This morning most students will finally find out if they are going to college.
While there are many heartbreaking days during the two years of the Leaving Cert programme, today is probably the hardest of all for students. For the average school-leaver, receiving an offer today is truly the end of their school days. This is why even students who get their first choice will have mixed feelings.
While there is joy because it is the start of a new phase, this is also a poignant moment.
Some students will be sad because lifelong friendships are about to be broken up, others will be sad because in the next few weeks they will be moving out and saying goodbye to all the old certainties.
Of course those who do not get any offer will feel cut off from the celebrations of others.
It is a tough time for their parents, who now have to sit down with their son or daughter and plan the next step. But most of you today - judging by the figures - will be relatively satisfied.
This year's offers
One statistic proves the overwhelming reaction to the offers will be positive - almost 75 per cent of those in the CAO received at least one offer at their home this morning.
So while many students will be disillusioned because they were not offered a place, thankfully they are in the minority.
Getting an offer from the CAO allows you to compare and discuss your options. Should you repeat, enter the workforce or take that college place? The more options are open to you, the better.
Another interesting statistic from the CAO is that 47 per cent of those applying for a degree got their first preference, while 70 per cent of those seeking a certificate/diploma got their first preference.
This is up on last year and shows one of two things.
Either students are becoming more realistic when selecting their courses, or the points are dropping each year and getting your first preference is becoming easier. In truth, it is probably a combination of the two.
Top points
At the top of the points tree again this year were medicine courses, with the Royal College of Surgeons scholarship course (RC 003) requiring 580 points.
The inclusion of a scholarship makes this an unusual course and in our Options 2001 supplement, we have left it out of our chart on the courses with the highest cut-off points.
This left law/French at Trinity (TR018) at the top with 570 points and random selection. In second and third place were medical courses at Trinity and UCC.
While medicine courses appear to be unassailable, this year even they showed a small drop, with UCD's course (DN002) falling 10 points.
Science
Science courses once again slipped and there is the possibility of further falls in the second round.
One of the most remarkable drops was at UCD, where its science degree (DN008) dropped 45 points to 300.
At the start of this decade, the points for arts were lower than science at UCD, but this has now been reversed, with arts (DN012) requiring 370 with random selection. Science was also down in Trinity by five and 10 in NUI Galway.
While the fall is welcome, in the sense that it allows a greater variety of students into science, there are concerns that some of the students with lower points scores may not be able to meet the standards down the road.
Engineering
Putative engineers have cause for discontent this morning. Across almost all engineering options - particularly degrees - there has been a rise in points. While points for engineering courses at Cork Institute of Technology dropped, the opposite was the case in universities.
Two out of three engineering degree courses were up at UCC, DIT's course (FT125) was up 50 to 355 points, NUI Galway's various courses were almost all up, UCD's new five denominated courses were all between 400 and 465, while Trinity's engineering course was up five to 435.
Interest in engineering is obviously quite high and the extra honours received in maths by this year's students helped to push the number of eligible applicants even higher.
However, the move away from a common entry engineering degree - particularly at UCD - has obviously squeezed many students out of a place. Last year you could get into UCD's common engineering degree with just 370 points.
Next step
Now that you know what - if anything - is on offer, you must make your decision.
The CAO expects its offer notice to be returned by August 29th at 5.15 p.m. Otherwise it will presume you are rejecting the offer(s). If you need more points and want to view your exam scripts, the application forms (available from schools) must be at your local school by tomorrow.