Getting the Yellow Jacket: Ways of Entering Universitas Indonesia

Universitas Indonesia's logo, the makara.

(source: id. wikipedia.org)

The University of Indonesia (UI), is one of the best universities in my country. Every year, many high school students from all over Indonesia (and some other countries, perhaps) struggle to get into the college. With the name of the country used to name the university, in my opinion it's not a strange thing.

An advertisement that inform about the usage of jakun.

(Source: www.anakui.com)

There are three ways for all students to enroll to the university that is famous by its yellow jacket (or jaket kuning in Indonesia, often abbreviated as jakun): via Seleksi Nasional Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri (SNMPTN) Undangan, Seleksi Bersama Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri (SBMPTN) and Seleksi Masuk UI (SIMAK UI). One other way is also available for those who won the National Science Olympiad (Olimpiade Sains Nasional or OSN), but the choice of faculty is restricted; the medalists are only able to choose the faculty that study about the lesson he/she won.

1) SNMPTN Undangan is an enrollment that based itself on the scores given by school in students' three-year (or two-year for accelerated student) study. Every school gets its own quota; the determination of this is an authority for the universities joining the program, the universities owned by the country. The students of each school are then ranked according to their scores; especially the scores of the lessons tested in the National Examination (Ujian Nasional or UN). For those who chose Maths and Science (MIA) branch, the lessons are Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Bahasa Indonesia and English. Social (IIS) students should be more concerned about his/her Mathematics, History, Geography, Sociology, Bahasa Indonesia and English. There is one more branch, the Languange Branch (IBB), but I don't know what subjects are tested for this branch. The website for this enrollment is snmptn.ac.id.

2) SBMPTN is the enrollment which included testing as its way of selecting new college students for public universities. The test subjects are mostly the same like the ones tested in the UN; there are two question sheets need to be answered, Tes Kemampuan dan Potensi Akademik (TKPA) which includes Basic Maths, Bahasa Indonesia, English and some types of psychotest (numeric, verbal and figural tests) and Tes Kemampuan Dasar (Sains dan Teknologi or Sosial dan Humaniora) which consists of subjects tested in UN MIA and IIS, according to the branch the participants choose. Even so, some of the materials are not taught in high school. Most of them are, though, so there's no need for the students to worry if they have studied hard in their school times. The questions are much harder than the questions asked in UN, so keep practicing is really the key to success in this way of enrollment. The website for this enrollment is sbmptn.ac.id.

3) SIMAK UI has the same type with SBMPTN; it is a test. The quality of the questions are even harder than the SBMPTN, though. The quota for each faculty in this test is also very limited.

The university, as well as another public university, offers a kind of scholarship named as Bidikmisi. The Bidikmisi is applied together with the SNMPTN Undangan, as far as I know.

More information about the ways of enrollment to UI can be checked in penerimaan.ui.ac.id.