The CAO application for 2027 entry opens at 12 noon on 5 November 2026. The deadline that matters most is 1 February 2027 at 5pm, and the choices a student makes before then shape what is possible for the rest of the year. Everything after that, from Change of Mind to the August offer rounds, works within the rules set on that date.

This guide walks through the year in order, for parents and students who have not been through the system before. All of the dates, fees and rules below come from the CAO Handbook 2027.

One point of scope first. The Central Applications Office processes applications for full-time undergraduate courses on behalf of the colleges; it does not decide who gets in. Each college sets its own entry requirements and tells the CAO how many places it has. Postgraduate, part-time and evening courses, and re-admission to a course you previously attended, are direct applications to the college and do not go through the CAO at all.

Registering from 5 November: fees and dates

You apply online at cao.ie. The application opens at noon on 5 November 2026 and the fee depends on when you pay.

Pay by 5pm on 20 January 2027 and the fee is €35. After that, the normal fee of €50 applies until the main closing date of 5pm on 1 February 2027. There is then a gap. A late application facility opens at noon on 5 March 2027, costs €65 and closes at 5pm on 1 May 2027. Late applicants cannot add restricted courses, which is covered below. A paper application costs €50, rising to €95 after 1 February.

Most 6th years apply in November or December. There is no advantage in waiting, and the course list can be changed for free right up to 1 February.

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The two lists, and why both matter

A CAO application has two course lists, not one. The first is for Level 8 honours degree courses. The second is for Level 7 ordinary degrees and Level 6 higher certificates. Each list holds up to ten courses.

The lists are independent of each other. An offer on the Level 8 list has no effect on the Level 7/6 list, and the reverse is also true. An applicant can receive one offer from each list in the same round. The catch is that only one offer can be accepted per round across both lists, so at that point a choice has to be made.

Many students fill the Level 8 list and leave the second list blank. That is a mistake if there is any chance the points will fall short. A well-chosen second list is often the difference between a place in September and a year out that was never planned.

Order of preference

The single most misunderstood part of the system is the order of the ten courses. The handbook’s instruction is to list courses in genuine order of preference, and it means it. The CAO offers you the highest course on each list for which you qualify and have the points. It does not matter whether that course was your first choice or your eighth.

Say a student’s Level 8 list reads: 1 Medicine, 2 Pharmacy, 3 Biomedical Science, 4 General Science, 5 Nursing, and so on down to 10. In Round One the points are enough for Biomedical Science but not for Medicine or Pharmacy. The offer is for preference 3.

At that moment, preferences 4 to 10 on that list are gone. The student will never be offered General Science or Nursing through this application. Preferences 1 and 2 are still alive: if the points for Pharmacy drop in Round Two, or an appeal upgrades the student’s results, an offer of Pharmacy or Medicine can still arrive. Accepting the Biomedical Science offer does not switch that off.

So put the course you want most at number 1 even if the points look out of reach, realistic choices in the middle and safety choices at the bottom. Never list a course you would not actually attend, because an offer for it kills everything below it.

Restricted courses and the 1 February rule

Some courses assess applicants on more than points: a portfolio, an audition, an interview or a written test, usually held in spring. These are restricted courses, and they are marked as such in the handbook. Because the extra assessment happens early, a restricted course must be on the application by 5pm on 1 February 2027. It cannot be added on Change of Mind in May, with one narrow exception: a restricted course can be added if its assessment procedures are identical to a course already listed on the application.

There is a short second window. A facility to amend course choices opens at noon on 5 February 2027 and closes at 5pm on 1 March 2027. It costs €10 and is mainly used by mature applicants and by anyone who needs to add a restricted course after the main deadline. After 1 March that door is closed.

HEAR, DARE and mature applicants

HEAR (for applicants from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds) and DARE (for applicants with a disability) are applied for through the CAO form. The deadlines are strict and come in three stages. You must indicate on the CAO application that you wish to be considered, by 5pm on 1 February 2027. The HEAR or DARE form itself must be fully completed by 5pm on 1 March 2027. Supporting documents must have arrived at the CAO before 5pm on 10 March 2027. Applicants must be under 23 on 1 January 2027. Eligibility, once granted, is carried forward for one year only.

Mature applicants are normally those aged 23 on or before 1 January of the year of admission. They register with the CAO by 1 February in the usual way and complete the Mature Applicant form by 1 March. Many colleges then run their own interviews or assessments and make mature offers in Round A or Round Zero rather than waiting for Round One.

Check and Confirm in May

Before the end of May the CAO sends every applicant a Check and Confirm email setting out what it holds on file: personal details, exam details and the course lists as recorded. Read it line by line. A wrong exam number or a course in the wrong order is far easier to fix in May than in August. If the email has not arrived by 1 June, contact the CAO.

Change of Mind: 5 May to 1 July

Change of Mind is the free facility to rewrite the course lists after the Leaving Cert mocks and orals. It is expected to open at noon on 5 May 2027 and closes at 5pm on 1 July 2027. Courses can be added, removed or reordered on either list, as many times as you like, and the last version saved before the deadline is the one that counts.

Two limits apply. Restricted courses cannot be introduced, as explained above. And the system closes at 5pm on 1 July with no later window before offers. Most students use Change of Mind in the days after the Leaving Cert ends, which is sensible, but do not leave it until the final hour.

What happens in August

Offers come in rounds, and each round has its own purpose.

Round A is issued in early July and covers deferred applicants from the previous year, mature applicants, certain visa cases and Access applicants. Round Zero follows in early August and covers graduate entry medicine, courses with a QQI quota and further mature, deferred and Access offers. Most Leaving Cert students will hear nothing in either round, and that is normal.

Round One is the main event. It is issued in the week after the Leaving Cert results; the exact date is to be confirmed. Each applicant is offered the highest course on each list for which they qualify. Some applicants get two offers, one from each list. Some get one. Some get none and wait for Round Two.

Every offer carries a reply date. You reply online by that date or the offer lapses. You can accept only one offer in a round, even if you hold one from each list. Accepting does not close off higher preferences: if a course higher up the same list comes through in a later round, you can accept that instead, and the later acceptance replaces the earlier one.

Round Two and subsequent rounds continue until the end of September. They fill places that were declined or not taken up in Round One, which is why the points for a course can be lower in Round Two than in Round One. Offers in these rounds are only for courses above the one already offered on the same list.

After Round One the CAO also publishes Available Places: courses that still have vacancies and are open to applicants who meet the entry requirements, whether or not those courses were on the original form. Existing applicants can apply for an Available Place free of charge. Someone who never applied to the CAO this year can apply for €50.

Deferrals and appeals

If you want to take a year out, do not accept the offer online. Instead, email the admissions office of the college at least two days before the reply date on the offer, with “DEFERRED ENTRY” in the subject line, and set out why. The college decides whether to grant the deferral, and it will tell you what to do the following year; deferred places are among those reissued in Round A. Check the college’s own admissions page for its conditions before you ask.

Leaving Cert appeals run through the State Examinations Commission, not the CAO. If an appeal raises a grade, the CAO recalculates the points and the applicant’s position on the order of merit changes. Where the upgraded points would have earned an offer in a course that still has places, an offer issues. Where the places are full, the college may make a deferred offer for the following year. The decision rests with the college, not with the CAO.

Ten mistakes to avoid

The first is paying after 20 January. The €35 fee becomes €50 for no reason other than delay. The second is leaving a restricted course off the form before 1 February and expecting to add it in May; the system will not allow it.

Third, listing courses in the order you think you will get them rather than the order you want them. The CAO already handles the “what if I don’t get it” logic for you. Fourth, filling the Level 8 list and ignoring the Level 7/6 list entirely. Fifth, listing a course you would not attend, which wipes out everything below it the moment it is offered.

Sixth, forgetting that HEAR and DARE have three separate deadlines and that the last of them, 10 March, is for documents arriving, not being posted. Seventh, not reading the Check and Confirm email, or not noticing it never came.

Eighth, treating 1 July as a soft deadline. Ninth, missing the reply date on an offer in August, usually because the family is away and nobody is checking the account. Tenth, accepting an offer online when the plan was to defer; the deferral request has to go to the college before the reply date, not after.

Sources

• CAO Handbook 2027 (PDF)
• CAO: Important dates
• CAO: How offers are issued (PDF)
• CAO: Parents’ Guide 2026 (PDF)