Students reminded to complete CAO applications before change of mind deadline

Muireann Duffy

Students are being reminded that the CAO change of mind deadline is 5pm on Saturday.

Following the completion of the Leaving Certificate exams on Tuesday, students have the opportunity to amend their CAO application, which they submitted earlier this year. This represents the last chance for students to change their stated preferences for which third-level courses they wish to study.

In change of mind facility, students can remove, add or change the order of both their Level 6/7 and Level 8 course preferences.

On Friday, the CAO said over 3,900 of this year's applicants were yet to enter any courses on their applications, meaning they submitted their details to the CAO but did not list any courses that they want to study.

As the deadline looms, the CAO urged students to follow the "golden rule" of placing courses in order of genuine preference instead of placing those requiring the highest points at the top.

Just over 78,000 applications for this year's CAO process had been received by the normal application deadline on February 1st.

When offers are released – on Wednesday, August 30th for Round One – students will be offered a place in their highest-preference course for which they meet the requirements, i.e. points, subjects and grades.

Subsequent rounds of offers will take place until all course spaces are filled.

If a student accepts an offer but subsequently qualifies for a course higher up on their CAO list, due to other students turning down the place offer or changes to grades following appeals, they will be offered a place in their higher-preference course.