CAO is open for 2025 entry. Career Guidance Counsellor Rory White’s number one piece of advice is to take your time with your application and get it right.
CAO is now open for applications for students hoping to start college in September 2025. Those applying should put plenty of care and attention into their application in order to ensure they are aware of the various deadlines and to give themselves a better chance of selecting the right courses.
What are the key dates and deadlines?
Those applying to CAO should look to make their application early in order to avail of the discounted registration fee of €30 which is available until 5.15 PM on January 20th. After this date, the cost rises to the standard fee of €45, until 5:15 PM on February 1st.
Students should note that it is enough for now to simply register your application. You DO NOT have to have your course choices finalised at this stage.
February 1st is one of the key dates in the CAO calendar. It is the normal deadline for applications (A late registration will then open up for a time from early March for a €60 fee) while it is also the deadline for those looking to apply to Restricted Courses (those that require an extra element such as a Portfolio, Audition or HPAT exam).
The next deadline to note is March 1st which is the last date to submit applications to the HEAR and DARE schemes.
A FREE Change of Mind facility will then open up on May 7th. This will allow applicants to revisit their application and add/remove or change about the order of their course choices. This facility will remain open right up until July 1st which is the final date that applicants can add courses.
To apply to CAO, go to www.cao.ie and click on ‘Apply’. Potential applicants are advised to consult the CAO Handbook for all the important application information.
What you can do to help with your CAO application
Attend Open Days
Nothing beats being on campus in a college to get a feel for the place. Where at all possible, applicants should look to attend the open days of the colleges they are interested in attending. Our local universities ATU and Ulster University have held their autumn open days recently but keep an eye out throughout the year for other open days in our local colleges. A wide range of open days are taking place at colleges across the country, check out the Events Calendar on CareersPortal for information on these.
Check the colleges out online
College marketing departments also run a huge array of virtual events such as open days, college tours, webinars, talks and live Q&A sessions to get their information across to interested students. All students should also pay attention to the social media streams from the colleges and other career guidance accounts. Spend some time to follow them on their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, while many of them are now also on TikTok. These pages are often very active and allow students to see in more detail what a college is like and what a course entails. Many individual subject departments even have their own social media streams so the information available to you can be quite bespoke if you take the time to look.
Don’t leave things until the last minute
Get your application done early and then take your time researching your course choices. Likewise, do not be leaving things like your HEAR or DARE applications, or completing your Portfolio, up to the wire as rushing things can often hinder your application.
Drill down into the courses
Some students can be a little lazy and only look at the title of the course. They might like the sound of it and stick it down on their application. Taking this approach is extremely foolish. Students should go deeper and find out as much as they can about what the course involves before committing to it. What are the modules like? Does the course include Work Experience? Can you study abroad for a semester? All of these questions are easily answered simply by looking at the courses in more detail.
Where can you look for more information?
CareersPortal has all of the information that a student needs when researching a career area. Their CourseFinder has over 8,200 courses listed (almost 1,800 are CAO courses), each one is clearly explained and will contain links to any related information, news and video content for that course. It also has an easy-to-use filter system which allows you to quickly whittle down your options and find the courses that are best suited to you.
They also have over 1,100 careers profiled with everything you need to know about what the career involves, the type of person suited to it, how you can enter the career, what the pay is like and even what the job prospects are like. Again there are lots of videos and career stories and then links to the courses that lead into these careers.
Use your own network…
Everyone applying to college should try to get as much information as they can from the people who have been there and done that. Talk to your Guidance Counsellor in school, ask them questions or if they know anything else about a course. Maybe talk to some of your teachers, they can often know you quite well and what you may be suited to. Many of you will also know someone who has either been to or is still at college who could have some little nuggets of good information for you. Ask them what they think of it, what is the best part about it, what is the hardest part of it, do they have any advice for you. Talk to your parents, friends and relations, they can often know you better than you know yourself!
The more information you gather, the better decision you will be able to make. It is YOUR choice at the end of the day and it is important for you to be your own person and try to make a rounded judgement of your own. Just because someone says they love or hate the course, might not mean the same for you. Take what they are saying on board but keep this in mind.
Finally, some other key considerations to think about.
There are also some extremely important questions that you should give due consideration to –
Do you want to study close to home or would you prefer to move away?
What will the financial implications be? Fees, accommodation costs, etc
What are your career prospects likely to be when you finish?
Selecting the course you will be studying next year is quite a big decision, and big decisions should be given time and really should not be rushed into. You should ensure that you have a Plan B, Plan C and more in place in order to have as many options open to you as possible. Put the time and effort into your application and you will have a better chance of getting it right.
Rory White is a Ballybofey-based Guidance Counsellor working with Donegal ETB in Finn Valley College, Stranorlar and is a member of the Donegal Branch of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. He is also a contributor to CareersPortal.ie, Ireland’s National Career Guidance Website. For more than fifteen years he has been helping Leaving Cert and PLC students as well as adults choose a college course or decide to change their career journey to start something new. Rory’s columns on Donegal Daily share advice on making informed career and education decisions. – Rory White BA/H.Dip in Guidance & Counselling
