29 January 2013, 11:27 p.m. – UST has implemented changes to admission policies in a bid to improve the process of screening applicants.
The academic placement scheme, in which applicants who did not meet the cut-off scores of their chosen courses were given the chance to apply for other colleges, has been abolished.
Faculties and colleges will instead fill up their slots by drawing from wait-listed applicants, considering the huge number of examinees every year.
Office for Admissions (OFAD) officer-in-charge Marie Ann Vargas said the University will give priority to applicants under the “wait-list” status, rather than place applicants in programs “which are not of their choice.”
“In a program, we can only afford to take this number of applicants, so why do we need to have academic placement? We have a bigger number of [those in] the waiting list who want those programs,” Vargas said.
An estimated 45,000 examinees took the University of Santo Tomas Entrance Test or Ustet, the results of which came out last Jan. 28.
However, colleges and faculties still have the discretion to reconsider applications, Vargas said. “The reconsideration [process] is not really under the control of the OFAD, it’s already college-based,” she said.
Ustet results now include the over-all average and ranking of examinees, to be “transparent in the release of the results.”
“Ang objective kasi is to give the applicant an idea kung bakit siya hindi nakapasa,” Vargas said.
Those who did not pass UST have the choice of enrolling in two other Dominican schools — Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila and Angelicum College in Quezon City. Bernadette D. Nicolas and Carla Patricia S. Perez
