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Saturday, Feb 22, 2025
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JUPAS applicants scoring below par in one core subject still welcome
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, for the 2022 intake, will continue to adopt flexible admissions arrangements for HKDSE students who perform well overall but miss the minimum entrance requirements of 3-3-2-2 by one level in one core subject.
If a candidate misses the minimum entrance requirement by one level in any one of the core subjects, but their total score still reaches the median of last year’s intake of the preferred subject after weighting according to the university’s method - and places the subject in the first three aspirations - they will still have a chance to be admitted.
The university has also introduced a new score calculation mechanism; that is, on top of the existing conversion of HKDSE scores from “1 to 5 **” into 1 to 7 points, the points converted from Level 5 and above will be increased by 0.5, 1 and 1.5, respectively.
That is, students who scored Level 5, Level 6, and Level 7 will get 5.5, 7, and 8.5 points, respectively, making HKUST the fourth university to make such an arrangement after the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Emily Nason, the Director of Undergraduate Recruitment and Admissions at HKUST, said it was difficult to obtain Level 5 or above, so the new calculation method was to reward these candidates.
Nason said some disciplines would place more emphasis on specific subjects and reflect them in the weighing. For example, for the Bachelor of Business Administration, scores in English and Mathematics will be doubled upon admission.
She said if a candidate scored below par in Chinese but achieved a total score of 40.25, which is higher than the median score of 38 last year, they will have a chance to be admitted.
The University has updated its website with last year’s median admission scores for each subject and has introduced a calculator for candidates to refer to and calculate their scores.
It has also listed the average score of the first choice of DSE subjects for each program, such as Biology and Chemistry, as the first choice of the Bachelor of Science.
Lau stressed the “first choice subject” did not mean that the candidate must obtain a specific score but instead served as a reference indicator; “The subject may have a weighting on the admissions of certain programs, if you did not do well, your total score may be lower, and the chance of admission will be lower.”
She added that if a candidate got above the median score, it already meant that they are better off than half of the students enrolled last year, which reflected that the candidate is capable of taking relevant university courses.
The university has also introduced a new score calculation mechanism; that is, on top of the existing conversion of HKDSE scores from “1 to 5 **” into 1 to 7 points, the points converted from Level 5 and above will be increased by 0.5, 1 and 1.5, respectively.
That is, students who scored Level 5, Level 6, and Level 7 will get 5.5, 7, and 8.5 points, respectively, making HKUST the fourth university to make such an arrangement after the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Emily Nason, the Director of Undergraduate Recruitment and Admissions at HKUST, said it was difficult to obtain Level 5 or above, so the new calculation method was to reward these candidates.
Nason said some disciplines would place more emphasis on specific subjects and reflect them in the weighing. For example, for the Bachelor of Business Administration, scores in English and Mathematics will be doubled upon admission.
She said if a candidate scored below par in Chinese but achieved a total score of 40.25, which is higher than the median score of 38 last year, they will have a chance to be admitted.
The University has updated its website with last year’s median admission scores for each subject and has introduced a calculator for candidates to refer to and calculate their scores.
It has also listed the average score of the first choice of DSE subjects for each program, such as Biology and Chemistry, as the first choice of the Bachelor of Science.
Lau stressed the “first choice subject” did not mean that the candidate must obtain a specific score but instead served as a reference indicator; “The subject may have a weighting on the admissions of certain programs, if you did not do well, your total score may be lower, and the chance of admission will be lower.”
She added that if a candidate got above the median score, it already meant that they are better off than half of the students enrolled last year, which reflected that the candidate is capable of taking relevant university courses.
