Matriculation

Matriculation refers to the minimum requirements for entry to college. Before you can be considered for admission you must meet these minimum standards. Matriculation has nothing to do with points.To be offered a place in Trinity you must:

• Present six subjects, three of which must be at grade C or above on higher Leaving Certificate papers or at least grade C in the University Matriculation examination

The six subjects above must include:

• A pass in English
• A pass in mathematics and a pass in a language other than English

OR

• a pass in Latin and a pass in a subject other than a language

Find out more at http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/requirements/matriculation/leavingcert 

Course places and points

Places are awarded on the basis of points. Points are assigned to each grade in the Leaving Certificate, A-Levels, etc. The more points you achieve the higher your ranking and therefore the better your chance of being offered the course of your choice.

To find out more about how places are allocated acording to preference, watch this slideshow CAO - mapping your future.pps from the CAO.

You can sit the Leaving Certificate as many times as you want to increase your points. However points are calculated on a single sitting. If you sit an exam more than once, the sitting which has your best results will be considered.

Points are calculated as the total of the points from your six highest grades. The maximum number of points available to any one LC student is 600, which is six A1s on Higher papers.

Points threshold

There are limited places for each course so colleges select students with the highest number of points first. For this reason the number of points required changes from year to year.

If there is a high demand for a particular course, then the points will increase. If there is a low demand for a particular course, or the number of places has been increased to allow for more students, the number of points required may fall.

The cut-off points for a particular year are those that were achieved by the last person who qualified for that programme in the previous year. The actual entry points that students acheive may be considerably higher than the minimum required.

Note: For Integrated Engineering (TR032) or Integrated Engineering with Management (TR038) HEAR / DARE eligible applicants may be admitted on 350+ points, provided they meet the matriculation and specific course requirements (Leaving Certificate: HC3 Mathematics, Advanced GCE (A-Level): Grade C Mathematics).

Students with appropriate FETAC (Level 5) qualifications and modules, with a minimum of distinctions in five modules, can be admitted on a competitive basis to TR071 Science, Nursing and Midwifery degree courses see http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/requirements/matriculation/fetac/

Offers

You can accept an offer on line via your CAO account OR via the Offer Notice which comes in the post. Students who are absent (for example on holiday) at the offers stage should make sure that another person - such as a parent - is available to check offers on the CAO website or in the letter.

If you do not accept or decline an offer by the deadline you may lose that offer and therefore a place in college. The CAO expects to receive an acceptance from you by 5:15pm on the reply date in the Offer Notice.

All offers for Level 8 and Level 7/Level 6 courses are made at the same time, so that you may receive two offers of places simultaneously.

You are only allowed one single acceptance of an offer at any one time i.e. you cannot accept several offers.

You can accept an offer and then decide to accept a second offer in the next round. However if you do accept an offer in the next round it will cancel out any previous acceptance. You cannot go back and change your mind once you have rejected an offer.

If you are perhaps hoping for the course of your choice to be offered later, you need to think carefully about what it will mean if you have rejected or failed to accept an offer on another course, and then find that no other offer is made.

For advice on ordering your preferences correctly please read the section on Course Preferences.