Early Decision College Entrance in 2006 Put Off for a Month and a Half

Receiving applications for early decisions of college admissions in 2006 will start July 13, 2005, a month and a half later compared to the previous years.

Seoul National University of Technology (SNUT) also introduced an early decision entrance for the first time, and the students who are accepted to its program will not be allowed to apply for other colleges.

On August 30, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources (MEHR) released the “Main Points of College Admission Plans in 2006.”

MEHR has moved the Academic Aptitude Test from Wednesday to Thursday in order to avoid traffic congestion during the conveyance of test materials, and the test will be held on November 17, 2005.

Early decision, which used to commence on June 1, was moved to July 13, just before the beginning of summer vacation, so that high school academic plans won’t be hindered by early decision admissions.

Instead, the period of receiving early decision applications in the first semester will be 10 days, which is four days shorter than that of this year, and receiving early decision applications in the second semester will start from September 10, 10 days later than this year’s. Completing cumulative records for the regular applicants of college entrance will be due December 10, a week later than that of this year. Also, MEHR has decided to expand the ratio of special entrance for students from the rural region to four percent from three percent, and shorten the standard length of industry experience of the applicants of special college entrances for students with such experience to six months from a year and a half. Meanwhile, the schedule of junior college entrances will be similar to the schedule of university entrances. The period of receiving additional applications and the deadline for registration will be March 1-March 10, 2006, and March 10, 2006, respectively.

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com