SOME 150,000 applicants nationwide have trooped to the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City, and other testing centers across the country for the yearly University of the Philippines College Admissions Test (UPCAT).
The UPCAT will run for two days from Saturday, Aug. 1, until Sunday, Aug. 2.
The examinees will vie for limited slots among its nine constituent universities and two extension campuses — Diliman, Manila, Los Baños, Baguio, Cebu, Mindanao (Davao), Visayas (Miagao, Iloilo), Open University, Tacloban, and the UP Diliman Extension Campus in Pampanga and Olongapo.
According to UP System Office of Admissions Director Gerald Pio Franco, about 53,000 examinees would be taking the exam across 118 test centers nationwide, higher than the 117 centers in 2025 and 114 in 2024.
The largest number of examinees, about 53,000, was expected at the UP Diliman Campus.
Several UP Campuses, including Diliman, Manila and Los Baños, said that heavy traffic is expected around their area due to the number of examinees taking the UPCAT.
In the last three years (from 2024 to 2026), the UPCAT has produced 53,205 qualifiers out of 387,079 applicants, or a passing rate of 13.75 percent.
Most of the qualifiers came from the National Capital Region at 30.86 percent, followed by Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) at 18.97 percent and Central Luzon at 11.08 percent.
By campus distribution, 33.4 percent qualified for Diliman, while 23.7 percent qualified for Los Baños.
