Over 70% of candidates who wrote the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in four years scored below 200 despite the desire of a majority of them to study highly competitive courses that require more than that. This is deduced from the statistics of the performance of candidates in the UTME between 2015 and 2018 as made available to EduCeleb.com by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). JAMB annually conducts the UTME as a qualifying examination for candidates hoping to obtain degrees, Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE), National Diploma, and National Innovation Diploma (NID). The statistics show that within the four year period, candidates who scored 200 and above were generally the least of the entire number of applicants for tertiary education admissions. JAMB received a sum of Six Million, Four Hundred and Forty Three Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Eight applications between the 2015 and the 2018 UTME exercises. 2017 had more candidates applying for tertiary education in Nigeria while 2015 had the least across the four years examined. This figure represents One million, Four Hundred and Seventy-Five Thousand, Six Hundred (1,475,600) for 2015, and One Million, Five Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand, Nine Hundred and Five (1,592,905) for 2016. In 2017, a sum of One Million, Seven Hundred and Twenty-Two Thousand, Two Hundred and Thirty-Six (1,722,236) applications were received. But that of 2018 was One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Twenty-Seven (1,653,127). 200+ is the highest of the generalised minimum JAMB score (otherwise known as cut-off mark) that tertiary institutions require for admissions. Also, most candidates do usually apply to study highly competitive courses. The Social Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering top the rank of candidates’ course choices in terms of number of applications received. There may be varying cut-off marks for various courses but the minimum JAMB score for these competitive courses tend to be higher. The reality is that there is a low likelihood of a candidate who even scored 220 to gain admission to study medicine or engineering even after the institution may have pegged the general JAMB cut-off mark at 180. A cursory look at the institutional choice of candidates shows that most candidates prefer Federal Universities as their First Choice Institution. This is as a majority of candidates were found to choose courses where such a score is likely the minimum even in institutions where 200 is not the JAMB cut-off mark. A look at the top ten choices of candidates by institutions and course over these four years show this. While registering for the UTME, most candidates indicated preference for degree awarding institutions. With limited data available for 2015 in this respect, EduCeleb.com focused on the three remaining years. In 2016, 97.78% of candidates chose degree related programmes. That leaves less than 3% for those who consider the other types of institutions as first choice. As shown in the table above, 1.11% of candidates chose NCE programmes while 1.10% went for ND programmes and merely 0.002% preferred NID programmes that year. In 2017, 97.97% preferred degree awarding programmes as First Choice while 1.01% each prefer NCE and ND programmes leaving NID programmes with merely 0.02%. In 2018, EduCeleb.com observed that there was an obviously increased interest in NCE and ND programmes translating into a decrease in First Choice interest in Degree programmes. 73.84% of candidates preferred degree programmes while 13.17% chose NCE programmes. But 12.95% preferred ND programmes as against just 0.04% who chose to go for NID programmes. In terms of institutional choice, the University of Ilorin maintained the spot of the most chosen tertiary institution across the years. In other words, UNILORIN could clearly pass-off as Nigeria’s university of first choice. Following it is Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria that was the second most chosen institution in 2017 and 2018 but 3rd and 5th respectively in 2016 and 2015. Others on the top ten list consistently are the University of Benin, the University of Nigeria Nsukka, the University of Lagos, and Bayero University Kano. The rest are the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Nnamdi Azikwe University (UNIZIK), the University of Ibadan (UI) and the University of Jos (UNIJOS). 2015 was the only time one of these institutions, UNIJOS was not in the top ten. EduCeleb.com gathered from the records that while UNILORIN always had not less than 5% of all applications in each of the four years, the least of the top ten, UNIJOS received not less than 2% of all too each year.