My son cannot find college accommodation. Can he switch his top CAO choice?

My son scored just over 500 points in his Leaving Cert last Friday, and will likely get an offer for his first choice CAO course in Dublin this week. However, it is impossible to find accommodation. Can he switch his preference to a lower choice course in our local university so he can live at home?

Unfortunately if your son is offered his first choice course he has no option but to accept it. The rules of the CAO do not allow an applicant to receive an offer of a course lower than the one his points qualify him for.

If he has applied for any courses on his level six/seven (certificate/ ordinary degree) list he will, of course, also receive an offer of his first choice programme.

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The only other way he could receive an offer from your local university is if the college were to fall short of applicants for a course he would consider applying for. If in the highly unlikely event of that occurring this course would be placed on the “available places” list on the CAO website after the first-round offers on September 8th.

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If the accommodation crisis were to ease in the coming year he might consider contacting the college once he receives his offer and seek a deferral of his place until September 2023, based on the reasonable argument that he was unable to secure a place to live.

If he goes down that path he might consider researching locally-based further education or post-Leaving Cert (PLC) courses in his area of interest and consolidate his knowledge. This would help ensure that he is on the right track.

Obviously he also has the option of submitting a completely new application to the CAO in 2023, placing his local university programme as his first choice. He will be certain to receive an offer of this programme in 2023.

I never thought that I would see the day when I would advise CAO applicants to sort out their accommodation before deciding to list their course choices.

I grew up in an Ireland far poorer than the one we currently live in, where going away to college was seen as a rite of passage for many of those who wanted a third-level education, which in truth was a very small percentage of the school-leaving population.

Back then students lived in a wide range of accommodation: bedsits, spare rooms in houses, shared flats, etc. Interestingly, in my four years in college I never once heard the topic of securing suitable accommodation being discussed. It’s ironic that as we have expanded our third-level participation rates our capacity to accommodate students has not risen accordingly.