Ways in · The one you've already heard about
Your school will cover the form. This is the part they tend to leave out: the points may not apply to you, you can start lower down, and none of it is final.
The Central Applications Office handles almost every higher education course in the country. You rank courses, your results become points, offers come out in rounds in August. You know this already.
What gets left out is how much give there is inside the system.
HEAR offers places on reduced points to students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. There is a real chance you qualify, and it costs nothing to find out. It goes in with your CAO application and the deadline is earlier than the one on the poster. This is the most useful sentence on this website and most of the people it applies to never act on it.
Level 6 and Level 7 courses take far fewer points than honours degrees, and many of them let you progress into the degree afterwards. Arriving a year later is still arriving.
People transfer, repeat, drop out and come back, or turn up at twenty-three as mature students and get assessed on their life instead of their Leaving Certificate. Treating the CAO as a verdict on your character has ruined more years than any course choice on it.
Between SUSI, the 1916 Bursary and the funds colleges keep quiet about, the cost gets reduced or covered for plenty of students. Settle the money question separately. Do not cross a course off because of a number you have not checked.
“The points tell you how good the course is.”
Points are demand. A high-points course is popular. That is all the number means.
“I have to go now or never.”
Mature entry exists at twenty-three exactly because plenty of people do not go now.
“Missing my first choice means I've failed.”
Most people miss their first choice. Then they get on with it and it turns out fine, which nobody tells you in August.
These pages tell you how it works. A person can tell you what it was actually like. Mentor profiles are open to registered schools.
How schools registerInformation checked September 2026. Requirements, fees and deadlines change — always confirm with the official sources linked above before making a decision.