A handful of lucky students will receive letters this morning telling them that they have got medicine and law after all. At UCD and NUI Galway, medicine has dropped by five points to 565 in the second round CAO offers.
At UCC, one or two more students were offered medicine on the basis of random numbers.
The places are thought to have opened up when students from Northern Ireland rejected offers, choosing instead to study in the North.
At least one extra scholarship place to study medicine became available at the Royal College of Surgeons. The asterisk has been dropped from the 590 points level, meaning that any eligible person who applied with these points will receive an offer this morning.
At TCD, law dropped by 20 points to 550, again offering a few places to prospective lawyers who this morning must be nearly in a state of shock.
Points also dropped slightly at some universities in health areas, such as occupational therapy, psychology, speech and language therapy, dentistry and physiotherapy.
For most courses, though, there was no drop in points. New places opened up in about two-fifths of courses, although this did not always require a drop in points.
So most students will find this morning that they have not been offered anything more than they were at round one.
DCU had no drops in points, except in two nursing courses, while DIT saw substantial drops in applied sciences and computer engineering - this year's least fashionable courses of study.
TCD, where points rose most dramatically this year, was amongst the universities with the greatest drops in points. In high points courses, however, points drop more readily, since the pool of such high-achievers is relatively small.
The universities have filled almost all of their places, as have the institutes of technology, where only computer courses remain begging for students.
This year, students are far more interested in taking business and the humanities at institutes.