The Central Applications Office (CAO) is reminding aspiring third-level students that the deadline for changing their course choices is this Friday (July 1) at 5:00p.m.

The facility allows applicants to add, remove or change the order of their course choices.

To make a change, applicants should log in via the 'My Application' facility and go to the section for changing course choices.

The CAO is advising all applicants to "think carefully about introducing new courses or changing their order of preference at this stage in the application process".

Head of communications for the CAO Eileen Keleghan has asked applicants to remember to place their course choices in genuine order of preference.

"What we would like to advise applicants to avoid doing is making changes to their order of preference or course choices based on assumptions about grades or speculation about what the points are going to be for a particular course," Keleghan stressed.

She added: "If applicants simply follow the golden rule of placing all of their courses in their genuine order of preference, they will be offered the course highest up on their preference list that they are deemed entitled to."

Other key tips for applicants include:

In March, the CAO released 2022 application data which showed demand for a number of agricultural science courses has decreased on 2021.

There were three categories presented in the CAO's report relating to the agriculture industry, including agriculture; integrated programmes and qualifications involving agriculture, forestry and veterinary; and veterinary.

These courses were mentioned on CAO forms significantly less this year than in 2021. The total number of mentions fell from 2,359 to 1,903 which represents a 19% drop.