College life starts today
The future will become a little clearer for more than 6,000 Cork school-leavers who will receive their college offers today.
The first-round offers will be issued by the Central Applications Office (CAO) today (Thursday) at 2pm, four days earlier than in previous years.
Applicants have been on tenterhooks waiting since receiving their Leaving Cert results on Tuesday morning to find out whether or not they were accepted to their course of choice.
The round one acceptance window will close at 5.15pm on 23 August. Applicants can accept their offer online on the CAO website before the window closes.
CAO applications were opened to students online last November.
Once the applicant’s results are released to the CAO, they are checked against the minimum requirement for each of the applicant’s chosen courses.
The applicant is then placed on a list for each of their eligible courses. Their position on the list, often referred to as the ‘Order of Merit’ list, is determined by their points score relative to the other eligible applicants for that course.
Meanwhile, this year saw the amount of students who were examined in non-curricular languages rise from 1,461 in 2018, to 1,679.
The most popular non-curricular language was Polish with 780 students, while 340 were examined in Romanian and 177 in Lithuanian.
To coincide with the release of Leaving Cert results and CAO college offers, the ISPCC has reminded all young people that Childline is “here to listen 24 hours a day, every day”.
ISPCC Chief Executive John Church said: “Leaving Cert results time can create a range of emotions for young people. It can be an exciting time for many students, but can also bring about feelings of anxiety, worry and disappointment.
“It’s important to remember the Leaving Cert does not define a person, regardless of results. There are several routes for progression open to young people, the Leaving Cert is simply a stepping stone.
“ISPCC Childline encourages young people who may have worries or concerns to talk about how they are feeling with a trusted adult, or with Childline.”
Ireland’s national active listening service for children and young people is free to contact, confidential and non-judgmental. Childline can be contacted by phone on 1800-666666, online chat at childline.ie, or text on 50101.