When the offer came through, Alex Murphy was unsure if he wanted to pursue the courseDuring Alex Murphy's deferral year, he worked and travelled. Photograph: The Irish Times Thu Aug 27 2026 - 05:01 • 3 MIN READAlex Murphy made the decision to defer his college place after sitting his Leaving Cert in 2022. “I was changing the CAO up and down, I was doing hotel management, [and then] oh no, I want to go into God-knows-what. I think I put biology down there at some stage, and event management,” Murphy, who is from Co Mayo, explains.Alex Murphy. Following his Leaving Cert and before the CAO final deadline for amendments, Murphy changed his options once more, deciding to put down “business with marketing”.“I was like, ‘that’s a nice general subject’. And this is coming from a man that didn’t do business in school at all,” he says.So, when the offer came through, Murphy was unsure if he wanted to pursue the course. “I just emailed to see could I defer, and it was deferred. And I thought about it. Let it sit in the back of my mind for a year and I was like, ‘ah I’ll just go in and see what the first week is like’. And I’m going into my final year next week.”Alex Murphy. Finance was also a consideration in his decision to defer, he says. There was also “zero accommodation in Limerick. It was so last minute. Everyone had their accommodation sorted. I was young. I hadn’t a clue how to look for accommodation. I had a quick look and there was nothing. I couldn’t get anything that was under €1,000 a month.”Murphy says he also wanted to be sure of his decision. And he wasn’t keen to travel to Limerick for a course he wasn’t sure about. “Especially when it came to committing to something for four years, I needed to think about it. Because my mind had changed so much, it was [a case of] did I even want to go to college at this stage?“Moving out of home. Going down to Limerick. And if it didn’t work out, that would just be the worst thing ever.”Alex Murphy. During Murphy’s deferral year, he worked and travelled. “I worked the first three months for the summer. Then, in September, I moved to Valencia and I worked from home for an Irish business. I lived over there for three months, and then I came home for another three months. And then I went to Nice for the summer and I got a job in a pub.”He used the opportunity to save for college, but also he admits that the social life opportunities appealed. “There was no mature man thinking, going to these places,” he says. “I was just going for the social life. And to see other places, other than Co Mayo.“There’s a number of reasons why an applicant might defer their CAO [offer],” says Donnchadh O’Mahony, guidance counsellor at Loretto College, Stephen’s Green. “There could be health issues, money problems, personal needs. Some take a gap year. So many students actually feel burnout from the Leaving Cert and they just need that year to recuperate. Or other commitments.“It’s a good idea if you’re not going to be able to perform at your best for that particular year,” O’Mahony says.And if a student decides they want to defer, it’s “pretty easy”, he says, though he cautions there is no guarantee a college will accept a deferral.“The first thing you don’t do is you don’t accept the offer. That’s really, really important. I would contact the admissions office of the university you want to defer at,” he says, adding that there are deadlines to consider. “Some [universities] are really strict about deferrals, and why you’re deferring. And some are not so strict.”Students should fill out a deferral form, O’Mahony says. “And if your deferral is accepted, the following year you reapply to the CAO and you only apply for that course on your CAO.”Students will then be offered their course the following year, even if the points go up or the course requirements change. But that’s provided they apply in the way described.“If you start messing around and putting courses higher above or additional courses on the list, you mightn’t necessarily get that deferral,” he says.IN THIS SECTION