Rejected by UNILAG Three Times Student Becomes LASU Best Graduating Engineer

Three failed attempts to gain admission to the University of Lagos could have ended Oyewole Samod Atanda’s dream of becoming an engineer.

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Instead, the rejection became the beginning of a remarkable academic journey that culminated in his emergence as the Best Graduating Student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Lagos State University.

Atanda graduated with a 4.84 cumulative grade point average for the 2025/2026 academic session, making him the best graduating student in his department and the second-best graduating student in the Faculty of Engineering.

But his success story did not begin with Chemical Engineering.

Atanda had always wanted to study engineering at UNILAG. He sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination three times, recording scores of 230, 242 and 273, but was unable to secure admission to his preferred institution and course.

After spending time at home, he eventually gained admission to LASU to study Physics Education.

For many students, that might have marked the end of an engineering ambition. For Atanda, it became a temporary route to the destination he had always wanted.

During his first year, he discovered that LASU allowed students with strong academic performance to transfer between departments. He immediately set himself a new target.

He finished his 100-level studies with a 4.94 CGPA and applied to transfer into Chemical Engineering. His application was approved.

The achievement, however, came with a heavy price.

Atanda entered the Chemical Engineering programme about seven weeks after lectures had begun. He had to catch up with courses his classmates had already taken, including Engineering Mathematics, Applied Mechanics, Strength of Materials and Engineering Drawing.

The pressure was intense.

He described the period as one of the hardest experiences of his academic life, revealing that he sometimes struggled to understand concepts because he had entered the programme late. He spent long hours studying, made extensive use of online learning resources and reduced his social activities in order to concentrate on his studies.

His challenges were not limited to academics.

Administrative complications followed his departmental transfer, with differences in his matriculation details reportedly causing registration problems. At one point, four zero scores appeared on his academic portal, forcing him to move between lecturers and offices to resolve the issue.

Yet the setbacks did not break his determination.

His industrial training experience at Matrix Energy eventually gave him an opportunity to see how engineering principles worked outside the classroom. The practical exposure strengthened his confidence that Chemical Engineering was the right career path for him.

He also became known among his classmates for helping others understand difficult topics, turning his academic strength into a resource for those around him.

By graduation, the student who had once struggled to secure admission into his dream university had become one of the outstanding graduates of his faculty.

His 4.84 CGPA was more than a number. It represented years of persistence, adaptation and an unwillingness to allow rejection to define his future.

Atanda’s journey offers a powerful lesson for students facing academic disappointment: sometimes the route to a dream may look completely different from the one originally imagined.

For him, three unsuccessful attempts at UNILAG did not close the door on engineering.

They simply redirected him to LASU, where he eventually turned an alternative beginning into an exceptional finish.