You do not need to become an expert on the points system. You need to understand one principle, keep track of a handful of dates, and make sure both lists on the form are filled. That is the whole job. This guide covers it.
Most of the anxiety around the CAO comes from misunderstanding what it does. It is a processing office. It does not decide anything.
If you understand only one thing about the CAO, make it this. A points cut-off is simply the score of the last person who fitted into the room.
A course has, say, 40 places. That number is set by the college — by staffing, lab space, placement capacity, funding. It does not stretch to accommodate demand.
Seats available
Everyone who wants that course is lined up highest score to lowest. The college works down the line handing out offers until the seats run out.
Applicants queued by score
Whatever the final person to get a seat scored — that becomes the published cut-off. Nobody chose it. It is a description of what happened, written afterwards.
Which is why the number moves. More applicants, or fewer seats, and it rises. Fewer applicants, or more seats, and it falls.
If more applicants are tied on the exact cut-off score than there are seats left, the remaining places are allocated by random selection among those tied. It is not a mistake, and it is not favouritism. It is the CAO’s published method of breaking a tie fairly. It does mean two students can have identical results and different outcomes. Knowing this in advance takes some of the sting out of it. The CAO explains the mechanism in full on cao.ie.
The CAO form has two separate lists, and they are two separate competitions. A great many students fill in the first and leave the second blank. That is throwing away a free second chance for no reason at all.
Honours bachelor degrees · up to 10 choices
Ordinary degrees & higher certificates · up to 10 choices
If your child resists filling the second list because it feels like admitting defeat, the honest reframe is this: an empty Level 7/6 list does not make the Level 8 offer any more likely. It only removes an option. The list costs nothing and it obliges nobody — an offer can always be declined.
Deadlines marked in red are the ones with no appeal and no exceptions. Everything else has some give in it.
The online application opens. The discounted fee applies to applications made by the early deadline (typically 20 January); after that a higher late-application charge applies. Register early even if the course choices are not settled — they can be changed for free later.
This is the date that actually catches families out. By 5:15pm on 1 February, an application must be in for anything restricted — and any HEAR or DARE application must be indicated. Restricted courses include those with an audition, portfolio, interview, or an admissions test such as HPAT or MSAP. Missing this date means waiting a full year. There is no appeal.
Indicating HEAR or DARE by 1 February is only the first half. The supporting documentation — medical evidence, financial evidence, school reports — has its own deadline, typically in mid-March. Start gathering it in December. GP letters and Revenue documents take weeks to arrive and this is the single most common way a valid application fails.
The course list can be completely rewritten, free of charge, up to 5:15pm on 1 July. This is the pressure valve. The list submitted in January is a draft, not a commitment — which is worth saying out loud at home, because many arguments in a kitchen in February are about a decision that does not have to be made until summer. The exception: Change of Mind cannot be used to add a restricted course that was missed on 1 February.
Results come out first. Round 1 CAO offers follow a few days later. Offers arrive online, and the acceptance deadline is short — usually a matter of days. Know in advance where your family will be and how you will access the internet that week.
Round 1 is not the end. When students decline offers, seats free up and points can fall in later rounds. Round 2 follows roughly a week after Round 1, and further rounds and an “Available Places” facility can run into September. A student who accepts a Round 1 offer remains eligible for a higher-preference offer in a later round.
Dates are indicative and follow the CAO’s recent published pattern. Confirm the current year’s exact dates and fees at cao.ie. HEAR and DARE eligibility criteria are published at accesscollege.ie.
If any of these apply to your child, the work starts before Christmas — not in the spring.
A reduced-points and support route for students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Eligibility is assessed against published income, social-welfare and area indicators. Evidence-heavy: start in December.
A reduced-points and support route for students with a disability or significant ongoing illness that has had a demonstrable impact on their education. Requires specific medical evidence and an educational impact statement from the school.
Some courses require a separate test — HPAT for medicine, MSAP for some graduate-entry and mature routes. These have their own registration deadlines, fees and sitting dates, entirely separate from the CAO. Missing the test registration ends that application.
Art, design, architecture, music and drama courses commonly require a portfolio submission or a live audition. The work takes months. If this is the plan, the portfolio should be under way in fifth year, not started in January.
Applicants aged 23 or over on 1 January of the year of entry apply as mature students — usually assessed on a statement, interview or test rather than points. Also a 1 February deadline. Relevant if you are returning to study yourself.
A one or two year Post Leaving Certificate course can lead into higher education through reserved QQI entry places, entirely outside the points race. A legitimate and well-travelled route, not a detour.
Round 1 is a milestone, not a verdict. Here is what actually happens after it.
Your child receives the highest course on their list that they qualify for — one from each list, if eligible. They accept online by the stated deadline.
Students who declined or took another place leave gaps. Points for some courses fall. Round 2 offers go out about a week later. Accepting Round 1 does not block a better Round 2 offer.
Courses with unfilled seats after the rounds are listed as Available Places and can be applied for directly, sometimes into September. Worth watching if the first rounds did not land.
If a Round 1 offer is acceptable but not the first choice, the usual advice is to accept it. It secures a place, and it does not remove eligibility for a higher-preference offer in a later round. Declining in the hope of something better is the risky move, not accepting.
A place can sometimes be deferred for a year, but it is granted by the college, not the CAO, and the request usually goes directly to the college’s admissions office within days of the offer. The rules and the deadline vary by institution. Do not assume it is available — check with the college before accepting on that basis.
Choosing the course is not on this list. Your role is administrative and logistical, and it matters enormously — because these are the six things that go wrong.
Apply in the discounted window rather than the late one. The list can be changed free of charge until 1 July, so there is nothing to be gained by waiting until the choices feel final.
Put it in your own calendar, not just theirs. Restricted courses, HEAR and DARE all close on this date and there is no appeal. This is the one deadline where a parent nagging is unambiguously the right call.
If HEAR or DARE applies, the evidence is on you as much as on them — GP letters, Revenue documents, school forms. These take weeks to arrive. Begin in December.
Ask to see the form. Not to edit it — to check the Level 7/6 list is not blank. This is the most common and most expensive omission on the whole form.
Know when results and offers land, know the acceptance deadline, and be somewhere with a working internet connection. Offers have been lost to a family holiday and a patchy signal.
CAO number, password, and the email address the account is tied to. Have a copy. A forgotten password in offer week, on a phone that is out of battery, is a genuinely avoidable crisis.
The parents I meet in August are rarely worried about the points. They are worried that they did not do enough. So let me take that one off you now: the form is not a test of your parenting, and the offer is not a grade on how you raised them.
Fill the form on time. Fill both lists. Keep the paperwork moving. Then step back and let it be their decision, even if it is not the decision you would make. A course chosen to please a parent is a course that gets dropped in November, and you will both have lost a year.
— Angela Curran, qualified guidance counsellor
A modest application charge, discounted if you apply by the early deadline and higher if you apply late. Current amounts are published at cao.ie — the gap between the two is real money for nothing, so apply early.
The national grant scheme covers, depending on assessed household income, some or all of the student contribution and in some cases a maintenance payment. It is a separate application from the CAO, on its own timetable, and it is means-tested. Details at susi.ie.
For many families this is the largest single cost of the degree, and it is worth factoring into the course conversation early. A course at a commutable institution and a course four hours away are not financially equivalent, and it is fair to say so out loud in January rather than in August.
If the form is the administration, this is the actual work — and it is your child’s work, not yours. Point them here.
Sometimes the most useful thing is an hour with someone who does this for a living, has no stake in the outcome, and is not their parent.
Course choices are easier when they are based on something. Start with what your child is actually interested in, then find the courses that lead there.