University admissions "puzzle" candidates

Admission profile search page of Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics

As of today, half of the registration period for the first round of university and college admissions (from August 1 to 20, 2015) has passed. Candidates and parents are very worried and need to know specific information about their actual rankings (in the list of candidates registered for admission announced by the schools and the possibility of admission) to make a decision.

Each school publishes a style.

In fact, all schools have implemented the regulation of announcing the list of candidates registered for admission, but it is worth mentioning that each school has a different way of announcing the list, in which many schools seem to be "puzzling" candidates because in reality, when candidates see this information... they do not know anything.

Ms. Hoang Thi Mai, the parent of a candidate applying to the Vietnam Aviation Academy, was upset: "The school announced the list of candidates applying in such a general way, how can candidates know where they are currently ranked out of the total number of applications for the same major as themselves?"

Reader Khanh Linh said: "What should schools do when reading the list so that candidates know whether they are in the green light (safe), yellow light (alert to withdraw application) or red light (urgent withdrawal) area and candidates below that should not submit their application?"

Phuong Vy said that based on her score, she felt secure when applying to her favorite school, but then her score gradually fell to near the bottom of the list because more applications with high scores were submitted.

“But I followed the school’s published scoreboard, most of the candidates with higher scores than me were thanks to bonus points. Right now I am very confused about whether to withdraw or not. But if I wait, I might not be able to withdraw in time” - Phuong Vy worried.

Meanwhile, the list of candidates registering for admission updated to August 7 announced by Van Lang University has the following columns of information: serial number, candidate's full name, registration number, major code, registration order, priority points converted, total points (according to registration combination)...

At first glance, looking at this list, candidates may think it is easy to recognize the information because the school arranges candidates according to the rule of having the highest total score to the lowest in each major code, but in the order column, the numbers jump around randomly. Therefore, it is very difficult for candidates to know what rank they are in each major.

Not to mention that the school provides this list in pdf file format, candidates who want to know their rankings must download it to their computer and convert it to Excel format, from which it takes several data processing steps to get the information they need.

Candidates applying for admission to Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry who want to know their ranking in the list of candidates applying for admission must also download the list file to their computer and go through the data processing stage.

Candidates and parents can refer to the temporary admission scores announced by the University of Technology (VNU-HCM) before submitting their applications - Photo: Hong Nguyen

Candidates do not know whether they pass or fail!

Currently, most schools announce the list of candidates in all four wishes. With this announcement method, there will be many candidates with high scores in the first wish but their names will also be on the statistical list of other majors.

When considering admission, candidates are only considered to be admitted to one wish. Therefore, the current list has a large number of fake admitted candidates.

In case a candidate fails the first priority major, he/she will be considered for the remaining priority majors if he/she has enough points. If the candidate is admitted to all four wishes, the school will only consider the candidate admitted to the major that the candidate chose as the first priority.

Although Foreign Trade University - Campus 2 in Ho Chi Minh City has published the list of candidates by major, candidates can know their specific rankings, however, because the school collects information from candidates registering for admission in all four wishes, it is difficult for candidates to know whether they have been admitted (temporarily) or not.

“The school released a score report, which is so confusing. We, the parents, want more details. Why is the school still confusing us at this moment, when we are sitting on hot coals?” said Mr. Nguyen Van Nam, the parent of a candidate applying to the Foreign Trade University.

Saigon University has just provided an address to look up admission records by major. Candidates applying for admission to the school can look up http://daotao.sgu.edu.vn/xettuyen/ to know their ranking. With this software, the school has announced detailed information about the quota for each group in each major and information about the admission scores of candidates ranked from highest to lowest.

However, the school noted that because candidates are allowed to register for multiple wishes (up to four wishes) in one admission round, the candidates' rankings in this list according to each major and subject group are highly virtual.

For example, a candidate ranked 60th out of a quota of 50 in major A is not necessarily a candidate who failed the exam because many of the 50 highest ranked candidates in major A have higher priority in other majors.

Difficulties for candidates in remote areas

Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong, principal of Luong The Vinh Private High School, assessed that the university admissions process and the calculation to submit or withdraw applications make candidates and parents feel like they are "gambling".

Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong - Photo: Viet Dung

Information from the schools' electronic portals is inconsistent in terms of standards, login methods, and how candidate information is arranged. The scores are messy, making it difficult for candidates to know what to do.

In addition, this method causes difficulties for many candidates in remote areas who lack Internet access to update information regularly. This is unfair for them as they may be slower than candidates in the city if they want to withdraw their application to reapply to another school.

Furthermore, if you want to withdraw your application, you have to go directly to the school to complete the procedure, which makes many parents and candidates living far away waste time and incur more travel expenses - Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong acknowledged.

Mr. Le Ngoc Tu, head of the training department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, said that in recent days, the number of applications submitted to the school has been quite large, so the school has to arrange time to receive and allow candidates to withdraw their applications.

“Usually we handle withdrawals in the afternoon. Candidates can send their submitted applications via express delivery, but candidates must come in person to complete the procedures for withdrawals,” said Mr. Tu.

Faced with the current anxiety about the admission process, Mr. Le Ngoc Tu said that to avoid difficulties or delays in submitting or withdrawing applications, parents and students should also carefully consider choosing a school initially based on their actual scores, avoiding racing to get into top schools and then withdrawing their applications to transfer to another school too late.

Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet said that this year's approach is causing difficulties for candidates and parents, and the schools themselves are not proactive in the admission process.

"Schools must wait until the deadline for submitting applications to know how many candidates have applied and what the final scores will be," said Professor Thuyet.

Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet

Many people believe that filtering out fake candidates is within the reach of schools. At the same time, they believe that the Ministry of Education and Training should require schools to rank scores according to the majors that candidates register for, by group, from low to high, and filter out the number of fake candidates. Only then will candidates know where they stand in the total number of applications.
According to youth