TL;DR — Santa Isabel College of Manila offers nine undergraduate programs and a music graduate school, and it is the music side that makes it unusual: a full Bachelor of Music with four specialisations plus a Conservatory at graduate level, which very few Philippine colleges run. Only three of the nine lead to a licensure exam. Admission requirements are identical across every level. Tuition is not published.
Santa Isabel College sits at 210 Taft Avenue in Ermita, Manila, and traces its origins to the Colegio de Santa Isabel founded in 1632, which makes it one of the oldest schools in the country. It is administered by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and moved to its present Taft Avenue site in 1946 after the original Intramuros campus was destroyed in the war. Address and contacts are on our Santa Isabel College of Manila listing, with the rest of the city on our Manila schools page.
The college programs
Arts and music
Bachelor of Arts in English. The school describes it as covering language structure, literary criticism, advanced grammar and modes of communication, aimed at technical writing, copywriting, content, PR, teaching, journalism and editing. There is no licensure exam attached — an English degree is judged on portfolio and writing samples, so treat the internship and any campus publication work as the real credential.
Bachelor of Music. Specialisations in Performance (voice and instruments), Music Education, Composition, and Choral Conducting, with Liturgical Music also listed among its majors. This is the program that distinguishes the school. Most colleges that "offer music" offer a music education minor; Santa Isabel runs a conservatory with its own graduate program above it.
Business and finance
BS Accountancy, published as a five-year program covering financial accounting, auditing, taxation, management accounting and business law, ending at the CPA Licensure Examination. If accountancy is your target, read our BS Accountancy guide on how the five-year structure and the board exam interact before you enrol anywhere.
BS Business Administration, with four majors: Business Analytics, Marketing Management, Financial Management, and Human Resource Development Management. Four years, no board exam.
The two sit side by side and are routinely confused. Accountancy is longer, narrower and gated by a national exam; Business Administration is shorter, broader and gated by nothing. Neither is the safer choice in the abstract — accountancy has a defined ceiling and a defined hurdle, business administration has neither.
Technology
BS Information Technology, covering system analysis and design, database management, network administration, web development and information security, with a capstone project. No board exam. Our BSIT degree guide covers what employers actually screen for in IT graduates, which is not the diploma.
Hospitality
BS Hospitality Management, covering hotel and restaurant operations, food and beverage management, culinary arts and tourism, with a practicum centre on campus. No board exam. The practicum placement is the part that determines outcomes here, so ask which hotels and restaurants the school partners with and how placements are allocated.
Education
Bachelor of Elementary Education and Bachelor of Secondary Education, the latter with majors in English and Values Education. Both lead to the Licensure Examination for Teachers.
Teacher Certificate Program, aimed at people who already hold a bachelor's degree and need the pedagogical units to qualify for the LET — educational psychology, curriculum development and assessment of learning. This is the shortest route into teaching for a career changer, and it is worth knowing the school runs one. Our teacher education courses guide explains how the TCP route compares with taking a full education degree.
Graduate school
The Conservatory of Music operates at graduate level, which is the natural continuation of the Bachelor of Music rather than a separate department.
Board exam, or not
| Program | Licensure exam |
|---|---|
| BS Accountancy | CPA Licensure Examination |
| Bachelor of Elementary Education | LET |
| Bachelor of Secondary Education | LET |
| Teacher Certificate Program | Prepares for LET eligibility |
| AB English | None |
| Bachelor of Music | None |
| BS Business Administration | None |
| BS Information Technology | None |
| BS Hospitality Management | None |
Six of the nine end without a national exam. That is not a weakness — it just moves where the evidence of quality lives. For the licensed three, ask the dean for the school's own passing rates by year, and read them against the national figures in our board exam passing rates by course guide. For the unlicensed six, ask about internship partners, practicum placements and where last year's graduating batch went.
Accreditation, which is the school's own quality signal
Santa Isabel holds PAASCU accreditation across several programs — Level II for Basic Education, Business Administration, Elementary Education and Secondary Education, and Level I for Hospitality Management and Music.
PAASCU levels are worth understanding rather than skimming. Level I means a program has passed a first full survey; Level II means it has been re-surveyed and sustained the standard, and it carries administrative benefits for the school. A Level II business program and a Level I music program in the same institution tells you where the accreditation work has been concentrated, not that one is good and the other is not.
Senior high school, and the feeder line
Basic education runs from Nursery and Kindergarten through Grade 12. Senior high offers three academic strands — ABM, HUMSS and STEM — plus special programs in Computer Programming and Music, with work immersion built into the curriculum.
The Music special program at senior high, feeding a Bachelor of Music, feeding a graduate Conservatory, is the one genuinely continuous pathway in the school. If a student is serious about music at 16, this is a place where they do not have to change institutions at 18 or 22. If you are still deciding between strands, our SHS tracks and strands explained guide covers what each one closes off.
Entry requirements
Santa Isabel publishes the same core requirement set for every level, which is unusually simple:
- F-138 report card, photocopy — or a transcript of records for college transferees and graduate applicants
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Birth certificate, two photocopies
- Baptismal certificate, two photocopies
- Two 1x1 ID photos
Applications are organised into three entry paths on the school's site: incoming Kindergarten to Grade 10, incoming Grade 11, and incoming freshmen and transferees for college.
No entrance examination, no grade cut-off and no application fee is published for any level. That does not mean none exists — it means the admissions office has to tell you. Ask when you enquire, along with the item the school does not publish at all.
What to ask on a campus visit
The school's site is strong on programme descriptions and thin on operations, so the visit has to close that gap. Worth asking:
- For music applicants: is there an audition, and what is the repertoire expectation? Which instruments does the school teach and provide? How much individual studio time does a Performance major get per week?
- For accountancy: the school's CPALE passing rate for each of the last three years, and how many of each entering cohort reach the fifth year.
- For hospitality: which establishments the practicum centre partners with, and how placements are allocated.
- For education: the LET passing rate, and which majors are actually opening this year — Secondary Education lists English and Values Education, and a major will not run if too few sign up.
- For everyone: class sizes, whether an entrance test applies, and the full fee assessment.
Santa Isabel is a member of the Daughters of Charity St. Louise de Marillac Educational System, so Vincentian formation runs through the programme rather than sitting alongside it. If that is not what you want from a school, it is not an add-on you can opt out of.
What is not published
Tuition. No figures for any level or program appear on the site. Nor is there a published payment scheme or a consolidated scholarship table, though the school does maintain scholarships and grants pages.
Get the full assessment per program and year level from admissions, and ask separately what is excluded — for hospitality and music in particular, uniforms, instrument access and practicum costs sit outside tuition and can be substantial.
Contacts
- 210 Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila
- (02) 8373-0288
- [email protected], [email protected]
Sources
- Santa Isabel College of Manila, College Education — http://www.santaisabel.edu.ph/college.html
- Santa Isabel College of Manila, How to Apply — http://www.santaisabel.edu.ph/how-to-apply.html
- Santa Isabel College of Manila, Basic Education — http://www.santaisabel.edu.ph/basic-education.html
- Santa Isabel College of Manila, home page — http://www.santaisabel.edu.ph/