CAO Change of Mind: How It Works and What Not to Mess Up

Every year, thousands of Leaving Cert students submit a CAO list in January or February and then, by summer, want to change something. That's exactly what Change of Mind is for — and it's simpler, and more limited, than most people expect.

What Change of Mind actually is

Change of Mind is the CAO's official window for revising your course preferences before offers are calculated. Logging into "My Application" on cao.ie, you can reorder your existing choices, add new (non-restricted) courses, or remove ones you're no longer interested in. It's completely free, and you can submit it as many times as you like before the deadline — each new submission simply replaces your previous list.

One detail that trips people up: your Level 8 list and your Level 7/6 list are separate. Changing your mind on one doesn't touch the other, so if you want to rework both, you need to update both.

The 2026 dates

For 2026, Change of Mind opens on 5 May at 12:00 noon and closes on 1 July at 17:00. That 1 July deadline is hard — once it passes, the list you had in the system at that moment is what's used to calculate your Round 1 offers. If you don't submit anything during the window, nothing bad happens automatically; your existing list simply stands.

Worth knowing there's an earlier, separate editing window too: courses can be corrected for a €10 fee between 5 February and 1 March, which is different from the free Change of Mind window in May–July.

What you can't do with it

This is the part that catches people out. Restricted courses — the ones requiring a portfolio, audition, interview or aptitude test, like art and design, music, architecture, drama and creative media — generally can't be added through Change of Mind. They needed to be on your application by 1 February, or added during the paid correction window closing 1 March at 17:00. Medicine is its own case: it requires HPAT and carries the earliest deadline of all, 20 January.

There's one narrow exception — you can add a restricted course via Change of Mind only if it uses the exact same assessment procedure as a restricted course you already applied for by 1 February, and only after checking with the institution first. If you're weighing up a portfolio course, don't assume Change of Mind is a safety net; check the specific course's entry requirements on cao.ie before July.

Mistakes worth avoiding

A few patterns show up every year:

• Ranking by predicted points instead of genuine preference. Your CAO order should reflect what you actually want, not what you think you're most likely to get — the CAO system offers you the highest course on your list that your points qualify you for, so an accurate order matters more than gaming it.
• Forgetting that subject-level changes affect eligibility. If you drop a subject from Higher to Ordinary level after your original application, it can knock you out of the running for courses with minimum entry requirements — worth double-checking before you finalise your list.
• Not checking your exam number and Leaving Cert year match your CAO record, especially for repeat students.
• Missing course updates. Course codes, points and requirements occasionally change year to year — always check the live listing on cao.ie rather than relying on last year's notes.
• Assuming no news is good news. Always look for the confirmation or acknowledgement email after submitting, and don't leave it until the last hour of 1 July to make changes — the system gets busy.

The bottom line

Change of Mind is a genuinely useful safety net for the months between your original application and your results — most students end up using it. Just go in knowing its limits: it's for reordering and adjusting your existing lists, not a way to add portfolio or interview-based courses at the last minute. If you're still narrowing down what to put on the list in the first place, that's worth sorting out well before the July deadline arrives.