The University of San Agustin in Iloilo City is compact by university standards: seven degree-granting colleges rather than the dozen-plus that state universities carry. That makes the list easy to hold in your head, but it also means several fields you might expect are simply not offered here.
For the address, contacts and level flags, see the University of San Agustin profile. What follows is only what the university publishes on its own college pages.
The seven colleges
USA groups its academic units as follows, and every programme below is taken from the college's own page.
College of Liberal Arts, Sciences, and Education (CLASE)
This is the largest unit and the oldest, which is why it carries such a mixed list.
Arts and social sciences
- Bachelor of Arts in Communication
- Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science
- BS Foreign Service
- BS Psychology
Sciences and computing
- BS Biology (Medical)
- BS Biology (Microbiology)
- BS Chemistry
- BS Computer Science
- BS Information Technology
- Bachelor of Library and Information Science
Music
- Bachelor of Music in Music Education
- Bachelor of Music in Music Performance (Voice)
- Bachelor of Music in Music Performance (Piano)
Education
- Bachelor of Elementary Education
- BS Secondary Education, majors in English, Filipino, Mathematics and Social Studies
- Bachelor of Culture and Arts Education
- Bachelor of Special Need Education, major in Early Childhood Education
Graduate
- MA Education in English, Filipino, Mathematics, Educational Management, Guidance Counseling, Religious Education and Special Education
- PhD in Education in Curriculum Development, Educational Management, and Psychology and Guidance
Two things worth flagging. BS Foreign Service is a genuinely uncommon degree; only a handful of Philippine universities confer it, and it is a different animal from Political Science. And the split between a Music Education degree and a Music Performance degree with instrument-specific tracks is closer to a conservatory model than to the single BS Music most universities run. If you are weighing that decision, our BS Music guide covers what each route leads to.
College of Technology
- BS Architecture
- BS Landscape Architecture
- BS Interior Design
- BS Chemical Engineering
- BS Civil Engineering
- BS Computer Engineering
- BS Electronics Engineering
- BS Mechanical Engineering
- Bachelor of Fine Arts
Engineering and design sit under one dean here. BS Landscape Architecture is the standout: it is a separate CHED programme from Architecture and it has its own Professional Regulation Commission licensure examination for landscape architects, which most applicants do not realise. Architecture, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electronics and Mechanical Engineering all lead to PRC board exams as well. Fine Arts does not.
Note what is missing: no Electrical Engineering, no Industrial Engineering.
College of Business
- BS Accountancy
- BS Management Accounting
- BS Business Administration (Financial Management)
- BS Business Administration (Marketing Management)
- BS Hospitality Management
- BS Tourism Management
Graduate: Master in Business Administration in a General Program, Marketing Management, Financial Management and Human Resource Management; plus Master in Public Administration.
Accountancy is the licensure route; Management Accounting is a separate degree that does not lead to the CPA board on its own. The BS Accountancy guide explains the difference and what the CPALE demands.
College of Criminal Justice
- BS Criminology
That is the only programme the college publishes. The page describes it as covering crime prevention, crime detection and investigation, law enforcement, and custody and rehabilitation of offenders. Criminology graduates take the Criminologist Licensure Examination under the PRC. There is no separate forensic science degree here, despite the college's name.
College of Nursing, Nutrition and Dietetics
- BS Nursing
- BS Nutrition and Dietetics
Both lead to PRC licensure examinations, the Nurse Licensure Examination and the Nutritionist-Dietitian Licensure Examination respectively.
College of Pharmacy and Medical Technology
- BS Medical Laboratory Science
- BS Pharmacy
Again, both are board-exam programmes.
College of Law
- Juris Doctor
The university notes that it has conferred the J.D. (non-thesis) on College of Law graduates effective the second semester of academic year 2018-2019, under Legal Education Board Memorandum Order No. 19, series of 2018, which migrated the basic law course from the LL.B. to the J.D. Graduates before that carry the LL.B. Law admission is governed by the LEB framework, not by the undergraduate admission process.
Basic education
The Basic Education Department runs on the Sambag, Jaro campus:
- Pre-elementary: Nursery, Pre-Kinder, Kinder
- Elementary: Grades 1 to 6
- Junior High School: Grades 7 to 10
- Senior High School: HUMSS, ABM and STEM
There is no TVL or Arts and Design strand, which is worth knowing if you were planning to feed into a technical route. Our SHS tracks and strands explainer covers what each strand actually opens up at college level.
What is not offered here
Because USA is compact, the gaps are as informative as the list. There is no medicine, no dentistry, no veterinary medicine, no agriculture or forestry, no marine programmes, and no separate college of engineering with the full nine-programme spread you would find at a state university. If any of those is your target in Western Visayas, you are looking at a different institution.
How admission works
The Admissions, Scholarships, and Placement Office (ASPO), on the ground floor of Urdaneta Hall, runs the process. Applications go through the online portal at applyusa.mastersofterp.in, and the university posts announcements each semester for the releasing of admission test results.
What the university publishes as tertiary-level admission requirements:
- Photocopy of Transcript of Records
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- PSA or NSO Live Birth certificate
- Letter of Intent addressed to the Dean
For enrolment, new students and transferees submit the original Senior High School report card, plus a PSA-issued birth certificate and certificate of good moral character if they are not USA graduates. Medical-related programmes carry additional requirements: an original medical certificate and laboratory results.
Transferees applying to specific colleges are asked for a letter of intent addressed to the Dean including contact number, email and home address, a photocopy of the transcript or copy of grades, the PSA live birth certificate, the good moral character certificate, and honorable dismissal or transfer credentials. All of it goes to ASPO before you register on the admission portal. Our college transferee guide covers what usually gets credited and what does not.
Application windows and test schedules change every cycle and are announced on the university's advisory and announcements page. Do not plan around a date from anywhere else.
Paying for it
San Agustin does publish its scholarship list, which is more than it publishes about tuition, and the list is worth reading before you assume a private university in Iloilo is out of reach.
University-funded
- Grant-in-Aid Scholarships (Student Assistant)
- USA Publications (school publication) and Coro Liturgico Agustino (liturgical choir)
- Academic: Entrance Scholarship, and Dean's List for the top three
- Performing arts: USA Band, Kawilihan-USA, USA Choir and Troubadours, USA Little Theater
- Sports varsity across fourteen listed disciplines, including basketball, volleyball, taekwondo, chess, dance sports, swimming, athletics, football, futsal, karatedo, lawn tennis, table tennis, beach volleyball and esports
Government-funded, channelled through the university
- CHED Scholarship for Academic Excellence, half and full merit
- CHED UniFAST: TES and TDP-TES
- CHED SIKAP
- PD 451, PD 577 (AFP educational benefit), PWD education assistance, OWWA scholarship
- GASTPE Junior High School subsidy, which the university lists at ₱11,000 per school year
- GASTPE Senior High School voucher subsidy, which the university lists at ₱10,000 per semester for students from public schools and ₱8,000 per semester for students from private schools
Privately funded, including the Sunlad Simpex Educational Scholarship Foundation, Life is Beautiful Scholarship, the Lourdes Suarez Cabral Scholarship for BS Pharmacy, the DOH Pre-Service Scholarship Program for BS Pharmacy and BS Medical Laboratory Science, and the Dean Emeritus Cesar Emilio T. Tirol and Maria Rosa U. Tirol Memorial Scholarship for the Juris Doctor.
The DOH pre-service programme is the one to notice if pharmacy or medical laboratory science is your target, because it is tied to a service commitment rather than to grades alone. The CHED merit route is covered in our CHED merit scholarship guide.
What the university does not publish
A named entrance test with published coverage. USA refers to an "admission test" and posts result-release announcements, but it does not brand the test, publish subject coverage, an item count, or a passing score. Any specific figure you find online for a San Agustin entrance-exam cut-off is not from the university.
A tuition table. There is no public per-programme fee schedule on the site. The university lists payment options and payment centres and points enquiries at ASPO and the Registrar. Ask them.
Programme-level quotas. Nothing on the site states how many slots each college takes or whether the health-science programmes screen further after the admission test. Given that the medical-related programmes have extra medical and laboratory requirements, ask the college directly about capacity before you commit.
Sources
- University of San Agustin, Academic Programs Offered: https://usa.edu.ph/academics/
- University of San Agustin, College of Liberal Arts, Sciences, and Education: https://usa.edu.ph/clase/
- University of San Agustin, College of Technology: https://usa.edu.ph/cot/
- University of San Agustin, College of Business: https://usa.edu.ph/coc/
- University of San Agustin, College of Criminal Justice: https://usa.edu.ph/ccj/
- University of San Agustin, College of Nursing, Nutrition and Dietetics: https://usa.edu.ph/cnnd/
- University of San Agustin, College of Pharmacy and Medical Technology: https://usa.edu.ph/cpmt/
- University of San Agustin, College of Law: https://usa.edu.ph/col/
- University of San Agustin, Basic Education Department: https://usa.edu.ph/bed/
- University of San Agustin, Apply (Admissions Procedures and Guidelines): https://usa.edu.ph/apply/
- University of San Agustin, Undergraduate admission and enrolment requirements: https://usa.edu.ph/undergraduate/
- University of San Agustin, Scholarships: https://usa.edu.ph/scholarships/
