UPCAT

Overview

The University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) is the single admission test the University of the Philippines (UP) system uses to select incoming first-year undergraduate students. It is run by the UP Office of Admissions, and every UP constituent university uses it: UP Diliman, UP Los Baños, UP Manila, UP Visayas, UP Mindanao, UP Open University and UP Baguio, including UP Visayas's satellite colleges. Applicants sit one test and submit one application, then rank the campuses and courses they would like to be admitted to, rather than applying separately to each campus.

Who can apply

You can apply for UPCAT admission if you are a senior high school student expected to graduate in time for the start of the academic year you are applying for, or a senior high school graduate from an earlier year who has not taken any college courses since graduating. You must be a graduate, or expected graduate, of a Department of Education (DepEd)-recognized high school in the Philippines, or of an accredited secondary school abroad, and you must have final grades recorded for Grades 8 through 11. UP allows only one UPCAT attempt per person: once you have taken the test, or completed an application in certain recent cycles without testing, you are not eligible to apply again.

Exam pattern

All four subtests are taken in one sitting, in a single exam session that runs about four hours in total. Each subtest has its own separate time limit: once time is called on a subtest, candidates move on to the next one and cannot return to an earlier subtest.

Marking and results

UP combines each applicant's UPCAT performance with their high school academic record into a single admission score called the UP Predicted Grade (UPG). The UPG is computed from the standardized UPCAT result together with the applicant's Grades 8 to 11 record; UP does not publish the exact weighting it uses. The UPG follows UP's 1.0-to-5.0 grading scale, where a lower number is a better score. Alongside the UPG, UP's admission process also takes socioeconomic and geographic circumstances into account, as part of its policy of broadening access to the university.

When registering, applicants rank two UP campus choices and up to four course choices under each campus. Applicants are ordered by UPG, and for each applicant in turn, the system checks whether their UPG meets the cut-off of their first-choice campus before checking course availability within that campus; if not, it checks their second-choice campus the same way.

Important dates

UPCAT runs on an annual cycle: online applications open early in the year, the test itself is held around the middle of the year, and results follow the next year. For UPCAT 2027 (admission to academic year 2027–2028), applicants could submit Form 1 from March 3 to March 30, 2026, later extended to April 13, 2026; Grade 11 schools submitted Form 2A for their students from March 3 to April 10, 2026, extended to April 24, 2026; digital test permits were released in July 2026; and the test itself was held on August 1 and 2, 2026. Each new cycle's dates are announced on the UPCAT portal closer to the time, so applicants should check upcat.up.edu.ph for the current cycle's schedule rather than reusing an earlier cycle's dates.

Fees

Filipino citizens pay no application fee to take the UPCAT. Resident foreign applicants pay PHP 450, and non-resident foreign applicants pay US$50. For the UPCAT 2026 cycle, UP also introduced the Lingap Iskolar Program, which gives qualifiers whose annual family income is PHP 135,000 or less, and who are not already receiving another scholarship, assistance with housing, food, communication, learning materials and transportation, along with a mentoring component.

How to apply

Applicants register online through the UPCAT portal for their cycle, reached from upcat.up.edu.ph. The applicant completes Form 1 with personal data, and the applicant's Grade 11 school submits Form 2A on the applicant's behalf. The applicant also completes Form 2B, covering their high school record, and must send a certified true copy of their permanent secondary school record (SF-10, also called Form 137) to the UP Office of Admissions in UP Diliman, Quezon City, signed by authorized school personnel and sealed in an envelope. During registration, applicants choose and rank two UP campuses and up to four courses under each chosen campus.

After the exam

UP releases UPCAT results online through the UPCAT portal. A qualifier's result names the specific campus and course they have been admitted to; a result may instead show an applicant as waitlisted or not qualified. Applicants who are waitlisted, or who want to appeal a result, go through UP's online waitlist and appeals system rather than submitting a new application. A qualifier may enroll only in the campus and course named in their own result.

Preparation tips

• Each subtest is timed on its own and cannot be revisited once time is called, so pace yourself within each subtest instead of planning to return to skipped items later.

• Since the UPG combines your UPCAT score with your Grades 8 to 11 record, keep your high school grades strong throughout junior high and Grade 11, not only in the months before the test.

• Decide your two campus choices and up to four courses under each before you register, since your campus choice is screened before your course choices are.

• Prepare in both English and Filipino for the Language Proficiency and Reading Comprehension subtests, since both languages are tested.

FAQs