Its college entrance exam time!
June 23rd, 2009 by blackshama
Friends who have kids about to enter college have been pestering me on how to improve their kids chances of getting into 1) UP, 2) Ateneo 3) DLSU and 4) UST. The kids are in the process of lodging applications for admissions in the university. Even a monsoonal downpour wasn’t able to disperse a long queue in front of the UP Diliman registrar’s building.
I asked my friends if they had sent their kids to our own brand of juku or cram school, namely the various entrance exam reviews and tutorial centers in town. All said they did. Now I asked them, “Isn’t it part of the package to advise the kids and parents of how to increase the chances of admission?” Obviously these review centers could not guarantee admission but at least it should give the students some edge.
If my friends who are parents aren’t confident of that edge, then they wasted about 10K pesos or more of fees. But it seems one thing is certain, college entrance tests passing rates reflect the state of basic education in the Philippines. Public education has lagged behind the private one and UP despite its numerous attempts at increasing access and “democratization”, can’t deny that private school educated kids have the edge. As former UP Acad Affairs Veep said in one of the centennial lectures last year, UP can’t give more “democratization” and “palugit” without severely compromising and affecting the academic standards of the university. Even Ateneo’s Fr Ben Nebres implies the same for his Jesuit run university. In Ateneo some of my friends in academe say that some people were even promising zillions in endowments if the school will accept their less than qualified scions. Ateneo it seems has to draw the academic standards line. Now the Ateneans have an unkind suggestion….. “Send these kids down from Katipunan to Taft Avenue!” (BTW, I don’t take sides in the Ateneo-La Salle friendly and carino brutal tiff!)
Obviously even private (and expensive) basic education no longer gives value for all those 100Ks of money! A very good friend of mine and Business Day financial planning columnist Randell Tiongson writes about the same thing.
UP, Ateneo, DLSU and UST are still perceived to provide quality, excellent value for money tertiary education. However Randell and I are sure that the money end of the phrase is becoming bigger while the value end is becoming smaller. This is the challenge that faces the four eminent schools. As for UP, the 20K a sem fees should make Lean Alejandro spin in his grave but now almost all of the students I have pay that fee. I encounter STFAP students once in a while. The 20K a sem fee is peanuts compared to the 60K-100K they will pay for Ateneo and DLSU. This is still lower than what they will pay for UST and a bit lower for UE, FEU and other U-belt schools. So it doesn’t surprise me that my friends want to get their kids into UP.
Now these friends of mine aren’t your run of the mill middle class salaried employees. They are lawyers, doctors, dentists, media practitioners and businesspeople. I have the lowest salary if you put my paycheck with theirs! But with costs ever escalating, they are quite worried. Take for example the dermatologist. She has a lucrative practice (although she is more discreet than the doctora who has billboards on EDSA) but is worried of putting her daughter through pre-med and med school. She wants someone to inherit her practice. She desperately wants her daughter to get into UP!
Now getting into UP requires foresight and planning. You are accepted using a metric called the UPG or university predicted grade. Obviously everybody wants to get into Diliman followed by UPLB, Manila and Baguio. Most courses in Diliman are quota courses. As anyone who took Stat 101 would know, the chances of getting into Diliman is obviously much less than getting into let us say UP Mindanao. One reason is that most programs are in Diliman and this campus still has the image of being the best one. While President Emer Roman says that all programs in all campuses are comparable and no campus is better than the other, very few believe her.
So getting into UP is made more possible if you choose a regional campus and a non-quota course. The different campuses have different UPG cutoffs. Diliman, Manila and LB have the higher cutoffs. It is possible not to qualify for a first and second choice campus (let’s say Diliman and Manila) but have a UPG that can qualify for a regional campus. Here the applicant has a second chance but it depends if the campus slots haven’t been filled. In many cases, it is crunch time. One pamangkin was finally accepted to UPLB the day before classes started! For her it was do or die since her family can’t afford to send her to Ateneo without jeopardizing her kid brother’s chances for a high school education!
The non-qualifying applicant can also do his freshie year in another school and transfer to UP for their second year. Many respected individuals in society became UP alumni this way. I count many friends who “flunked” UPCAT, took a year in Manila’s U-belt and transferred to Diliman and UPLB. They graduated from UP and do justice to their experience. My experience is that these transferees take their RGEP courses more seriously.
Well some of my friends suggest that I pull strings. Well I can’t do that (most especially for them!). It used to be that there was a PD (Presidential Discretion) and it was said that admission slips were stamped with a giant red PD visible to all from 10 meters! Theoretically such discretions can still be applied but only in extremely meritorious cases that need the board of regents approval. For example gifted child and Physics whiz Mikaela Fudolig got into UP without the UPCAT since she was in an experimental early college placement program. But I doubt if the majority of mortals are like her.
Now I have to keep away from my pestering friends!
June 23, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Ha, and I thought it’s standard practice to accept donations in exchange for a pass. So Ateneo doesn’t do it?
June 24, 2009 at 12:02 am
Ask the Ateneans. Maybe they do choose which less than qualified rich scion to consider.
June 24, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I think they do. The daughters of Peping all went there. I think based on anecdotal evidence, it IS standard practice. Even in Ivy League colleges it’s standard practice. They may just lower standards a bit in exchange for donations but I doubt they’ll take in trouble makers or total idiots for any amount of money.
June 23, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I say accept the millions and extend financial aid program to Upper C middle class. What do we care if these people fail eventually?
June 24, 2009 at 12:25 am
and i bet they will be on track towards alcoholism. i understand binge drinking is a continuing fad, even a status symbol, in these schools.
June 24, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Bencard, they’re doing that in high school. But school rep cannot be bought.
It won’t be too hard in the future to get your kids in these schools as public schools are in a crisis. Less competition. Private school teachers are also leaving for positions abroad. I’m thinking these schools will rely more on IQ tests. I had pathetic grades in high school so it was all I had to get me in, and teachers’ recommendations (I was a really quite student in class and only opened my mouth to say extremely charming things).
June 23, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Getting into UP and Ateneo is easier if one starts the preparation as early as kindergarten. Definitely, the college-ambitious has to be doing some things extra before the student even enters high school.
Supervision by conscientious parents or guardians help tremendously.
June 23, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Or having parent who is an alumni of UP or Ateneo, who can make a phone call to the Chancellor or the Dean.
June 24, 2009 at 12:01 am
Not much at the undergrad level but there are Sons and Daughters of God at UP College of Medicine!
June 24, 2009 at 12:16 am
yeah, only to take up nursing to get to the u.s. btw, if obama and the democrats get their socialized health care program, there could be a higher demand for cheap doctors’ services and foreign-trained doctors might have a better chance, albeit at much lower pay than in reagan years.
June 23, 2009 at 10:53 pm
It is said that there are more UPCAT passers this year than last thereby increasing the carrying capacity of each UP campus significantly higher as well.
I am not sure if this is explained by the fact that most private schools have amply provided high quality education if compared to the public high school system.
I don’t know if that explains this.
June 24, 2009 at 12:13 am
Many factors. One more plausible reason is that there are more applicants and the proportion of qualifiers increased.
June 24, 2009 at 12:11 am
People learn, if they have the desire to learn. When I was a kid, I
walked 2 Kilometers to the school and back just to learn. We have
no TVs. We borrow books from the Municipal Library just to entertain
ourselves and learn at the same time. We learn news from the radio,
magazines and library newspapers. The desire to learn is the key to
all learning.Kids are pampered in our times. They have computers,
texting equipment, cell phones, etc…
June 24, 2009 at 8:42 am
And pushing that mathematical line of thought, it means that we are getting so much value of an increased population – newer and newer generations of UPCAT passers.
That sounds good news.
June 24, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Primer, you’re getting more brilliant daily. This one is absolutely Joycean.
June 24, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Back in the early 80’s (or maybe earlier) PD students enrolled with PINK form 5A’s. Yes, you could spot them from the end of the corridor. I had some of them in my Nat. Sci. 3 classes. Kawawa sila. Hindi makasabay sa UPCAT passers.
My friend tells me that one of his classmates actually waved his Pink Slip around, bragging that he was a Presidential Discretion student. Naku, no one was surprised he didn’t pass the UPCAT.
On another note, this guy Gilbert Teodoro is actually proud that he got into UP Law on the strength of Enrile’s representation, applying only during the enrollment period! Aray, so painful for those who had to take the entrance exam and endure the interview(s)! Buti na lang he did very well even in the Bar. But to be proud… sus! Kakandidato pa naman for president.
June 25, 2009 at 10:55 am
Would you know whether high school graduates of UP, Ateneo, De La Salle, and UST are able to pass the college entrance tests of their respective universities?
For example, if UP high school graduates take the UPCAT, do they all pass? And again, if Ateneo high school graduates take the ADMU-CAT, do they all pass?
If the answers to these are in the negative, do you see any thing that should probably be fixed?
June 26, 2009 at 12:03 am
UP high’s passing rate is just about 50% or even less. Not bad considering that almost all grads take the exam.
June 30, 2009 at 4:03 pm
well i think the basic problem here is the education opportunity for youth coming from provinces who took up high school in public, town high school. it is true that in up most freshman came from prestigious high school or science schools.
I have friends from remote areas of cordillera, they want to enter UP, unfortunately, they lack the money for a quality elem and hi-school educ, and of course for UPcat reviews etc.
all youth is in race for a small piece of opportunity to enter a quality affordable educational institution, and obviously, sa huli – talo ang walang pera. . .
UP has changed so much specially with the increase in its tuition because of the governments miss appropriation of budget. It is now an elite institution – each student must have trainings on best elem and hi schools, it is a long and expensive preparation. Only those who can withstand the cost from the start ’till the end gets the glory of entering UP. Now UP is not for common filipinos, it is starting to be like just like another school.