University of Santo Tomas: Admission Requirements and Process

Getting into the University of Santo Tomas is not one application with one document list. UST sorts every applicant into a numbered category, and the category decides what you upload, what you pay, and whether you need a clearance from the Office of the Registrar before you can pay at all. Getting that wrong is how people lose a cycle.

This guide covers who is eligible, the document set for each applicant category, where the test is actually administered, and the separate route UST runs for shiftees, transferees and second-degree applicants. For the exam itself — coverage, scoring, prep — see our USTET reviewer guide, which handles that side in detail. The general profile of the university sits on our University of Santo Tomas page.

Eligibility: UST admits from a specific grade level, not from "graduates"

This is the rule that surprises people most.

Everyone outside those windows is not shut out, but has to go through an extra gate. UST lists four groups who may apply provided they first secure a clearance from the UST Manila Office of the Registrar:

• Passers of the Philippine Educational Placement Test and of the Alternative Learning System Accreditation and Equivalency programme
• Graduates or completers of previous school years
• Applicants from foreign schools
• Foreigners graduating from local schools

The clearance comes before payment, not after. Build time for it into your plan, because it is a separate office with its own turnaround, and the payment deadline does not move for you.

For junior high, clearance is requested from the UST Junior High School or Education High School directly rather than from the Registrar, and each group has a nominated document — a PEPT or ALS A&E certificate for out-of-school youth, an original Form 138 for graduates of previous school years, and a Form 137 transcript for learners from foreign schools. If those record names are unfamiliar, our guide on Form 137 vs Form 138 explains which is which.

The document set is per category, and there are ten of them

UST publishes the requirements against numbered categories on the USTET site. In condensed form:

Two details worth reading twice. UST specifies PSA or NSO birth certificate and states that a civil-registry-issued copy is not accepted. And Category 6 — PEPT and ALS passers — is the one category with no Grades Form, because there are no school grades to report; the certificate stands in its place.

If you are already a UST Manila student

UST runs a shortcut for its own students moving from junior high or senior high into the next level. Entering your student number and birthdate at registration carries your academic record into the USTET application system, so you do not re-encode grades earned at UST Manila. You only encode manually for grade levels completed elsewhere — Grades 7 to 9 for a senior high applicant, Grade 11 for a college applicant.

The document upload changes too: instead of the Grades Form, UST students upload a PDF of their student ID or official registration form, and they do not re-upload the PSA birth certificate because UST already holds it. There is also a dedicated testing date reserved for current UST senior high, junior high and education high school students.

The Grades Form is a task for your registrar, not for you

Part of your final admission rating comes from your grades, and UST does not take your word for them. You forward the USTET Application Grades Form to your school registrar or principal, they fill it in, and they return it to you for upload. UST's warning is explicit: a Grades Form with incomplete information will not be processed, and any misrepresentation results in disqualification or forfeiture of your application slot.

Practically, this means the slowest step in your application is a person who does not work for you and has other students to deal with. Hand the form over early in the window, not in the last fortnight of it.

What happens after you submit

The order matters, because you cannot pay your way past a missing document:

1. Complete the online application and upload everything.
2. Submit for verification. The Office for Admissions checks your requirements and your encoded grades, then emails or texts you.
3. Only after verification do you select a testing centre.
4. Pay the application fee online. It is non-refundable.
5. Download your test permit. UST issues it only after the application is complete, documents are submitted, and the fee is paid.

You do not choose your test date. UST states that the testing date is system-generated based on when you completed your application and your application type, and that the testing time is also system-generated and cannot be changed. You select the centre; the system selects the slot. That makes finishing early a scheduling lever, not just insurance.

Fees vary by the same numbered categories above, and UST waives them in three specific cases including eligibility under the Free College Entrance Examinations Act, Republic Act No. 12006. We have the full fee table in the USTET reviewer guide rather than repeating it here, and UST can adjust it between cycles, so read the live figure off the portal before you pay.

Where the test is actually held

The main testing centre is UST Manila on España Boulevard. Beyond it, UST runs three tiers:

• Satellite testing centres in Metro Manila, hosted at UST Angelicum College in Quezon City, St. Stephen's High School in Manila, and Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila. Not every level is offered at every satellite on every date.
• Provincial testing centres, hosted by partner schools across Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, Bicol, Western and Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Negros Island, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao and SOCCSKSARGEN. UST's own campuses in Legazpi and General Santos are among the venues.
• International testing centres, which UST lists but announces separately.

One line on the provincial list deserves attention: UST states that acceptance of applications at provincial testing centres is subject to slot availability regardless of the posted deadline. A published deadline is not a guarantee of a seat. Apply early for a provincial centre, or plan on travelling.

College applicants also choose between UST Manila and UST General Santos at registration, and senior high applicants between UST Manila and UST Angelicum College — the campus is part of the application, not a later decision.

The programme, not just the test

Passing the USTET does not settle everything. UST states that it is not the sole basis for admission to some programmes, and that some require an additional entry assessment — an interview, an audition, a drawing test, or something similar.

College applicants nominate a priority programme and an alternative programme. UST processes the priority first; the alternative is only considered if you miss the priority's criteria, and it stops being processed the moment you qualify for the priority. Senior high applicants select one programme only.

The Faculty of Medicine and Surgery's accelerated route, LEAPMed, sits on top of this with its own eligibility floor, its own afternoon exam, and a hard numeric cap that UST publishes: the top 220 qualifiers from the USTET and the LEAPMed Entrance Test are interviewed, and 90 are accepted. If that is your target, our guide on which strand to take for medicine covers the senior high decision that has to be made years earlier.

Shiftees, transferees and second-degree applicants take a different exam

If you are already in college somewhere and want to move to UST, the USTET is not your route. UST's Office for Admissions runs QUESTS — Qualifying Exams for Shiftees, Transferees, and Second-degree applicants — as a separate process, announced on its own schedule through the OFAD announcements page.

This is also the route for a UST student changing programmes internally, and for anyone pursuing a second bachelor's degree.

What UST does not do is keep a permanent, machine-readable page of QUESTS requirements the way it does for the USTET. The terms are posted per cycle, often as an announcement image, which means there is no stable link to bookmark and no reliable third-party summary. Watch the OFAD announcements page and email the office directly. If you are weighing whether a transfer is worth the credit loss in the first place, our guide on transferring schools in the Philippines works through that arithmetic.

Education High School has an income ceiling

Worth flagging because it is easy to miss: UST Education High School is a laboratory school of the College of Education intended for marginalised members of the community, and its requirements go beyond grades. Applicants need a general average of at least 85.00 in the first quarter of Grade 6 with no grade lower than 80, plus income documentation for both parents.

UST sets a combined annual family income ceiling of ₱450,000 for priority, evidenced by both parents' income tax returns for the recent tax years, or a notarised affidavit of income where there is no ITR, a BIR certification with a notarised affidavit of non-income where both parents are unemployed, or the current employment contract for OFW parents. Applicants above the ceiling may still apply, but priority goes to those below it.

Grounds for losing your slot

UST lists these plainly, and they apply after admission as well as during application:

• Misrepresentation of information entered in the application portal
• Violation of the application instructions
• Non-submission of documents on time to confirm enrolment once qualified
• Submission of missing, incomplete or false documents
• Other acts not in conformity with the University's policies

The third one is the quiet killer. Qualifying is not the end of the process — confirming enrolment on time is a separate obligation with its own deadline, and missing it forfeits the slot you just won.

Timing: the shape of the calendar

UST publishes registration, payment and testing dates per cycle on the USTET portal, and they move. The shape has been consistent: a registration window opening in August for college applicants and in September for senior high and junior high, closing in early January; LEAPMed closing earlier than the rest; testing dates spread from October through to the following January; and results announced in the second quarter of the following year.

Read the actual dates off the live portal. Do not plan around dates from any blog, this one included.

Before you commit

UST is a private university and the cost sits alongside the admission question, not after it — our UST tuition fee guide breaks down what a year actually runs to. And because UST's window opens and closes on its own schedule, check it against the general college admission requirements in the Philippines so your parallel applications do not collide with your USTET date, which you do not get to choose.

Sources

• UST Admission — USTET application guidelines, requirements by category, fees, procedure, testing centres and schedules, University of Santo Tomas Office for Admissions
• UST Office for Admissions (OFAD), University of Santo Tomas
• Qualifying Exams for Shiftees, Transferees, and Second-degree applicants (QUESTS), UST Office for Admissions announcement