With a little over a month to go until the first round of CAO offers become available, let’s take a look at the direction that the courses appear to be heading in.

With the analysis of the 2015 CAO applications already well underway, the first assumption is that the points for law and engineering are on the rise.

When the first round of offers come out on August 17^th, students should expect engineering, technology, law, architecture and other construction-related courses to have risen from last year.

According to The Irish Times, the points for arts, science, social science and primary teaching are most likely going to stay at a similar level to 2014.

As the points for medicine dropped in 2014 because of the reconfiguration of the marking scheme for the Hpat test, there has been a small increase in the number of applications to the field this year. This could result in a small points increase this year. 

With the economy looking more stable, construction-related courses are not the only degrees gaining popularity again. Business courses remain prominent with applications up 2.3 percent on last year.

This could mean a 5-10 point increase for the most sought after business courses.

A huge drop has been seen in the number of applications for agriculture and horticulture courses. The number of students choosing them as their first-choice options are down by 19 percent from last year.