Four out of five applicants will receive at least one offer of a college place in today's post.
There has never been a better year to leave school. The proportion of applicants receiving a first-round offer has increased from 72.9 per cent in 1998, and 76.9 per cent in 1999, to 79.2 per cent this year. The percentage of applicants being offered one of their first three choices has also risen.
In all, 49,993 of this year's 63,145 applicants got at least one offer in the first round of offers. It is possible to get two offers because certificate/diplomas and degrees are treated separately by the Central Applications Office (CAO).
There were 29,450 offers for degree courses, with 13,516 of these being the first choice of the candidate.
At certificate/diploma level, some 43,663 offers were made. Just over two-thirds of these were first-preference offers.
The full list of cut-off points for courses offered through the CAO are contained in today's Options 2000 supplement with The Irish Times. Once again, law with French and medicine at Trinity College Dublin topped the list of high-points courses, at 570. The maximum possible number of points in the Leaving Certificate is 600, and this figure was required to gain a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Surgeons.
Of the 22 courses registering a cut-off of 525 points or higher, 15 belonged to medical, dental, veterinary or paramedical categories, while four were law courses.
There were some dramatic rises and falls in the points required for particular courses, with classics at TCD jumping from 290 to 510 and theoretical physics at UCD falling from 485 to 370. The cut-off points for primary teacher training fell across the board.
Applicants must accept or reject their first-round offers by 5.15 p.m. on August 30th. A second round of offers will be posted on September 4th.
Vacant places arise in courses where offers have been made to all qualified applicants but places still remain available. A list of vacancies will be posted on the CAO website (www.cao.ie) and updated daily.