"Should we send them a fiver anyway?". "There's no such thing as a free lunch." "I can't believe it." These are just some of the comments from incredulous parents whose offspring have got offers of college places in the regional technical colleges, the National College of Art and Design, the Royal College of Surgeons and Waterford Institute of Technology.
These colleges do not require any deposit with the offer acceptance notice. So, if you have an offer from any of these colleges you do not need to make the ritual journey to the bank; simply send the appropriate part of the offer notice to the CAO.
The parents phoning the helpline were afraid to send off the acceptance without a bank stamp. To add to the confusion, it seems that some banks have stamped forms for students even though these students were not paying deposits.
If you are a grant-aided student applying for one of these colleges which do not ask for a deposit, you will not have to pay anything further. But if you do not qualify for a grant you must pay the standard fee of £250 on registration at the college.
The whole deposit question seems to be upsetting students and parents, who have to deal with different deposits for different colleges. Why not do away with the deposit altogether and simply allow students to accept a place and pay on registration?
And, finally, some students have asked the helpline if there is a special envelope for sending part C of the offer notice back to the CAO. No, any envelope will do.
An RTC or a college of art and design?
Still with deposits, some callers to the Points Race helpline wanted to know about the deposit for Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design.
It was designated as a regional technical college in April, so it now falls into category G on the CAO list of deposits.
The college admissions officer said that students do NOT have to pay any money to accept an offer of a place.
Vacant places
Some colleges have advertised vacant places and new courses this week. Guidance counsellors advise students to research these courses carefully before they apply. Students who did not get the offer they had hoped for may be inclined to apply for any vacancies that arise.
You should take a little time to find out about the subjects you would be studying. Most of the places are in computing and engineering courses so there may be maths or science requirements.
In addition to the 31 courses on the CAO's vacant places list published in yesterday's Points Race, there are two further courses advertising vacancies today: AL030, polymer engineering in Athlone RTC, and TL410 science (aquaculture) in Tralee RTC.
The course code given for Sligo RTC's electronic engineering course in yesterday's CAO vacant places list should have read SG305, not SG306.
Applications for all 33 courses with vacant places should be made in accordance with the CAO vacant places procedure. These places are open to everyone, whether you made a CAO application this year or not.
CARLOW RTC reminds students that the college will hold a pre-entry information afternoon for students on Friday, September 5th. The college has advertised vacancies in eight courses. For information on courses or admission/registration ring the college hotline at (0503) 70403 or (0503) 70401.
Incorrect applications
As always, there are CAO applicants who have repeated their Leaving Certificate and who have not indicated this on their CAO application form.
The CAO sent a record slip to all applicants in May which they were supposed to check for inaccuracies. In spite of this, the helpline had calls from repeat students who had listed only one Leaving Cert.
The CAO will amend the record and send it to the college in round two. Some colleges will then accommodate these people. But is it fair to dump the person on the top of the waiting list, who filled the form out correctly, in favour of these people?
Random selection
The Points Race helpline had a call from a student with 600 points who was not offered a place on UCD's actuarial and finance degree course. Random selection applied, so not all students with this points level got an offer in round one. He may be in the running for a place in round two.
So he rang UCD to find out how many other hopefuls there were with 600 points, also waiting for round two. But UCD would not release this information.
A spokeswoman for UCD says that the college does not give out this information as it finds it may mislead students.
"It's not fair to give students false hope. The college always hopes to fill the places on round one and giving information about the remaining number of candidates would encourage false hopes that there might be a round two."
The policy varies from college to college but I have to admit to a certain sympathy with the wouldbe actuary. I can understand why he would like to know if there are two or 200 applicants on this points level.
LCVP Link modules
Students taking the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme may be heartened to find that the Nursing Applications Centre and the Garda accept the link modules as a subject for application purposes.
In addition to their traditional subjects, students sitting the LCVP take three link modules - enterprise education, preparation for work and work experience - and are given a composite mark.
The regional technical colleges also accept these modules as an alternative to a student's sixth subject. A pass in the link modules is worth 30 points, a merit 50 points and a distinction 70 points.
Apologies to Points Race readers who tried to contact us on the helpline yesterday. There was a fault on the line but Telecom Eireann promises to have it repaired for today.
Additional reporting by Catherine Foley