During UTME/DE registration, students are allowed to choose a particular institution as both their first and second choice. But the question here is, does it help admission in any way? When students pick a particular school as both their first and second choice, we already know their intention.
Some do this intentionally, while some might be due to mistakes. Don’t get me wrong, selecting the same school as your first and second choice doesn’t mean you made a mistake during your UTME/DE registration, but your intentions towards it matter.
Now what exact intentions am I talking about? Most students who are found choosing the same school as their first and second choice often think it will boost their chances of getting admission. It might be due to advice from their parents, siblings, or even their own personal decision.
But is this actually true? Will your chances of getting admission be above others if you select the same school as both your first and second choice? If you are part of those finding answers to this question, then just relax because this article will explain all. Let’s start by understanding the idea behind 1st and 2nd choices.
What’s The Idea Behind 1st and 2nd Choice?
When you want to register for UTME/DE, you will be given the option to select four institutions you wish to study the course you pick. Normally, there are four different choices, which are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, but this article will be focusing on the first and second.
Back in the 90s, the idea of picking a school as both your first and second choice was to prove to the school that you want them only. For this reason, you will see admission seekers in the 90s choosing one school as both their 1st and 2nd choice; some even make them their 3rd.
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Book Your Consultation NowAnd funny enough, it worked. Universities in the 90s often offered admission to mostly students who picked them as 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd choice, even if they didn’t merit it. But presently, things have changed.
In this modern day, admission policies aren’t the same as they used to be in the 90s. Most institutions now will only offer admission to students who pick them as their first choice; this has now changed the motive of selection of 1st and 2nd Choice.
Currently, choosing your choice of institution during UTME/DE registration is just like choosing the institution you wish to study at in an order of preference.
For example, if I am to register for UTME/DE and I want to study mechanical engineering, I will be given the option to select four different institutions where I wish to study that course. Then I thought of two universities I want as my 1st and 2nd choice, which are LASU and UNILAG.
Since both LASU and UNILAG will offer admission to only those who selected them as their first choice, I will have to pick the one I prefer more. If I prefer LASU to UNILAG, I would put LASU as my first choice and UNILAG as my second choice.
This is just the idea of 1st and 2nd choice now. So the question here is, what if I selected a school as both my first and second choice in this modern day? Will it still help admission in any way? This brings us to the main topic of this article below.
Does Choosing the Same School As Both First And Second Choice Help Admission?
The straight answer to this question is NO; picking the same school as your first and second choice doesn’t help admission or give you an upper hand over other admission seekers. This is the reason why I took my time to explain how admission works before and now first.
Like I said earlier, most institutions now, or if not all, offer admission to only those who pick them as their first choice. This simply means only your first choice matters when it comes to admission.
To further explain, if Miracle wants to study mechanical engineering at LASU and he picks LASU as both his first and second choice, that doesn’t help his admission in any way. When LASU starts giving admission, Miracle will be offered admission if he merits it, but if he doesn’t, he won’t, despite picking them as their first and second choice.
The reason why most parents, siblings, or family members will advise you to pick an institution as both your 1st and 2nd choice is because they were born in the 90s and most of them don’t know the modern admission policy.
Things have changed, and only your first choice matters now. If you pick a particular institution as your first choice, that would be the school you will focus on that year because that’s the only school that will offer you admission since you made them your first choice. Let’s look at a brief of how admission was before and now.
1 Before
- When you select an institution as both your 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd choice, you are proving to the school that you want them only.
- If eventually you don’t get admitted by your first choice, the second choice will consider you.
- If you don’t get admitted by the 2nd choice, you still have hope on the 3rd choice.
- If the 3rd choice still doesn’t accept, there is still the 4th choice that can consider you.
2 Now
- Even if you select the same institution as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice, only the 1st choice will offer you admission since that’s what matters.
- If the 1st choice doesn’t offer you admission, the second choice won’t unless you make that your 2nd choice your 1st.
- You can always change institutions anytime you want, meaning you can change both your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th choices to a new, different institution entirely.
I hope this is understandable and clear now. Well, before we conclude this article, let’s look at some questions students tend to ask concerning this topic.
Can I Change My Second Choice To First?
Yes, you can change your second choice to the first. In fact, you can even put a new, different institution of your choice. All you need to do is wait for the change of institution to begin, and then you can make as many changes as you want.
I Changed My Institution To Second Choice After Post UTME, Will It Affect Anything?
If your school only offers admission to students who picked them as first choice, then it will affect you. In order not to waste that year, just go and buy the admission form of that institution you changed to 1st choice and focus there, or you change that your 2nd choice back to the 1st. If you leave it this way, you will lose on both sides.
So in essence, things have changed now, and only the first choice matters. This modern-day admission policy offers flexibility; you can change institutions anytime you want, but like I said, only the first choice matters, and picking the same school as the first and second choice doesn’t help admission.