The admission process in Nigeria must be understood before you begin your application. It is because of inadequate understanding of the process that resulted in an inability to be admitted. I have seen applicants with 250 – 290 in UTME who were not admitted. Someone might think, how is this possible for such a score not to secure a place in a Nigerian tertiary institution? Don’t be too surprised; it is common to see applicants not being offered admission despite their high UTME or Post-UTME score. Unfortunately, this has made applicants write UTME more than once in an attempt to further their studies. Most of these candidates fail to realise that having a high JAMB score does not guarantee admission. So many things come into play when various institutions determine how each academic session’s admission will go.
I wrote UTME thrice before I was admitted to FUTA. In my second attempt, I scored 232 but was unable to meet the cut-off of elect/elect, which was 286 at that time. During my third attempt, I scored 253 but chose Physics, and the rest was history. So, I will discuss some of the major reasons why applicants face this issue.
O’level Result
Admission seekers must make sure they meet the admission requirements of their chosen course of study. Many Universities use the aggregate O’level results, UTME, and PUTME scores to determine the overall cut-off mark. I have heard of candidates who lost out despite their high UTME score due to their inability to have five credit passes in the O’level subjects required for their course. Students should have As and Bs for a better chance since admission is now competitive. For example, you want to study Medicine and you have credits in your major courses. If the admission is based on O’level results and UTME score, you may be disadvantaged. And the reason is that your aggregate O’level point will draw your score down a bit. This is why I always advise anyone who wants to study competitive courses to ensure they have As and Bs in their SSCE.
Low UTME Score
Candidates seeking admission should note that most universities compute UTTME and post-UTME scores to calculate the average student score. Hence, having a low UTME score can also hinder one’s opportunity to gain admission, even if you have a high post-UTME score. It is always advisable for students to score relatively high (like 250 and above) coupled with a high post-UTME score to be on the safer side. The UTME score usually carries 50% of the aggregate score. An applicant that scores 320 already has 40%. With this, you can be sure that chances are high.
Choice of University and Course
A student with 70% on aggregate may not be able to study Medicine and Surgery at Universities like UI, UNILAG, UNN, etc. but such a score may study the same course at other Universities. What this means is that some universities are more competitive than others. JAMB annually releases the list of the most preferred tertiary institutions in Nigeria. These schools always attract a huge number of students who choose those universities as their first choice. Also, most of the best students in every secondary school in Nigeria always target this set of schools, which makes them highly competitive. So, you will need to score relatively high to be admitted to such schools.
Wrong UTME Combination
This is one of the reasons some students lose admission despite beating the post-UTME cut-off point. For instance, a student seeking admission to study an Electrical/Electronics engineering course should select Physics, chemistry, math, and the use of English as his UTME subject combination. Before any student fills out his or her JAMB form, he or she should go through the JAMB brochure to learn the subject combination for his or her course of study.
University’s Catchment and Educationally Less Developed States (ELDS) Area
Most federal universities, including some state universities, still retain the catchment area and ELDS policy in selecting students for admission. For instance, UI ELDS are majorly Northern states, with a cut-off mark for them, which is different from the general cut-off mark. This implies that prospective students from the country’s Northern region have higher chances of gaining admission.
Moreover, institutions like UNILAG have catchment areas that constitute major Southwestern states. This implies that prospective students from the South West have higher chances of gaining admission. For example, a prospective student from Oyo state who scored 65, applying to study Mechanical Engineering, may be offered admission, while another student from Anambra state who scored 68 may not. This is so because if the catchment cut-off point for Oyo is 65 while the general cut-off is 70, such a student from Anambra state has lost the admission despite having a higher score than his counterpart from the catchment zone.
In conclusion, many universities adopt a policy that is not made public. Admission seekers, therefore, have to find specific admission policies of their prospective universities from friends and families who are schooling in such universities.
