UP Los Baños publishes a course finder that lists every programme with the college that offers it and the level it sits at. That is the list to work from, because UPLB's naming does not always match the naming on the UP system's own UPCAT programme list, and the differences matter when you are filling in an application form.
Below is what UPLB publishes, grouped by college, followed by the places where the two official sources diverge.
How UPLB is organised
The course finder filters by nine colleges plus two units: College of Agriculture and Food Science, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Development Communication, College of Economics and Management, College of Engineering and Agro-industrial Technology, College of Forestry and Natural Resources, College of Human Ecology, College of Public Affairs and Development, College of Veterinary Medicine, the Graduate School, and the School of Environmental Science and Management.
Two of those — the College of Public Affairs and Development and the School of Environmental Science and Management — appear only against graduate programmes on the finder. If you are applying as a first-year student, they are not options.
Undergraduate programmes by college
College of Agriculture and Food Science
- BS Agriculture
- BS Agricultural Biotechnology
- BS Agricultural Chemistry
- BS Food Science and Technology
The UPCAT programme list flags Agricultural Chemistry at UPLB as a five-year programme. Our BS Agriculture guide covers the wider career picture for these.
College of Arts and Sciences
- BA Communication Arts
- BA Philosophy
- BA Sociology
- BS Applied Mathematics
- BS Applied Physics
- BS Biology
- BS Chemistry
- BS Computer Science
- BS Mathematics
- BS Mathematics and Science Teaching
- BS Statistics
- Associate in Arts in Sports Studies
College of Economics and Management
- BS Accountancy
- BS Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship
- BS Agricultural and Applied Economics
- BS Agricultural Economics
- BS Economics
- Associate in Arts in Entrepreneurship
Both BS Agricultural and Applied Economics and BS Agricultural Economics appear on the finder. The UPCAT programme list carries only BS Agricultural and Applied Economics for UPLB, which suggests the older title is being phased out. Ask the college which one is open to new students before you list it.
College of Development Communication
- BS Development Communication
- Associate of Science in Development Communication
UPLB is where development communication as a Philippine degree originated, and it remains the reference programme against which other schools' versions are read.
College of Engineering and Agro-industrial Technology
- BS Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
- BS Chemical Engineering
- BS Civil Engineering
- BS Electrical Engineering
- BS Industrial Engineering
- BS Materials Engineering
- BS Mechanical Engineering
If you are weighing agricultural engineering specifically, our BS Agricultural Engineering guide covers the licence route and the board exam.
College of Forestry and Natural Resources
- BS Forestry
- Associate of Science in Forestry
- AScF UP Sierra Madre Land Grant Cohort
The Sierra Madre Land Grant Cohort is an entry route into the associate forestry programme rather than a separate degree. Our BS Forestry guide covers what the profession involves and the licence that follows it.
College of Human Ecology
- BS Human Ecology
- BS Human Ecology major in Human Settlements Planning
- BS Human Ecology major in Human and Family Development
- BS Human Ecology major in Social Technology
- BS Nutrition
College of Veterinary Medicine
- Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
The UPCAT list marks this as a six-year programme and adds a condition that catches people out: passing the National Veterinary Admission Test is a requisite for admission into the four-year professional veterinary medicine curriculum. In practice you clear the UPCAT to enter, then clear the NVAT to move into the professional years. Our Doctor of Veterinary Medicine guide covers the licence and the profession.
Where the two official lists disagree
Both sources are official — one is UPLB's own course finder, the other is the UP Office of Admissions programme list used for the UPCAT — but they are not identical. Two differences are worth knowing:
- Sports Science. The UPCAT programme list carries a bachelor's-level Sports Science entry for UP Los Baños. UPLB's own course finder lists Associate in Arts in Sports Studies under the College of Arts and Sciences and no bachelor's degree of that name. If this is what you want, write to the college and ask which one is currently accepting first-year students.
- Agricultural economics naming, as above.
Neither of these means one source is wrong. Programme lists are updated on different cycles by different offices. It does mean you should not build an application around a title you only saw on one of them.
Graduate programmes and micro-credentials
Above the bachelor's level, UPLB's finder carries master's and doctoral programmes under every college plus a large Graduate School block, and a School of Environmental Science and Management set that exists only at graduate level. The College of Agriculture and Food Science and the College of Arts and Sciences carry the biggest graduate loads, followed by the Graduate School itself.
Two units that take no first-year students are worth knowing about if you are thinking past the bachelor's:
- College of Public Affairs and Development runs graduate work in development studies, extension education and related fields, including PhD by research routes.
- School of Environmental Science and Management is graduate-only, and it is the reason environmental science shows up in UPLB's self-description without appearing on the undergraduate list.
There is also a PhD in Microbiology and an MS in Microbiology on the finder even though no BS Microbiology sits underneath them at Los Baños. Graduate entry does not require the matching undergraduate degree from the same campus, but it does require a relevant one, so check the programme's prerequisites with the Graduate School.
The finder also lists micro-credentials as a separate level. These are short offerings such as Basic Food Safety, Seed Quality Testing, Modern and Indigenous Mushroom Cultivation, Integrated Natural Resources Governance, Mobile Tree Inventory for Natural Resources Management, The Comprehensive Land Use Planning Process, and a set of day-care and community nutrition modules from the College of Human Ecology. They are useful for working professionals; they are not degrees and they do not lead to a licence.
What UPLB does not publish
Worth saying plainly, because these are the questions people ask most and the answers are not on the site:
- Slots per programme. UP sets quotas per campus and per course through the deans concerned, but the numbers are not published.
- A cut-off UPG. There is no official passing score for UPLB or for any UP campus.
- A tuition schedule for undergraduates. UP does not run a private-school style price list.
- Board exam passing rates by programme. Those come from the Professional Regulation Commission, not from the University.
Getting in
Entry is through the UPCAT. UP's Office of Admissions describes the test as four subtests — Language Proficiency in English and Filipino, Reading Comprehension in English and Filipino, Science, and Mathematics — with standardised scores combined with the composite of final grades in Grades 8 to 11 to produce the admission score, the UPG. Socio-economic and geographic considerations are also factored into how campus qualifiers are selected.
Two things follow from that which specifically affect Los Baños applicants:
- Campus choice is part of the application. UP admits you to a campus and a programme, not to "UP" in general. Quotas are set per campus and per course by the deans of the units concerned.
- UP does not publish cut-off scores. There is no official UPCAT passing score, per campus or per course. Anything you see quoted as a UPLB cut-off is a guess.
Our UPCAT application guide covers the form, the documents and the test itself.
What it costs
UP is a state university, and Republic Act 10931 provides free tuition for qualified Filipino undergraduates in state universities. Older UP pages still display the Socialized Tuition System framework — income brackets A through E2, per-unit rates, discount levels and the Grants-in-Aid Program — which describes the earlier regime. Because the two do not describe the same thing, confirm your own assessment with the UPLB Office of the University Registrar. Our UP tuition fee guide works through both.
Living cost is the real variable at Los Baños, since most students are not from Laguna and board near campus. That is not a figure the University publishes, and it is not one we will invent.
Sources
- University of the Philippines Los Baños, Courses (programme finder by college and level) — https://uplb.edu.ph/courses/
- UP Office of Admissions, Degree Programs by campus, with legend on Veterinary Medicine and NVAT — https://upcat.up.edu.ph/htmls/courses.html
- UP Office of Admissions, About the UPCAT (subtests, UPG, campus quotas) — https://upcollegeadmissions.up.edu.ph/
- University of the Philippines, Academic Programs by campus — https://up.edu.ph/academic-programs/
