There is good news for most students in this year's points allocation, unless they are intent on getting into one of the elite "high points" courses such as law and medicine.
With several thousand extra places in the Central Applications Office system - and a record 111,500 young people in third-level education - more students will get into college than at any time in the past.
Apart from recently revealed increases in Government-sanctioned places, three more private colleges and the Blanchardstown Institute of Technology have joined the CAO system.
Nearly 77 per cent of applicants will receive an offer of a college place, either at degree or certificate/diploma level, when they open their CAO envelopes this morning. This is up 4 per cent on last year.
Excluding those not waiting for exam results, there are 74,769 offers of places in today's first round of the CAO allocation. The number of offers exceeds the number of applicants by nearly 10,000 because the degree and certificate/diploma lists operate independently, and consequently some students will receive offers in both lists.
Over 43 per cent of those applying for degrees will obtain their first preference, while 71.4 per cent will receive one of their top three preferences. Both these figures are up on last year.
The 1,500 new places at institutes of technology have led to an even more marked increase in certificate and diploma places. Some 64.5 per cent will obtain their first preference here - up nearly 9 per cent on last year - while a huge 87.4 per cent will receive one of their top three preferences.
A spokesman for the CAO said yesterday that students were "using the system correctly to obtain just what they want".
However, students who insist on applying for a tiny number of "high points" medical and legal courses - notably in Trinity College Dublin - may once again be disappointed. The courses demanding the highest points are medicine and law with French at TCD. Both require 570 points, although even then not everyone will be offered a place.
Points needed for medicine have risen everywhere to a stratospheric 550-570.
CAO applicants who have received offers have until Wednesday, September 1st, to accept them. The second round of offers will be posted out by the CAO on September 6th and the reply date is September 13th. There will be no third round of offers this year, and remaining places will be offered on a rolling basis up to October 22nd.
Cancelled courses will leave many disappointed;