Foreign Trade University explains the unprecedented 'strange' benchmark scores for 2025

A representative of Foreign Trade University explained that the benchmark scores for the school's majors this year do not seem as high as in previous years.

In many recent admission seasons, Foreign Trade University has had consistently high and stable admission scores, among the highest in the country. However, the school's admission scores in 2025, although still maintained at a high level, have changed significantly compared to previous years.

In general, the Foreign Trade University's admission scores are lower than last year in most programs (except for the above group programs, the adjustment is insignificant). Specifically, in 2025, the advanced program of Foreign Economics has the highest admission score with a score of 28.5. Last year, many majors of the school had admission scores of 28 or higher (4 majors had admission scores of 28.2; 4 majors had admission scores of 28.1; 4 majors had admission scores of 28); this year, only 4 majors had admission scores above 28, 6 majors had admission scores above 27, the remaining majors basically concentrated at the score of 25-27, all lower than in 2024.

Illustration: Pham Tung.

Explaining this, a representative of Foreign Trade University said that based on the very special enrollment context of this year, the University determined that the construction of admission methods must ensure quality as well as be suitable for the input requirements of each type and training program.

Specifically, the school enrolls students according to the standard program group taught in Vietnamese with the original combination being the exam scores of 3 high school subjects and the advanced, high-quality, and international career-oriented program group taught in English with the original combination being the exam scores of 2 high school subjects (Math - Literature, Math - Physics, Math - Chemistry) and the converted international English certificate score.

According to this person, one of the reasons is that Foreign Trade University has set the IELTS conversion to high school exam scores at a much lower level than the conversion of the Ministry of Education and Training and many other universities. Accordingly, IELTS 6.5 is only converted to 8.5 and to achieve a score of 10 on the high school exam, candidates must have an IELTS certificate of 8.0 or higher.

“In addition, Foreign Trade University does not add IELTS scores to the admission score for candidates like some other universities do. The school determines that international language certificates are applied when considering entry requirements for programs that require studying, teaching, researching and other educational activities in foreign languages, and are not a priority criterion for admission,” he said.

This person said that this year, to build a conversion table from admission methods to the original method, the school has implemented 3 contents:

- Identify the Top 1-3%, Top 3-5%, Top 5-7%, Top 7-10%, Top 10-15% groups in all admission criteria. For example: HSA floor score of 100 belongs to Top 8%, SAT floor score of 1380 corresponds to Top 8% in the world , high school floor score according to D01 belongs to Top 12%-15%. These groups correspond to the percentiles when converting scores to the original method.

- Collect all high school exam scores of the group of subjects using high school learning results to analyze data and develop a plan to convert scores to the original method appropriately.

- Analyze the school's enrollment quality data for the last 3 years.

According to this person, the admission results of Foreign Trade University in 2025 have been adjusted down compared to 2024 in most programs, which is completely consistent with the situation of D01, D07, A01 score distribution decreasing sharply this year because these are also the combinations with the highest admission rate to the school. The important thing is that the University has ensured fairness in all methods and guaranteed opportunities for candidates to use their high school exam results.

“Thus, it can be seen that with this year's admission, the benchmark score depends a lot on the score conversion method of each school. In addition, for schools with a proportion of students from the D01, D07, A01 groups such as Foreign Trade University, the benchmark score decreasing compared to last year is really appropriate. Therefore, mechanically comparing the admission scores of the year or between schools to make judgments about input quality may not be accurate. Even within a school, it is necessary to develop admission criteria suitable for the input requirements of each program group so that on that basis, there are solutions to accompany learners on their career development journey,” he said.

This person said that, however, with the way of building the admission method as well as converting scores in 2025, the school has selected very good quality candidates to participate in the training programs.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/truong-dh-ngoai-thuong-ly-giai-viec-diem-chuan-nam-2025-la-chua-tung-co-2435551.html