Your CAO Reminders ahead of February 1st Deadline
As the first significant deadline for CAO 2023 deadlines approaches on February the 1st at 5pm, it is very important that students, parents and guardians take time to familiarise yourselves with the application process. You will find lots of helpful resources, video guides and a ‘Demo’ version of the CAO form on www.cao.ie so take some time to look at the ‘Applicants’ and ‘Parent/Guardians’ section of the site. Remember that this is not your final decision regarding course choices, you will have lots of time to change your mind and amend course choices from May 5th up to July 1st, but some restrictions apply. For further details on restrictions see https://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=restrictions
Register by January 20th to avail of Discounted Application Fee
To register, log on to www.cao.ie and click on Apply, it will ask you first to input your personal and contact details along with the category of applicant you are. Once you create a password and submit payment you receive you CAO number which means you are registered. Applicants who register before January 20th at 5pm will be charged the discounted application fee of €30, which increases to €45 up to February 1st. Once you have registered you have until February 1st to add and change your courses, free of charge. On May 5th, the Change of Mind facility will open and you will have the change to change your courses, with certain restrictions, up to July 1st at 5pm.
Course choices
You have the option of filling in 20 courses in total – 10 choices on level 8 (Honours Bachelor Degrees) and 10 on level 7/6 (Ordinary Bachelor Degrees / Higher Certificates) and it is advisable to fill as many as you can to give yourself the best chance of being offered a place on a course you like. It is essential though that you research carefully all the courses you are going to include. Often students are careful about their first couple of choices but don’t research the courses that are further down the list well enough. Don’t make this mistake. Every course you put down should be one that you are genuinely interested in and willing to do so consider all options carefully. The majority of level 7/6 courses have progression routes onto level 8. The lists operate independently of each other so, by fill up choices on both lists, you are giving yourself a great chance of getting two offers, the top one for which you qualify from both lists.
Order of Preference
This is the golden rule of the CAO and a very common mistake made by students every year. Always put down your courses in order of preference, not in the order of the points from the previous year. Points for courses change each year and you will not know the points for 2023 until the day that the Round 1 offers are issued by CAO. You don’t know what points you are going to get until the Leaving Cert results come out so focus on listing your course choices in order of preference. This means placing your favourite course in your favourite college as number 1, second favourite course as number 2 and so on down to choice number 10. Do this for both lists.
Restrictions for the February 1st deadline
While you will get the opportunity to change your course choices later in the year, there are certain restrictions to take note of regarding the February 1st deadline. If you are applying for ‘restricted courses’ they must be added in by February the 1st as they require some other form of assessment apart from Leaving Cert points such as an aptitude test or a portfolio. Students who are applying for Medicine must apply to do the HPAT by January 20th on https://hpat-ireland.acer.org/. Any students applying for the HEAR (Higher Education Access Route) or DARE (Disability Access Route to Education) schemes must have applied to CAO by February 1st. You then have until March the 1st to complete those applications and up to March 15th to have supporting documentation sent to CAO (see www.accesscollege.ie). In the case of mature applicants, most HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) require applications to be in by the February 1st deadline.
Language Exemptions
Students who have language exemptions must contact the relevant colleges where Irish or a third language is required and follow their guidelines. If applying to TCD, University of Limerick or Mary Immaculate College you must contact the relevant Admissions Office directly. In the case of NUI institutions which include UCC, UCD, Maynooth University, NUI Galway, RCSI and NCAD , you must contact the NUI (see www.nui.ie for details). Apply to the NUI without delay and no later than 21 days after opening your CAO account.
Webinar
The CAO plan to host an Information Evening for Parents and Students on January 17th at 6.30pm. Places are limited but a recording will be available. See www.cao.ie/webinar for details. There are also two important information sessions taking place online on Saturday, January 14th for any students and parents applying to the HEAR or DARE schemes. Make sure to register on www.accesscollege.ie to learn about how to apply and to submit questions. The recordings will be available to those who miss the live events.