The Central Applications Office (CAO) is the organisation responsible for overseeing most undergraduate applications in the Republic of Ireland, the Postgraduate Applications Centre is a related organisation that oversees some taught postgraduate courses. Students applying for positions in third level education courses in Ireland apply to the Central Applications Office rather than to individual educational institutions (colleges and universities). The CAO then offers places to students who meet the minimum requirements for a course for which they have applied. In the case that there are more qualified applicants than available places on a particular course, places are offered to those students with the highest score in the CAO points system.
The CAO awards points to students based on their achievements in the Leaving Certificate examination. A student's points are calculated according to these tables, counting his best six subjects only (resulting in a maximum score of 600 points). If a student has sat the Leaving Certificate examination on more than one occasion, her points are calculated according to her best year's performance.
Points can also be scored for results in other examinations, such as UKA levels. However in this case each college and university can decide the number of points they allocate to a grade, currently the most common is: A (190), B (160), C (130) and D (100). This is likely to change however due to a recent report by UCAS which compared the Leaving Certificate and A levels.
Outside the points system
The points system is designed for young people leaving secondary education. Many institutions reserve places in some courses for older adults, people from disadvantaged backgrounds, or other groups unlikely to achieve a place through the points system. Applications for most of these are routed through the CAO, but processed manually by the individual institutions rather than automatically via the points system.
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