First round CAO offers have been issued to more than 50,700 applicants this morning. There is a 3.6% drop in the number of applications from this year’s Leaving Certificate with the fall in CAO applications partly explained by a decline in the numbers taking the Leaving Certificate in 2018

This year, while points have risen for more than 40% of options, around half of all courses have experienced a points drop. In general, points have fallen across most arts programmes this year. Arts at UCC is down 46 points to 300, while Maynooth is down seven to 320.

However, some who were hoping to study Arts at UCD may be disappointed as the college has made changes to how students enter the course and has also reduced the overall number of places by 150. Their Arts course (DN500), which last year required 326 points , has this year been split into three different strands with separate CAO entry routes. Points have risen for two of the new options while the third has fallen. The newly-created entry routes are Arts (DN520) at 381 points, Humanities (DN530) at 301 points, and a new course called Social Sciences (DN700) which requires 392 points.

Other areas which have seen rises are Engineering, science, architecture/construction, law and primary teaching. Points for engineering at Trinity, UCD and NUI Galway are up by more than 20, with architecture and many construction-related courses also seeing points increase. Primary teaching courses have risen by up to 14 points, while most secondary teaching courses have also seen their points rise. UCD's economics and finance and Trinity's dental science share the highest cut-off points, at 590.

The good news is that some 52pc of those who applied for an honours degree programme have been offered their first preference, up from 51pc last year, while 80pc were offered their first, second or third choice.

Students have until 5.15pm Friday to accept an offer in Round 1. Round two offers will be made on Wednesday 29th August. Students accepting an offer in the first round can still accept a higher level offer in future rounds. Your can check out cut-off points for all courses on careersportal.ie

For resources to help you decide on your next step, remember to check out our Leaving Cert Results section on Schooldays.ie

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