Students get up close and personal with universities

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

More than 400 high school seniors packed the auditorium of the Labschool High School in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, on Tuesday for the sixth annual career day, eager to get some tips on how to get into a top university.

"There are three secrets to success," Arief Rachman, a noted education expert, told the group of graduating seniors from 36 high schools in Jakarta. "Ambition, ability and hard work."

Arief is a former principal of the Labschool, where 98 percent of graduates continue on to university.

Representatives from the University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, the Bandung Institute of Technology and Padjadjaran University in Bandung -- four of the most prestigious institutes of higher learning -- were on hand to provide information on their schools.

All four institutions are public universities, where the majority of students must gain admission through a rigorous national exam. In 2004, when 1.9 million students graduated from high schools nationwide, 336,707 students competed for 82,190 spots at public universities.

During the event on Tuesday, Syafnir, a representative of the national exam board, explained the procedures for the annual exam, which will be held in June this year.

"The most important thing to do is to write down your name," said Syafnir. "A number of students get nervous and leave out this small, but very important detail."

The students attending the event at Labschool will take a practice exam on Wednesday.

Admission representatives from 58 institutions of higher education, including a number of overseas universities, have set up information booths at the event.

According to Erina Yovanka, who has taught at Labschool for 12 years, 30 percent of the school's graduates continue their studies abroad. She added that the most popular majors in recent years were medicine, information technology, economics and communications.

The organizer of the event, Puri Handayani, who is also a counselor at Labschool, said, "Through this event, we want all students, not just ours, to get accurate information on universities."

Ari, 17, a senior at state high school SMA 30 in Rawasari, East Jakarta, said he thought the event was very useful.

"It's a great event. It's very informative and helpful," said Ari, who wants to study at Padjadjaran University. "My school doesn't have anything like this." (002)