Amid COVID and confusion: Grade 12 students face college applications

by: Rowena Joy Flores

Several universities and colleges began accepting applications this January and many more since then have followed. In the midst of the pandemic, distance application and admission have become necessary especially for students in remote areas of the country.

Grade 12 student Roxanne Flores is from a small town in Nueva Vizcaya, hoping to qualify into schools that are already accepting applications from incoming freshmen for the school year 2021-2022. She entertains herself with video games and anime as she awaits the next batch of modules and the announcement on when the College Admission Evaluation Polytechnic University of the Philippines (CAEPUP) iApply will open. For her, the application process has become a confusing matter.

She recalled how she tried to prepare for college applications while the lockdown is still ongoing. She had been waiting patiently, along with other applicants, for the tertiary schools she had been aiming for to make a decision on how and when the college entrance tests (CETs) will be conducted.

“Nagprepare na kami eh. Nagjoin na kami ng mga GC (group chats for reviewing with different applicants), bumili ng reviewer, nag-compile ng notes. Nakakapressure kasi hindi namin alam kung paano kami mag-te-take ng CETs kasi may COVID,” Roxanne said.

(We had been preparing. We joined GCs, bought reviewers, compiled notes. There was pressure because we do not know how we would take the CETs because there is COVID.)

PUP previously announced a deadline for applications which is supposed to be on March 26. However, the CAEPUP iApply, PUP’s online registration system, closed temporarily, and applicants were instructed to wait for further notice. The announcement posted on Facebook garnered calls from some netizens requesting for extension of the application period.

PUP is just one of the many universities and colleges that had to make adjustments to their admission criteria after the pandemic hit the country last year. The prolonged lockdowns and the continuous rise of COVID-19 cases led to the delay of the application timeframes of many schools.

Aspirants who have been preparing for CETs were left wondering what to do with their reviewers after many universities including the big four schools: University of the Philippines (UP), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), University of Santo Tomas (UST), and De La Salle University (DLSU) decided to waive the sought-after admission tests. Some students even went so far as to jest about selling their reviewers on twitter.

The situation left Flores torn as to whether or not it is a good thing that entrance exams for the schools she is applying to were cancelled. She had already put aside her compiled notebooks in a plastic container, the reviewers that she bought online sit atop the notebooks looking good as new.

“Siyempre relieved kasi di na kailangan mag review,” Flores said when asked how she felt about the cancellation of the CETs. “Kaso medyo nag-aalala din ako kasi nakabase nalang sila sa grades at sa school kung makakapasa ka. Parang hindi equal yung ground (for applying students).”

(Of course I am relieved because I no longer have to review. But I am also a little worried because they will base our admission on our grades and on the school we are currently attending. It seems that we (applying students) will be evaluated on unequal grounds.)

Flores refers to the different standards of different teachers giving way to uneven grades among the applicants.

Preparing requirements

Although most tertiary schools require from applicants the same documents as they did before the pandemic hit the country, there have been changes in the ease of securing documents.

Hazel Apostol, an adviser of grade 12 students in Diadi National High School (DNHS), said “It was easier before for the students to get their needed documents as compared today. The school personnel are not reporting daily in the school.” She also said that the only ones allowed to transact in the school are parents, guardians, and those who are not below 18 years old.

Gone are the days when visitors can show up and tour around the school campus, running from one department to another to secure needed documents by themselves. Unlike before, students or visitors who need to carry out their personal business with the said school are strictly monitored. They are resigned to a waiting area until the personnel who can help them with their concerns becomes available.

Ranielle Ramos is a grade 12 student who came to DNHS on the hot afternoon of March 26, hoping to get the much-needed form 138 or report card so he can submit his grades to UP. He is currently chasing the deadline for the submission of the applicants’ form 2, where their grades should be indicated, on March 31.

When asked about how long it has been since he started requesting for his papers, he replied: “ilang months na rin. Kailangan matyempuhan mo yung schedule ng mga teachers na mag-aasikaso ng papers mo kasi lahat naman tayo may kanya-kanyang responsibility kaya di naman sila masisisi.”

(It has been months. You need to chance upon the schedule of the teachers who are in charge of fixing your papers because all of us have our own responsibilities so you cannot blame them.)

Ramos said he started requesting for documents last December 2020. He had gone to the school around 10 times to follow-up documents that he was not able to get, because all the papers he needs are not released at once but only one at a time.

Worries and difficulties

The prospect of applying and going to college might be a normal worry for most incoming freshmen, but the changes brought by the pandemic heightens the challenge. For this batch, they are the first to spend their last year in senior high school (SHS) who are left to study on their own, away from peers and teachers who should be their companions for support and guidance.

Although some have taken the initiative, there are still many students who have yet to apply to their chosen tertiary schools. One reason for this is because they are still unprepared. Such is the case for Mary Rose Cariño, another grade 12 student.

"Hindi ako handa sa pag-apply sa aking napiling paaralan," Cariño said. "Sa totoo lang po, hindi ko alam kung papaano mag-apply ngayon lalo't patuloy parin ang banta ng pandemya. Hindi ko alam kung saan makakahanap ng tulong at gabay sa pag-apply sa napili kong paaralan."

(I am not ready to apply for my school of choice. To tell the truth, I do not know how to apply now especially since the threat of the pandemic continues. I do not know where to find help and guidance in applying to my school of choice.)

Cariño plans to take a course in Medical Technology in Saint Mary's University (SMU), a school three municipalities away from her home in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya.

"Iniisip ko pa rin talaga, at sobra akong nag-aalala sa kung anong mangyayari sa akin pagtuntong ko ng kolehiyo ngayong ilang buwan nalang ay magtatapos na ako ng SHS."

(I'm still thinking about it, and I'm really worried about what might happen to me when I enter college now that in a few months I will graduate from SHS.)

What may await them

Students have different reasons to worry. Before the pandemic happened, most students from all around Cariño’s province commute to tertiary schools through jeepneys, buses, and vans. Today, only vans are available as public transport.

Geraldine Perol, also a resident of Diadi, is a 2nd-year college student in SMU who is currently staying in her boarding house near SMU in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. She stated that the van fare from Diadi to Solano costs P80. From Solano, one has to take a tricycle to Bayombong. The cost of the fare is a minimum of P25. “Minsan pa nga P30,” she said.

(At times P30.)

The total price for the fare is double that of what commuters used to pay before the pandemic came. But the fare is not the only thing that doubled in price.

“Pati mga pagkain,” Perol stated, affirming that the budget meals which used to cost P35-P40 inflated to P80. This is P15 more than the price of a burger steak with drink in Jollibee. “Mas practical na nga mag-fast food nalang,” Perol said.

(Even the food. It is more practical to eat fast food.)

Perol’s experiences show a scenario of what might await some incoming freshmen in college. Through chat, she said that she opted to stay in her boarding house because of the slow internet speed in Diadi.

From the teachers’ point of view

Apostol stated that she believes culture shock awaits those graduating students who will only get passing marks because of the mediocrity in the current educational system.

“They’ll be experiencing difficulty in their study habit adjustments and comprehending lectures and study lessons,” Apostol said.

Apostol’s fellow grade 12 adviser Marjury Bautista also thinks that students may not be well-prepared for college.

When asked if she thinks her students are well-prepared for college, she replied: "theoretically, siguro hindi masyado... kasi wala yung interaction, actual interaction between the student and the teacher."

(Theoretically, probably not so much... because there is no interaction, actual interaction between the student and the teacher.)

She draws from her experience as a student studying to get her PhD through distance learning.

"Ako nga din eh nag-aaral," she said. "Talagang mahirap... sariling sikap, kailangan talaga mag-strive ka na mag-aral. Solo mo lahat kasi nga ganito ang sitwasyon."

(I am also studying. It is really hard... self-reliance, you really need to strive to study. You have to do everything solo the situation is like this.)

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