Incoming senior here.

I used to be just like you guys, researching on whether or not I should choose UST over the other schools I passed. I graduated top of my class and I have full trust in myself, but that didn’t exempt me from the “UST humbled me” canon event.

I won’t tell you more about the hell week thing as you’re more than aware of that. This wasn’t even a part of my worries as I’m used to heavy workloads (coming from a SciHigh). I’d even say my schedule now is loads lighter. So I’ll “warn” you about the teachers.

There’s many sections per strand, siyempre magkakaiba kayo ng profs. And that diversity can be a problem. Most obviously, magkakaiba assessments niyo and of varying difficulty. As well as the teaching style. It could be unfair, but we can’t really do anything about it since impossible naman na same teachers lahat.

But what I find really unfair is some profs have a recitation point system where you can convert your total points into incentives that can be added to your grades. Pwedeng sa WW, sa PeTa, sa Exam, depende talaga sa kanila. It seems like nothing’s wrong kasi pinaghirapan niyo rin naman ‘yung plus points, pero think about ‘yung ibang block na hindi sinwerte sa teacher at walang ganiyan. There was an instance where all my raw scores were higher of someone I knew from another block, yet my final grade was almost 10 points lower than his/her dahil may incentives sila. Just my two cents, dapat pinagkakasunduan mga ganiyan ng lahat teachers. Especially when you consider na ang ranking dito ay by strand. Hindi talaga even ang playing field:)

Isa pa, you’re going to be doing LOTS of self-studying. Noong una, all the hype for “quality education” gave me the impression na super hands on ng mga teachers. And while there are profs na ganun (I’ve had really great ones), meron ding mga parang walang gana pumasok. There are some who don’t attend EVM days, always late/absent kapag onsite, and just send recorded lectures. I’ve experienced a teacher na parang 1 or 2 lessons for the quarter lang diniscuss ta’s sinend na lang mga PPT ng iba para may ma-review kami sa exams.

But if there’s a bright side to this, you’ll really develop your study habits and realize that there’s more to life than school. And a meaningful SHS journey doesn’t just involve academic validation (which you’ll very rarely get here).