Far Eastern University publishes seven separate admission procedures, and the one most applicants need is not the freshman one. FEU's definition of a transferee is wide enough to catch people who think of themselves as first-year students, and once you land in that category the process gets considerably more demanding: five evaluation documents, an aptitude test in some programmes, and sign-off from three separate offices.
This guide covers every route. For the FEU College Admissions Test itself — coverage, fee waiver, rolling Saturday schedule — see our FEU entrance exam guide. The university profile is on our Far Eastern University page.
Work out your route before anything else
| Route | Who it covers |
|---|---|
| Freshman | Senior high graduates who have never enrolled in any post-secondary programme |
| Transferee | Anyone who has enrolled in or taken college or vocational units anywhere |
| Second degree | Holders of a completed bachelor's degree |
| Cross-enrollee | Students enrolled elsewhere taking a course or two at FEU with a home-school permit |
| Supplemental courses | People who lack prerequisite courses for medicine, law or a graduate programme |
| Graduate studies | Master's and doctoral applicants |
| Teacher Certificate Program | Graduates of any degree who want to teach |
Re-admission sits across several of these as its own process for returning FEU students.
The transferee definition catches more people than you would expect
FEU's wording is unambiguous: transferees are students who have enrolled or taken college or vocational units in other colleges, universities or vocational schools — and even applicants who apply as freshmen will still be considered transferees for as long as they have officially enrolled in any degree or certificate programme in any school after high school.
So a semester you dropped, a vocational certificate course, a programme you started and abandoned — any of them puts you in the transferee lane regardless of how many units you actually finished. There is no "start over as a freshman" option to elect.
Transferee admission
The application itself
The registration steps mirror the freshman route: register through FEU's admissions portal, activate your account from the email FEU sends, log in and change your temporary password, complete and submit the application form, pay the ₱500 FEUCAT fee and upload proof of payment, then book your preferred FEUCAT schedule through the exam booking page.
Former FEU students are the stated exception — FEU says they are not required to take the FEU College Admission Test.
The five documents FEU evaluates
Separate from the application form, transferees submit for evaluation:
- Official transcript of records, scholastic records, or a true copy of grades
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Certificate of Transfer, Honorable Dismissal, or transfer credentials
- Course descriptions of the courses you took and passed
- A photocopy of your PSA birth certificate
Item four is the one people forget, and it is the one the credit evaluation actually runs on. Course descriptions come from your previous school's registrar or department and take time to produce. Request them at the same time as the transcript, not afterwards. If you are unsure what the good moral certificate involves, our good moral certificate guide covers who issues it and how long it takes.
Three offices have to say yes
This is the part no summary of FEU admission mentions. FEU states plainly that admission of transferees is determined by three offices and that a transferee needs a positive recommendation from all three to be admitted.
- Admissions Office — decides whether you qualify for the specific degree programme, and checks that your documents are complete and correct.
- Student Discipline — evaluates your Certificate of Good Moral Character, conducts profiling of the applicant, and gives a short orientation on the university's conduct and discipline policies. Applicants below 18 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian for this.
- Institute Dean or Programme Head — provides final approval for admission.
A clean transcript gets you past the first office only. The discipline review is a real gate, and it is why the good moral certificate is not a formality here.
The 25% credit cap — and when FEU applies it
FEU publishes its transferee crediting rules in two places, consistently:
- A maximum of 25% of the total number of units will be credited, and that ceiling includes General Education courses, professional courses, PE and NSTP together.
- General Education courses with a passing grade will be credited.
- Professional courses with a grade of 2.5 (C+) may be credited.
- PE will be credited, but you must submit the NSTP Special Order number from your previous institution.
- Crediting of courses will only be done before admission.
That last line is worth pausing on. Several other Philippine universities evaluate transfer credits only after you have accepted a place, which means you commit without knowing what carries over. FEU does it the other way round. Use that: get the evaluation, then decide, rather than deciding and hoping.
Even so, a 25% ceiling on a four-year curriculum means most of your completed coursework repeats. Our college transferee guide and how to transfer schools in the Philippines work through whether that trade is worth making.
International students face an additional condition: FEU allows them to transfer only once they have completed one year at their previous school, and they need a valid visa.
Programme-level restrictions that override everything above
Meeting the general transferee rules does not mean your programme will take you. FEU publishes specific limits:
| Programme | Restriction |
|---|---|
| BS Architecture and Bachelor of Fine Arts | Must pass an aptitude test before admission. Transferees accepted only in the first semester of each academic year, because no professional courses are offered in the second semester for either programme. |
| BS Medical Technology | Highest entry level is second year. Transfer credits determine your year level. |
| BS Nursing | Highest entry level is first year. Will not admit second coursers. No transferees accepted for the second semester. |
Read the Nursing line carefully: transferring into FEU Nursing means starting from first year regardless of what you have already completed, and second-degree holders are excluded from the programme altogether. Anyone considering an expensive lateral move into nursing should price that from scratch, not from the units they already hold.
Second degree
FEU's second-degree route is for people who already hold a bachelor's degree and want another one.
The academic bar is published as a general weighted average of 2.25, 82, 2.0 or C (or better) as reflected on the official transcript. What happens below that line is unusual: FEU says applicants with a lower GWA will be admitted under probation rather than rejected. That is a genuinely more open policy than most universities offer, and it is worth knowing about before you rule yourself out.
Two programmes are closed entirely: BS Nursing and BS Accountancy will not admit second-degree applicants.
Requirements split by where your first degree came from:
If you did not graduate from FEU: original transcript with computed GWA, photocopy of diploma, original transfer credential or honorable dismissal, photocopy of PSA birth certificate, photocopy of PSA marriage certificate where applicable, a letter of application or intent explaining why you want to pursue a second degree, and two sealed recommendation letters from current or former employers or former professors.
If you graduated from FEU: the same list, with photocopies rather than originals of the transcript, and no transfer credential. Institute Deans may credit relevant general education and elective courses, though the Dean or programme head may require additional general education, major and elective courses depending on the Academic Program Credit Evaluation.
One rule that catches people out: FEU states that female second-degree applicants who graduated before 2002 will be required to take NSTP. If that is you, budget the units into your plan.
The sealed recommendation letters are the slow item here, as they are everywhere. Ask early, and ask people who will actually return them.
Cross-enrollment
Cross-enrolment is simultaneous enrolment at more than one university, permitted where the course you plan to take is accredited in your home programme and your home school's Dean or Registrar has given permission.
The sequence is paperwork-first, portal-second:
- Secure an endorsement form from the FEU Admissions Office.
- The Programme Head or Assistant Programme Head of the department concerned indicates on that form whether the course is actually offered.
- Get a cross-enrolment permit from your home school's Registrar or Dean.
- Submit the endorsement form with the permit to the FEU Registrar's Office for approval.
- Submit the approved form and permit to the Admissions Office, then register online.
- Wait for instructions from admissions on the enrolment period and process.
Step two is the one to do first in practice. There is no point chasing a permit from your home school for a course FEU is not running that term.
Supplemental courses
A small route that solves a specific problem. Supplemental courses are for applicants who lack required courses for entry into medicine, law, or another graduate programme — the prerequisite units a professional school expects you to have taken as an undergraduate.
You secure an endorsement form from Admissions, submit a transcript, diploma photocopy and PSA birth certificate, then go to the institute for an interview and evaluation by the Dean or Programme Head. Successful applicants return to the Admissions and Financial Assistance office for online registration.
If you are short of prerequisites for a law or medical programme elsewhere, this is a legitimate way to close the gap without enrolling in a whole second degree.
Graduate studies and the Teacher Certificate Program
Graduate studies. A master's applicant needs a completed bachelor's degree; a doctoral applicant needs a completed master's degree. The application fee is ₱500, and FEU graduates or former students are not required to register online again.
Non-FEU graduates submit: an original transcript with a computed general weighted average of at least 2.0 or equivalent, original transfer credential or honorable dismissal or a Certificate of Non-Issuance of Transfer Credentials, photocopy of diploma, photocopy of professional licence if applicable, PSA birth certificate, PSA marriage certificate for married women, an essay, and two sealed recommendation letters from current or former employers or former professors. FEU graduates from the Manila and Makati campuses submit the same set with photocopies and no transfer credential.
The evaluation runs in sequence: the Admissions and Financial Assistance office does an initial evaluation, forwards everything to the Institute for final evaluation, the Department Chair or Dean administers a final screening through an interview or essay, AFA emails the final result, and the Graduate Studies Office sends the acceptance letter. Our graduate school admission requirements guide covers how this compares with other Philippine universities.
Teacher Certificate Program. An 18-unit programme for graduates of any degree who want to enter teaching, delivered through a blended e-learning approach. Same ₱500 application fee, same GWA floor of at least 2.0, same document split between FEU and non-FEU graduates, and the same AFA-then-Institute evaluation with an interview or essay.
Re-admission for returning FEU students
Returning students do not reapply from scratch. Re-admission runs through FEU's Student Central portal: log in, open the "Make Request" tab, select and apply for Re-Admission, submit requirements to the Admissions and Financial Assistance office for endorsement to the department, and track the status under "View Request". Once approved, you complete an admission form with the application type set by the evaluation. The programme head of the department concerned decides whether re-admission is granted.
What FEU does not publish
- No per-programme FEUCAT cut-off scores. Numbers circulating on review sites are not FEU figures.
- No single application deadline for freshmen — FEU runs rolling admission with weekend testing, which means there is no one date to plan against and no guarantee a programme still has slots late in the cycle.
- No public breakdown of what the FEUCAT contains in item counts or timing.
- No public list of which programmes have transferee slots in a given term beyond the restrictions above.
Where a number is not published, ask the Admissions and Financial Assistance office rather than trusting a third-party figure. And budget for the actual cost of enrolment separately from application fees — our FEU tuition fee guide covers what a semester runs to.
Sources
- Admissions and Financial Assistance — routes and contacts, Far Eastern University
- Transferee Application — steps, evaluation documents, three-office process and programme restrictions, Far Eastern University
- Crediting of Courses for Transferees, FEU Office of the University Registrar
- Second Degree Application, Far Eastern University
- Cross Enrollee, Far Eastern University
- Supplemental Courses, Far Eastern University
- Graduate Studies Application, Far Eastern University
- Teacher Certificate Program, Far Eastern University
