Unprecedented admission season: Admission is like a gamble, candidates passing and failing are unclear

After universities simultaneously announced their admission scores on the afternoon of August 22, thousands of candidates were left confused because they did not know their admission results. Many students scored higher than the admission scores but were not on the admission list. In some cases, candidates received a notice of admission from their schools, but when they looked up the Ministry of Education and Training 's system, it showed that they had failed all their wishes.

Too many points but still fail university

A series of candidates said that they had registered their first choice to Ho Chi Minh City University of Education and were reported to have failed due to insufficient scores. However, all subsequent choices were also not accepted because they had passed their first choice. Among these candidates, there were candidates who scored high, with many extra points, but still received 100% failure results on the Ministry of Education and Training's system.

"I am really upset, because my score is clearly higher than the school's standard score, even meeting all the secondary criteria but still failing all my wishes. When I called, no one solved the problem, the schools just passed the responsibility to each other. Now I am very confused, not knowing what to do," a candidate shared.

Another candidate, after looking up the Ministry's system, found that he no longer passed his first choice, but instead passed his fifth choice.

"Three days before, when I checked the system of Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, I received a notification that I had passed my first choice to the school, along with instructions on how to pay the tuition fee. I was very confused, not understanding why there was this change. On new student groups, I saw many friends in similar situations," said this candidate.

Or at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, a mistake in determining the subjects of the D66 group (instead of Economic and Legal Education, it was counted as Civic Education) caused hundreds of candidates to be disappointed when they thought they had passed but in fact failed. Only after parents and students complained strongly did the school admit the mistake and come up with a solution.

Combination errors, error-checking system, candidates going from passing to failing are unprecedented chaos in this year's admission season. (Illustration photo)

Nearly four days since the 2025 benchmark scores were announced, thousands of candidates are still in a state of confusion, not knowing why they failed, or even why they passed. Some students who had just received the admission notice from the school rushed to complete the admission procedures, but their hearts were still filled with questions.

Representatives of some schools admitted that in recent days, the hotline has been overloaded as parents and candidates continuously call to inquire about admission results as well as how to calculate converted scores.

Loss of faith in the transparency of the admissions process

Ms. Nguyen Hong Nhat ( Hanoi ), a parent whose child is entering university this year, said that the instability in the admission process has had a heavy impact on students' psychology. "The admission period is too chaotic. Candidates know the standard score but do not know whether they pass or fail, nor do they know how the score is converted, or which school they are admitted to. In previous years, just adding up the scores of three subjects in the combination was enough to explain why they passed or failed," Ms. Nhat said indignantly.

According to the female parent, after a year of exam pressure, candidates have to face more problems when the results are announced, causing many students to be confused and lose faith in the Ministry of Education and Training as well as universities in ensuring fair admissions.

Problems in the 2025 admissions season raise concerns about fairness. (Illustration photo)

Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh, former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said that there has never been an admissions season with as many strange things as this year. Consolidating the entire admissions process into a single round was expected to be transparent and reduce pressure. In fact, the new approach has created a lot of confusion.

" There are hundreds of universities and colleges across the country, each with different methods and ways of converting scores, creating an extremely confusing and confusing admission matrix for parents and candidates," said Mr. Vinh, adding that the unusual fluctuation in benchmark scores is the result of too many methods and conversion methods lacking a common mechanism, with each school having its own style.

For example, with the IELTS certificate, the Ministry of Education and Training converts it into a foreign language score in the graduation exam (on a scale of 10). When considering university admission, this score and two other subjects add up to a maximum total of 30 points.

Some schools calculate IELTS 6.5 as 10 foreign language points and add it to the combination to get a total of 25 points, but other schools calculate or add priority up to 27-28 points. That difference causes a candidate with a high score to fail, while others, thanks to choosing the right method, get priority, and get admitted.

"This raises questions about fairness. In theory, schools publicly disclose their admission plans and scoring formulas. In reality, this diversity and complexity makes the admission process a matrix in which only those who understand the rules of the game have an advantage. Students in urban areas, with access to information, can easily optimize their choices. On the contrary, students in remote areas lack information and are easily at a disadvantage ," said Mr. Vinh.

Dr. Vinh suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training should introduce a unified conversion framework at the national level to limit the situation where each school has its own model. Meanwhile, schools must be transparent and simplify the admission formula so that candidates can easily grasp it.

'It is the responsibility of the schools to resolve errors'

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, this year's admission season, with a huge amount of data and diverse admission methods and conditions from universities and colleges, errors are inevitable, even at a very small rate. As in previous years, these errors are mainly in the admission input data (admission methods, conditions, admission criteria, evidence of candidates' priorities, foreign language certificates, etc.), some errors are due to manual operations by some schools during the admission process.

However, due to careful preparation and experience from previous years, the number of actual errors has decreased significantly compared to 2024. The Ministry of Education and Training and universities and colleges have assigned staff to work on hotlines to receive feedback and questions from candidates and parents through many channels (via phone numbers and emails on the general admission support system) and coordinate to handle and resolve immediately for the legitimate interests of candidates.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, from the evening of August 23 until now, the Ministry's admissions department has received and forwarded about 20-30 complaints from candidates through all channels to schools for processing every day. According to the admissions regulations, the responsibility of resolving errors lies with the schools. If necessary, the Ministry will support, guide and direct other universities to coordinate in handling the situation.

After listening to feedback on major errors of some higher education institutions, the Ministry of Education and Training has directed and provided timely guidance, and so far most of those cases have been resolved in accordance with regulations. Based on the situation of enrollment, admission, and incident handling of schools and data across the system, the Ministry of Education and Training affirms that university and college enrollment in 2025 up to now has been on schedule, as required, ensuring the rights of candidates; the general enrollment system is operating stably.

"The cases where information has not been accessed in the past few days are due to schools not having completed the review and completion of data. Those cases have all been resolved promptly and in accordance with regulations. All candidates who meet the admission requirements will certainly be notified of their admission in time to enroll on time, " the Ministry of Education and Training emphasized.

Kim Nhung

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/mua-tuyen-sinh-la-chua-tung-co-xet-tuyen-nhu-canh-bac-thi-sinh-do-truot-map-mo-ar961675.html