6 Reasons students are not offered admission despite high UTME score
6 Reasons students are not offered admission despite high UTME score
It is rampant to see applicants seeking admission into Universities in Nigeria not being offered admission despite their high UTME or Post-UTME score. Most of these candidates fail to realize that having a high JAMB score or Post-UTME score is not a guarantee for admission. There are so many things that come to play when various institutions sit to determine how the admission of each academic session will go.
Listed below are the reasons students may not be offered admission despite having a high UTME score
(1) O’level result
Admission seekers must make sure they meet the admission requirements of their chosen course of study. Many Universities make use of the aggregate score of O’level result, UTME score, and Post-UTME score to determine the overall cut-off mark.
I have heard of candidates that lost out despite their high UTME score due to their inability to have the required five credit passes in the O’ level subjects required for their course. It is advisable for students to have As and Bs for them to have a better chance, since gaining admission is now competitive.
(2) Low UTME score
Candidates seeking for admission should note that most universities do compute both UTTME and post-UTME scores in calculating the student’s average score. Hence, having a low UTME score can also hinder one’s opportunity of gaining admission even if you have high Post-UTME score. It is always advisable for students to score relatively high (like 250 and above) coupled with high Post-UTME score in order to be on a safer side.
(3) University and course of choice
A student with 70% on aggregate may not be able to study Medicine and Surgery in Universities like UI but such score may study the same course at other Universities. What this means is that some universities are more competitive than the other. And this is as a result of the number of students that chose those universities as their first choice. So you will need to score relatively high for you to stand a chance to be admitted in such schools.
(4) Wrong UTME combination
This is one of the reasons a number of students lose admission despite beating the post-UTME cut-off point. For instance, a student seeking admission to study Electrical/Electronics Engineering should definitely select Physics as part of his UTME subject combination. Before any student fills his or her JAMB form, he or she should go through the JAMB Brochure to know the subject combination for his or her course of study.
(5) University’s catchment and Educationally Less Developed States (ELDS) area
Most federal universities, including some state universities, still retain the policy of catchment area and ELDS in selecting students for admission. For instance, UI ELDS are majorly Northern states and there is a cut-off mark for them which is different from the general cut-off mark. What this implies is; prospective students from the Northern region of the country have higher chances of gaining admission.
Moreover, institutions like UNILAG have catchment area which constitutes majorly South Western states. What this implies is; 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 be offered admission. 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 definitely lost the admission despite having a higher score than his counterpart from the catchment zone.
(6) University admission policy
Many universities have their individual policy they adopt as yardstick in admitting students. Oftentimes, such policies are not made public. It is therefore the duty of admission seekers to find out specific admission policies of their prospective universities from friends and families schooling in such universities.
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