Students urged to beat today’s 5.15pm CAO deadline

Students interested in obtaining a third-level place this September have until 5.15pm today to submit their choice of courses through the CAO application process if they are to avoid added fees.

Prospective students can apply for Level-8 Honours degree courses and Level-6 and 7 courses across Ireland’s universities, institutes of technology, teacher-training colleges and private colleges.

CAO communications officer Eileen Keleghan said potential applicants who should carefully read the CAO Handbook and go to the CAO website (cao.ie) and click on 'apply' to start their application.

“We appreciate that the completion of a CAO application can be quite a stressful time for applicants, but the most important step at this stage is to register on the system and obtain your CAO application number to help you avoid any restrictions.

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“This first step in the application process is very straight-forward. Applicants need to provide their identification and contact details, and select the qualifications and assessments section that is relevant to them. On completing this section, and paying the application fee of €45, applicants will then receive their CAO application number. From there they can log in to their CAO account via the My Application facility to edit their application, provide additional information required to support their application, and to add their course choices” continued Ms Keleghan.

Warning about the dangers of leaving the application to the last minute, Ms Keleghan said “Every year a number of applicants put off making their application until the last couple of hours or even minutes without thinking about the consequences of their browser timing out, their internet connection failing, or encountering payment issues. In order to be fair to all applicants strict deadlines apply and applicants should submit their application in a timely manner,” she added.

Applicants who miss today’s deadline can submit a late application at an increased fee of €60 for an online application and or €90 for a paper application.

Late applications will be accepted up to 5.15pm on May 1st. The online facility for late applications opens on March 5th at midday.

A full course list is available at cao.ie.