The CAO has published the second round of offers for college courses this morning. Over 3,000 applicants are getting new offer or in some cases their first offer from the CAO on behalf of 43 colleges and universities.

The Irish Times reports there is a small number of additional Arts places on offer in University College Cork (UCC), the University of Limerick (UL) and at NUI Maynooth.

And there is also good news this morning for those seeking places in psychology in UCD and Trinity which have seen a drop in points.

The paper says that round one points also fell for courses in architecture, structural engineering and architecture at UCD, civil engineering in NUIG and manufacturing and design engineering at DIT.

It is suggested that these decreases reflect a lack of interest for courses relating to construction.

The second round offers is expected to see more places released in medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Trinity and NUI Galway.

58,833 applicants have received an offer to date

All offers are sent by post, but are also made available on the CAO website and a 'reply date' is printed on offer notices.

If you want to accept an offer, you must do so by 5.15pm on the 'reply date' printed on the offer notice. You can record your acceptance online at www.cao.ie

The CAO reminds people that if you fail to deal with an offer properly and on time, you may lose the place.

After round two, offers will be issued as necessary until October to fill any vacancies.

Brian Mooney is a guidance counsellor and columnist with The Irish Times. He has an overall look at the 2013 landscape.