First-round CAO offers out on Monday: What you need to know

Over 80,000 prospective students who applied for third-level courses will discover whether they have secured their first choice at 6am on Monday when offers through the Central Applications Office (CAO) are made.

It is expected that the increase in the number of students taking higher level maths in the Leaving Cert is set to push more college courses through the 500 points entry threshold.

As with previous years it is expected that the points required for Stem related courses will increase. More than half of this year’s applicants (46,000) are 2016 Leaving Cert students who received their exam results last week.

The rest is made up of applicants from other educational streams, Northern Ireland, abroad, repeat and change-of-mind students.

The Irish Times CAO Helpdesk will operate at irishtimes.com/results2016 from 8.30am. Guidance counsellors Brian Howard and Deirdre Garrett will be on hand until 6pm to answer any questions you have about your college applications .

Monday will not be the first time places have been offered in 2016 as some 10,000 places have already been offered to applicants during Round 0 and Round A.

Monday’s Round One offer constitutes the main body of offers that takes place after the results of the Leaving Cert have been made available.

From 6am onwards, applicants can check online to see if they have received an offer by visiting cao.ie and logging in to their account using the My Application facility.

The CAO will also issue offers by post, e-mail and SMS text and applicants who have not received an offer will receive a Statement of Application Record.

Offers may be accepted online or by returning the appropriate part of the offer notice to the CAO.

The latest points listings will also be available for download from irishtimes.com/results2016.

The First Round Offers 2016 supplement will be distributed with Monday’s edition of the Irish Times and will feature analysis of this year’s CAO points allocation and trends, full course listings along with hints and tips on planning for college.

The CAO’s second round offers will be made available on the morning of September 1st.