I’ve often seen cases where students with good SSCE(Senior Secondary Certificate Examination)grades and good UTME(Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) scores were not offered admission. You may be wondering why they were not admitted right?
There are alot of reasons why students miss chances of admission every single academic year. Some people say it’s because they don’t have connection. Well,aside that,you have your own part to play.
Here are some mistakes that could ruin one’s chances of gaining admission:
1. Age
You may be wondering what has age got to do with this. The general acceptable age for admission into Nigerian universities is 16. Having known this you have to be 16 years of age before the school of your choice begins admission process for that year. Note: Some private universities may accept candidates who are below 16.
2. Cut-off mark
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) reduced the cut off mark for universities to 140,for polytechnics to be 120 and colleges of education to be 100. Aside this,some universities still hold to their tradition of 200 and above.
For instance,some schools like University of Benin (UNIBEN), university of Lagos (UNILAG), university of Ibadan (UI) etc if you don’t score 200 and above you’re not eligible to buy their post utme form. So if you are going for a competitive federal university ensure you score 200 and above.
3. Wrong state of origin
Alot of students miss chances of admission more on this regard. This happens in two ways:
- some get confused along the way
- others intentionally falsify their state of origin.
For instance, some say “my dad is from Imo state and my mom is from Edo state. I want to study in Edo state in the university of Benin (UNIBEN) precisely, so I’ll fill Edo state as my state of origin”. They feel they can make use of both of their parents state of origin for admission. This is very wrong. The state of origin to make use of is your father’s state of origin. So, don’t get confused by filling in the wrong state of origin.
On the other hand of falsifying, some students intentionally fill in another state of origin entirely because they want to apply for that particular school. Imagine a student whose parents are both from Imo state but reside in Lagos state and he/she wants to apply for Lagos state university (LASU). The student fills Lagos state as his/her state of origin probably because they heard LASU favour’s it’s indigene with admission. This can automatically disqualify you from getting admission.
4. Wrong JAMB subject combination
If you want to study let’s say mechanical engineering in the university,you are expected to write English, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. This is the general subject combination for engineering department but it varies in different schools so check your schools jamb subject combination and check if you have the right combination if not you can search for schools that could accept that combination for mechanical engineering.
5. Wrong O’level result combination
You’re expected to use your WAEC(West African Examinations Council),NECO ( National Examination Council) or GCE (General Certificate Examination) result. Some schools permit merging of two results.
There have been some controversy to the issue of combining NECO and WAEC results or GCE and NECO result. Some schools like UNILAG accepts only one sitting i.e they just accept only one of your O’level result. Some permit you to combine result. On this regard, it is very advisable for you to combine NECO with NECO, WAEC with WAEC.
Note: You can also combine NECO with WAEC but you have to check if the school of your choice permits it.
6. Wrong name
If you mistakenly or ignorantly spelt or place your name wrongly during your registration you can quickly go for jamb data correction and correctly input your name on the jamb portal in the format of surname,first name then other names. Example: Michael Goodluck Osas.
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