High School Seniors Intimidated by Repeaters

As current seniors at high schools are avoiding direct competition with repeat students, competition for 2004 late admission in the second semester is intensifying.

After solving rather difficult sets of questions on the trial scholastic aptitude test on September 2, and considering the fact that repeat students were usually showing better results at the exam, many current seniors are going for late admissions, where school performances take up a high percentage.

Most Korean universities, including Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Ewha Womans University, that have closed application form acceptance, recorded higher competition than last year.

Seoul National University marked 6.77 to 1, a little higher than last year`s 6.56 to 1, and Pohang University of Science and Technology also saw an increase from 3.42 to 1 to 4.1 to 1.

Ewha Womans University, Yonsei University-Seoul campus, Sogang University also witnessed gains in the competition rates: 5.92 to 7.4, 5.15 to 5.81 and 8.18 to 9.51 respectively.

Since 12 more universities are selecting 34968 more students compared to last year for the 2004 late admissions, the rise in the competition implies that the number of high schools students applying for late admission had soared.

Last year`s university entrance exam-related documents showed that repeat students on average recorded much higher scores than high school seniors, and that the results of September 2`s exam added further anxiety to high school students.

Yoon, senior of Seoul Foreign Language High School, said that, “28 out of 38 students of my class applied for late admission,“ and that, “even students who didn`t intend to apply did after the exam on the 2nd.“ Also, Yoon added that, “friends who planned to apply to only two universities are now applying for more universities because of their teachers` advice.“

Kwack, senior of Yongshin High School of Seoul, who said that 70% of his classmates applied for late admission, remarked that, “most of my classmates think that it would be disadvantageous for us to compete with the repeat students because the trial test was so difficult.“

University entrance advisors are expecting that the universities that are currently receiving application forms will also see intensified competition.

An official of Daesung Academy analyzed that, “although the score of both high school students and repeat students fell at the trial test, students were more intimidated by the results, and are therefore going for the late admissions.“

Hyo-Lim Son aryssong@donga.com