National University's admission process is unusual among Philippine private universities in one respect: it is built around a document evaluation rather than a scored exam gate. NU publishes its requirements by applicant type, tells you what to bring, evaluates it, and confirms your status. That makes the paperwork the whole game.
It also means the thing you most need to get right is which list applies to you — and, at NU specifically, which campus and which of NU's two live websites you are reading.
For the programme lists by college, see our guide to courses offered at National University. The general university profile sits on our National University Manila page.
First, a warning about NU's two websites
NU maintains two web properties that both carry admissions content, and they do not say the same thing. The older campus-sectioned site organises admissions per campus with applicant FAQ pages. The newer site presents a single admissions flow with requirements keyed to a campus parameter in the URL.
The practical consequences:
- Requirements lists differ in detail between the two, and older campus pages have not all been refreshed.
- Some programme pages outlive the programme. An NU Manila dentistry page remained reachable on the older site after dentistry stopped appearing on the current NU Manila programme menu.
- The entrance test appears on one and not the other — covered below.
Before you act on anything, open the admissions page for your specific campus, and if the two sites disagree, ring the Admissions Office rather than choosing the version you prefer.
Requirements by applicant type
NU publishes these under "Institutional Admission Requirements". Find your row and work from that list only.
Incoming freshmen
- Complete Grade 12 report card (Form 138)
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Original copy of PSA-authenticated birth certificate
- Recent 2x2 coloured ID picture with white background
- Recent chest X-ray PA view result
PEPT and ALS passers add: original copy of the Certificate of Passing, Certificate of Rating, a photocopy of the diploma, and the original admission credentials (original report card or Form 137) from the last school attended before taking ALS.
Graduates of 2015 and earlier must submit an original hard copy of the high school report card (Form 138) along with the good moral certificate, PSA birth certificate and ID picture.
Transferees
- Transfer credentials or honorable dismissal — NU accepts at least a claim stub if it is still being processed, which is a genuinely helpful concession
- Transcript of records or copy of grades
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Course descriptions of courses earned
- Original copy of PSA-authenticated birth certificate
- Photocopy of marriage certificate for married women
- Recent 2x2 coloured ID picture
- Recent chest X-ray PA view result
The course descriptions are the slow item, and they are what any credit evaluation actually runs on. Your previous school's registrar or department has to produce them, so request them at the same time as the transcript. Our college transferee guide covers what to expect from credit evaluation generally.
Graduate studies, second-degree takers, and CertProEd applicants
The transferee list, plus a certified true copy of the diploma.
Graduate studies and Certificate in Professional Education applicants add two more:
- A letter of recommendation from an immediate supervisor or HR manager
- An updated copy of a resume
That pairing tells you something about how NU frames its graduate intake — it is asking for a professional reference, not an academic one, which is a different thing from what most graduate schools request. Line that up early.
NU graduates returning for a graduate or second degree get a shorter list: photocopies of the transcript, diploma, PSA birth certificate and marriage certificate where applicable, plus the 2x2 picture.
Cross-enrollees
- Cross-enrollee permit from your school indicating the courses to cross-enrol
- Original copy of PSA-authenticated birth certificate
- Recent 2x2 coloured ID picture
- Recent chest X-ray PA view result
The permit has to name the specific courses, so settle the course list with your home school before approaching NU.
International and foreign applicants
NU qualifies this list carefully: it applies only for campuses that accept foreign applicants. Not every NU campus does. Confirm before you start paying for authentication.
Required: authenticated high school credentials, report card or transcript; authenticated Certificate of Good Moral Character; ACR I-Card; authenticated birth certificate; authenticated police clearance from the country of origin or departure; authenticated certificate of graduation or diploma copy; honorable dismissal or transfer credentials for transferees; a copy of the passport; the 2x2 picture; and a recent chest X-ray result.
"Authenticated" is doing a lot of work in that list and is the part that takes months rather than weeks.
Senior high school, Grades 11 and 12
Original report card (SF9 or Form 138), original PSA-authenticated birth certificate, Certificate of Good Moral Character, 2x2 picture, chest X-ray result, plus an ESC certification if you are an ESC grantee, a Qualified Voucher Recipient certificate if you hold a voucher, a Philippine Validating Test or PEPT result if applicable, and a Certificate of Rating for PEPT or ALS passers.
The chest X-ray is the thing that delays people
It appears on nearly every applicant category, and it is the only requirement on the list that depends on a third party with its own queue. A transcript request and a good moral certificate can often be chased; a clinic appointment and a radiologist's reading cannot be compressed.
Book it as soon as you decide to apply, not when the Admissions Office asks. And note it must be a PA view result and recent — an X-ray from a past enrolment or a pre-employment file may not be accepted.
While you are collecting documents, our good moral certificate guide covers who issues that one and how long schools typically take.
The six-step process
NU publishes the flow as follows:
- Fill out the application form with accurate personal and academic information. NU warns that errors here delay processing.
- Receive an email notification setting out the documents required and the instructions to follow before going to the Admissions Office.
- Prepare your requirements as listed in that email, with clear and complete copies.
- Application evaluation. Your documents are assessed to confirm your admission status. Once approved, you are advised how to proceed to enrolment.
- Enrolment and payment. Confirm your slot, go through enrolment assessment, and settle the tuition fee or down payment to secure the enrolment.
- Enrolment confirmation. After payment you receive your registration details and class schedule.
Two things follow from this. Your document list arrives after you apply, tailored by email — so applying early is how you find out what you actually need. And your slot is not secured by an offer letter; it is secured by payment at step five.
The NUAT: what NU has published, and what its current site does not say
NU has published a National University Admissions Test, the NUAT, on its NU Manila applicant FAQ pages. As described there, the test is free of charge, scheduled on Saturdays, a result is valid for one year, a retake is allowed after one year, and rescheduling is arranged by calling the Admissions Office directly.
NU's newer admissions site, by contrast, sets out the six-step process above with no entrance test in it, and lists no NUAT page.
We are not going to resolve that for you, because NU has not. An absence from one site is not evidence a test was abolished, and a page on the other site is not evidence it is still being run this cycle — the FAQ page carrying the NUAT details still references the academic year in which NU moved to a trimestral calendar, which is a sign it has not been refreshed recently.
Ask the Admissions Office of your target campus whether the NUAT applies to you before you plan around it either way. If you are sitting several entrance tests this cycle, our comparison of Philippine entrance exams will help you sequence the ones that are definite.
The campus is part of the application
NU runs a network of campuses, and the site is built around that: admissions, requirements, programme and scholarship pages are all keyed to a campus identifier. Programme lists genuinely differ between campuses, and a degree offered at one is not automatically offered at another.
So "I am applying to National University" is not a complete statement. Before you submit anything, confirm in writing which campus delivers your programme, then read that campus's own admissions and requirements pages rather than a general NU page.
Scholarships sit alongside admission, not after it
NU publishes a scholarship and discount catalogue per campus, split between academic scholarships and other discounts. The academic side includes the Jhocson-named scholar tiers tied to graduating with highest honours, high honours and honours, and a science scholarship programme for graduates of science high schools. The discount side is broad — a Nationalian discount programme for college and for senior high, a loyalty discount for NU Nazareth School and NU Senior High School students, a family-of-alumni discount, a sibling discount, a discount for employees of SM and its affiliates, and discounts tied to PWD status and to service in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine National Police, and the PMA alumni foundation.
Several of those are status-based rather than competitive, which means they are easy to miss simply because nobody asks. Bring proof of any of them to your admissions appointment. NU marks each entry with a status on its catalogue, and several sit at "TBA" at any given time, so confirm availability for your cycle rather than assuming a listed discount is open.
What NU does not publish anywhere convenient is a per-programme tuition table, which is why the only number that means anything is the assessment the Admissions or Accounting office gives you for your specific programme and load. Our National University tuition fee guide explains how the cost structure works and what to ask for.
What NU does not publish
- No per-programme admission criteria or cut-offs.
- No consolidated application deadline — the admissions pages describe enrolment as ongoing for the current academic year rather than naming a closing date.
- No published credit-transfer ceiling for transferees, unlike several other Manila universities that state one.
- No tuition table by programme.
- No single authoritative admissions page across the two websites.
Where a number is not published, ask the Admissions Office and get the answer in writing before you pay anything.
Sources
- NU Manila Admission Process — institutional admission requirements by applicant type and the six-step enrolment flow, National University
- NU Manila admission requirements, National University
- NU Manila scholarship and discount offerings, National University
- NU Manila Freshmen and Applicants FAQs — the page carrying NU's published NUAT details, National University
- NU Manila Application Procedures, National University
