091 509800, but phone lines can be very busy, as there are a lot of applicants every year.