November 6, 2024: CAO application process opens for those seeking places in universities and other colleges in 2025.
January 20, 2025 (5pm ): Closing date for the CAO early-bird online applications. A fee of €30 applies before this date and increases after that date to €45, until February 1st.
January 21, 2025 (5.15pm ): This is the registration date for HPAT-Ireland 2025 (fee €152.80 ). Applicants must already have registered with the CAO and have an application number.
Late registrations for HPAT are open until 5:15pm on February 2 (€222.80 ). An exceptional late registration fee (€257.80 ) applies until 5:15pm on February 4.
HPAT-Ireland is also required for entry into the MSc occupational therapy and MSc speech and language therapy (both professional qualifications ) at UL.
February 1, 2025 (5pm ): Closing date for normal applications to the CAO for entry to all first-year undergraduate courses. People applying for restricted application courses (those with early assessments such as interviews or portfolio assessment ) must list any such course on their application by this date.
February 5, 2025 (12 noon ): Online facility to amend course choices becomes available for a late fee of €10 until 5pm on March 1. Only those who have omitted a restricted application course need to utilise this facility.
February - April: Interviews and portfolio presentations for restricted application courses take place. Following these assessments, applicants learn if they are approved for consideration for a place on each programme. Marks are awarded in many cases, which are added to an applicant’s CAO points score in August, to determine offers of places.
March 1, 2025 (5pm ): This is the closing date for completion of the 'Mature Applicant' section of the CAO form for those seeking places under this classification. It is also the final date for CAO applicants to add any restricted application course choices, and to complete the online sections of the application process under the HEAR (Higher Education Access Route ) and/or DARE (Disability Access Route to Education ) schemes.
The HEAR scheme is the admissions route for school-leavers who for social, financial, or cultural reasons are under-represented at third level.
DARE is the supplementary admissions scheme offering a small number of places on reduced points to school-leavers with a designated disability.
Who gets those places is at the discretion of each course director and may favour those with specific disabilities or who qualify for both HEAR and DARE.
March 5, 2025 (12 noon ): Late application facility opens for those who have not as yet applied to the CAO, at a cost of €60. It remains open until 5pm on May 1.
March 15, 2025 (5pm ): All supporting documentation for HEAR or DARE must be supplied to the CAO to arrive in its offices in Galway by post by that date.
School Easter Holidays 2025: The State Examinations Commission’s (SEC ) Leaving Cert oral tests in Irish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Japanese take place in schools throughout the country.
Late April 2025: Results are released for UL, and for mature applicants who previously sat the HPAT undergraduate medical entry aptitude test in February.
May 1, 2025 (5pm ): Closing date for late CAO applications. After this, no further applications will be accepted for the 2025 academic year.
May 5, 2025: The CAO change-of-mind facility opens, which enables applicants to amend, or list for the first time, their course choices.
Candidates get a statement of application record online in the correspondence section of their CAO account, before the end of May, listing all details supplied by applicants to date. Applicants must inform the CAO immediately if they do not receive this record, or if there are any errors on this form.
June 4, 2025: Leaving Certificate written examinations begin and will continue until late June. On the day of the last Leaving Cert written paper; applicants who are aged under 23 years old and who sat the HPAT test in February, will receive results to enable them to factor these marks into their final consideration of course choices before the CAO deadline on July 1.
July 1, 2025 (5pm ): Final date for any amendments to course choices and order of preference on all CAO applications for entry to college in September 2025. Most current year Leaving Cert applicants make their final course choice decisions / amendments during this 'Change of Mind' period in May - June each year.
First week of July - Initial CAO offers: The CAO makes about 6,000 offers to mature (over 23 years of age ) applicants, and to applicants who accepted and then deferred college offers of places in 2024. These offers are made online only at www.cao.ie and remain open for about a week.
Mature and deferred applicants who may be away from home should ensure any offer in early July is dealt with, as offers lapse if not accepted within the specified time period.
Early August 2025 - Round zero offers: More than 4,000 places on courses are offered to applicants presenting further education (FE ) awards, and to an additional cohort of mature applicants. Applicants for graduate medicine are also offered places in this round. Offers are open for about one week.
Mid to Late August: The State Examinations Commission delivers 2025 Leaving Cert results to more than 730 second-level schools, and makes them available through a secure online service at www.examinations.ie from noon.
Late August: Immediately following the release of Leaving Cert results an application to view scripts can be made online only on the SEC Student Portal. Students will also have access to the component marks of their various scripts at this time.
Within days: The CAO releases round one offers to candidates online that afternoon. Minimum points required for entry to each course will be available on the CAO website at that time. Shortly afterwards: Leaving Cert students who are unhappy with a grade they received and wish to view their marked exam scripts may do so online.
There is no charge for viewing your marked exam scripts. Shortly afterwards: Students who wish to appeal the result in one or more Leaving Cert subjects can apply online through the SEC Student Portal to do so between these dates.
Within a few days of round one CAO offers: Closing date for receipt of acceptance of CAO round one offers.
A few days later: The CAO makes round two offers available to applicants online. The minimum points required for entry to each course are released on the CAO website on that date.
A few days later: Closing date for the receipt of acceptance of CAO round two offers.
Late September: Results of Leaving Cert appeals released by the SEC by this date. Final offers of places by the CAO will be made in the days following the release of appeal results by the SEC.
The exact dates for the release of this year’s Leaving Cert results and the subsequent CAO offers, and all that follows, have not as yet been determined. The national media will update these details when these dates have been confirmed.
NOTE: The arrival of physical letters from the CAO are now a thing of the past and all CAO applicants are advised to check the CAO.ie website regularly for updates.
