Five takeaways from CAO offers, from drop in points for medicine to why students are following the economy

In the end, more than half of applicants got their first round offer and a large majority (83 per cent) received one of their top three. It is down slightly on last year, but good news for most students.
Despite worries over grade inflation, CAO points have fallen across quite a number of courses.
It is likely that additional college places may be helping. For example, new tertiary degrees introduced in 2023 – which do not require any CAO points – have provided 75 additional nursing places across counties Donegal, Sligo and Mayo. This may well be a factor behind points falling in the more traditional level eight nursing degree programmes in places like Letterkenny, Castlebar, Sligo and Galway. (Interestingly, points rose in Waterford, Cork and Dublin – areas where there are no nursing tertiary degrees.)
New college places may also be easing upward points pressure on many healthcare courses.
The then minister for higher education Simon Harris created hundreds of new places in medicine, nursing and other paramedical courses in 2021-2023. Earlier this month, his successor, Patrick O’Donovan, announced additional places in priority healthcare areas including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.
We are seeing impact. For example, the creation of 120 additional medical places in the past three years has seen the combined Hpat and CAO points requirement drop across all five medical degrees offered at undergraduate level by small but significant margins. Points requirements are down three in Trinity, two in RCSI and UCC, and one in UCD and Galway.
Two courses left some applicants holding the maximum score of 625 points without an offer in their first preference courses: economics and finance in UCD and dentistry in Trinity.
Some top students who secured five H1s and one H2 and who applied for a place on pharmacy in UCC, actuarial and finance in UCD, engineering and management, and management information systems in Trinity, also failed to secure an offer in this round.
In all, just over 20 courses were affected by random selection. It is cruel, for sure. However, the vast bulk of students were not affected.
As the perception of employment opportunities change, students’ course preferences follow suit. For example, the number of children entering primary education is on a downward trajectory. This may explain the decrease in CAO points requirements in Mary Immaculate Limerick (down nine to 488), DCU (down seven) and Marino (down four). Maynooth bucks this trend where points are up nine to 507.
How degrees are presented may also affect application patterns. The largest programmes on offer are in the arts faculties and points requirement are generally in the low 300s. UCD rebranded its arts offering in recent years into a joint honours, humanities, modern languages and social sciences programme. The points requirement for all four new codes have increased substantially, ranging from 398-468.
The fly in the ointment for the one-third of potential third-level students who can’t commute comfortably from home to college, or who can’t secure or afford campus-based accommodation is to find any or affordable accommodation close to their college campus.
Over the coming days, before next Tuesday’s September 3rd, 3pm deadline for accepting their place, thousands of students and their families will be seeking places to live. The days of the very basic bedsit may be long gone but many are now mourning its demise.