JambUp Forum
JAMB announced a national cut-off, but the school I applied to mentions a departmental cut-off that is much higher. Which one decides my admission?
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JambUp Team
answered 3 weeks ago
Think of them as two different gates:
JAMB cut-off is the minimum UTME score for admission into any programme. It is a national floor, not a guarantee.
Departmental cut-off is set by the university for a specific course. It is usually higher, and it changes with the competitiveness of the applicant pool. Medicine, Law, Pharmacy and Engineering often sit far above the general cut-off.
Institutional cut-off is the school's own minimum, which can also be above JAMB's floor.
Your admission usually depends on an aggregate: UTME score, post-UTME/screening score, O'level grades and sometimes catchment. Meeting the departmental cut-off does not automatically admit you; it puts you in the pool. The final list still depends on spaces and ranking.
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