How to Accept an Offer of a place in First Year
First-year offers are issued through the CAO in a series of rounds beginning in July. If places offered in an earlier round are not taken up, additional offers are made in later rounds. Most first-year offers are released in Round 1 in August, following the publication of the Irish Leaving Certificate results. Being away from home or on holiday will not affect your application, as CAO offers can be viewed and accepted online at www.cao.ie. However, meeting deadlines is critical. If you will be away from your usual postal address and are unsure of internet access, you should authorise someone you trust to open your mail and respond on your behalf.
If you do not accept your offer before the notified deadline the offer will lapse. If you try to accept a CAO offer online after the deadline has expired, you will be unable to do so. If you mail your acceptance and it reaches CAO after the deadline, they will notify you that you have missed the deadline and refer you to the college. Colleges are under no obligation to consider applicants whose response arrives after the deadline. Usually there is a waiting list for each course and, when an acceptance does not arrive on time, the place may already have been offered to someone on that list. In this case it will no longer be available to the original offeree.
That being said, we may, at our own absolute discretion, accept late responses. It may be easier to be flexible about late responses on rounds A and Zero before round 1. From round 1 onward and particularly for certain high demand courses that have a very limited intake. It may not be possible to accommodate late responses.
If you miss a deadline, contact the Admissions Office immediately. Please note that missing an acceptance deadline can mean losing your college place.