The Varsitarian

AFTER a year and half drought, the UST College of Architecture (CA) reclaimed its place among the top Architecture schools in the country as four Thomasians made it ot the top 10 in the Architecture licensure exams last January.

Christine Glory Pascual registered an average of 83 percent to place second and lead the batch of 58 new Thomasian architects. Richard Lee came in at fifth with a grade of 81.60 percent. He was followed by Mark Gregory Pascasio and Patrick Ligeralde with scores of 81.50 percent and 81.80 percent at sixth and seventh.

The last Thomasian to land in the top 10 was Maria Lynn del Rosario, who placed seventh in the June 2000 Architecture board exams.

However, even with the four topnotchers, the University skidded from second overall last June to fifth overall in the top performing list of schools. Also, UST suffered a slight dip in the passing rate from 52.55 percent (72 out of 137 examinees passed) last June to 50 percent (58 out of 116 examinees passed).

College of Architecture Asst. Dean Tobias Bonaobra said the dip in the University’s performance is insignificant.

He said UST has more examinees at 116 compared to other institutions, which field in fewer examinees.

Top-ranked UP-Diliman only had 17 examinees while second-fourth-ranked institutions, Bulacan State University, Saint Louis University, and La Consolacion College-Bacolod City only had 16, 20, and 15 examinees, respectively.

He added that the 50 percent passing rate of the University is much better than the national passing rate of 34.92 percent (307 out 879 examinees passed).

The national passing rate last June was 36.87 percent.

Meanwhile in the Physical Therapy (PT) licensure examinations this month, a Thomasian placed seventh.

Adrian Alidio registered 82.85 percent to lead eight UST graduates who passed the PT board exams.

In addition, the University placed second over-all in the top performing schools ranking with an 80 percent passing rate (eight out of 10 examinees passed).

On the other hand, all four Thomasians who took the Occupational Therapy (OT) licensure examinations this month passed.

The national passing rate for the combined PT and OT board exams was 25 percent. Teodoro Lorenzo A. Fernandez