What it takes to enter UP

Two things will determine whether you can be admitted to UP  or not : performance in the UPCAT and 2) the  weighted average of final grades obtained in the first three years of high school.

The top-ranking applicants, based on the quota and cut-off grade set by each campus, will qualify.

Let’s say you qualify for admission in a particular UP campus, say, UP Manila or UP Mindanao.  Your next problem is getting accepted in the college in that campus offering the course program you want to enroll in. 

You could be qualified to enter a UP campus, but you still must find a course program that will accept you.And if you don’t have very good grades when you graduate from high school, you will have to make up for that by doing very, very well in the UPCAT.

To help you do very well in UPCAT, check out the online test preparation at www.prep4college.net. It will surely boost your  test performance, and make up for your grades in high school, if they weren't all that great.

Apply in UP, Ateneo, and La Salle

Cast a wide net.

No matter how great a student you think you are, don’t think of applying only in your No. 1 choice of college.

In the first place, you can never be sure you can be admitted to your “ first choice” school. So many things can happen to upset that plan.  At UP for example, you can score very well in UPCAT, but if the quota for the college that is offering your course is filled up, and you are dead set on that course program, you may want to take that up at Ateneo or La Salle instead.

For example, if it’s business admin you want, and the quota in UP is filled up, and you don’t want to take up economics or engineering or whatever your second choice of program is, you may just want to get into La Salle which has also a very good business administration program.

So the smart way is to apply to the top 3 – UP, Ateneo, and La Salle – and to pass all the CATS. If you are admitted, then you can carefully consider relevant factors such as the cost of tuition, the daily commute to and from the school (commuting across metromanila is  just godawful), the kind of campus environment, quality of student services, availability of financial assistance, how strong the alumni is ( a factor in getting employed after graduation), and whatever else matters to you  (you should consider the kind and quality  of students you will have for classmates).

So cast a wide net. Don’t just apply in one. The really smart people prepare for all three  CATs.

Go to www.prep4college.net , the online site that prepares you only for UPCAT, but also for Ateneo’s College Entrance Test ( ACET) and La Salle’s Freshman Entrance Exam (FEE).

Choosing a college for your son or daughter: UP, Ateneo, or La Salle?

As a parent, you’d really want to send your son or daughter to the best college. Identifying the best schools in the Philippines is easy. UP, Ateneo, and La Salle are  unquestionably the top three. But remember that your son or daughter is not enrolling in a university, he or she will be enrolling in a specific college or institute of a university, so the question of which university is best for your son or daughter is better framed this way: which university offers the best academic program for the course chosen.

Say your daughter wants to take up accounting. Which of the top 3 are known  for their accounting programs?  If you go by CPA board results, it would seem UP and La Salle appear superior to Ateneo ( this is just an opinion).  But if your daughter wants to take up math as a major, then Ateneo or UP looks better than La Salle ( again, this is just perception).

Now, if your son wants to take up computer engineering, UP would be top choice.

In short, it all depends on the specific course program.

The public perception is that La Salle is tops in business management, UP in engineering, and Ateneo for social sciences.

But then again, there are other factors that should weigh in. If “affordability” is critical, then UP is your first choice,  since its tuition fees are practically a small fraction of what it costs to send a son or daughter to La Salle and Ateneo.  No question there: Ateneo and La Salle are tops in matriculation costs.

But whichever school you’d choose for your son or daughter, he or she must pass either the UPCAT of UP, the Ateneo College Entrance Test, or the Freshman Entrance Exam of De La Salle University.

And the best way to prepare for any and all of these admission tests is to enroll at prep4college,  the top  test preparation website (www.prep4college.net).