Leaving Cert students unhappy with their offers still have more options - if they're patient, a guidance counsellor has said.

Dublin based guidance counsellor Donnchadh O’Mahony became popular on TikTok for doing Leaving Cert and CAO explainer video. He also talks about options for students that might not be happy with their place.

He told Dublin Live Leaving Cert students that did not get an offer that they wanted might still find places in their preferred college. He said: “Colleges readvertise places they couldn't sell in what's called available places. So there's basically this list on the CAO website and you can go on and see what courses there are and if you want them, you can apply for those courses.

“And so maybe you haven't applied for them at all before and they're just essentially readvertising these places and you can go in and say, yeah, I actually fancied the look of this, I never thought of it before and I have the requirements for it, so I'm going to apply for this.”

Read more: Students and teachers ‘bawling from happiness’ after ‘spectacular’ Leaving Cert results

Applying for these available places is free of charge for those that have opened up a CAO account before. Those that have never opened up a CAO account can now apply for these courses at a cost of €45.

Leaving Cert students might also have some hope for the upcoming CAO round two offers, which are issued on September 11 at 2pm. However, Mr O’Mahony said that about 98 per cent of the places are filled in the first CAO round.

He added: “I would say only one in 50 students would get an offer in round two. And what happens in round two, it's whoever didn't accept the round one offer or whoever deferred the round one offer, those places get offered to the next people on the order of merit list.”

While most of the places would be filled in the first round, some people are appealing their grades at the minute. There's no date for the appeals yet, because the Central Applications Office is waiting to see how many appeals there would be first of all.

Mr O’Mahony said: “Maybe if you've appealed and hopefully if the results come back before the end of the CAO season, you might get an offer of a place in the course you're looking for.”

The CAO season goes on until October 5 for about five rounds. Both those still waiting on an offer and those who already have an offer need to familiarise themselves with the dates, including the acceptance dates and when the next round offers are out.

The guidance counsellor advises: “If you've accepted a course already, but you get an offer in round two, three, four or five at that stage, you can either decide, I'm going to stay in the course I’ve accepted already, or you can say no, I'm going to move to my new offer.”

2023 was a record year for offers and 59 per cent of CAO applicants got their very first level eight offer to them and 85 per cent of students got one of their first three CAO offers.

For more useful advice on Leaving Cert and CAO, you can follow Donnchadh on TikTok @ leavingcertguidance.

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