Early Admissions To Be Discontinued

Korea, Yonsei, Sogang, Sungkyunkwan, Hanyang, Chung-ang and Ewha Women’s universities have decided to discontinue their first semester early admissions programs starting in 2008. This affects current high school freshmen and foreshadows significant changes in Korea’s college entrance policies.

To supplement college entrance exams that will soon turn into a rankings system, each university’s individual entrance exams will carry as much as seven times more weight than they did in the past, making essay-type examinations an important factor.

Mainstream private universities will influence other schools, increasing the possibility of the full discontinuation of first semester early admissions programs.

The deans of the seven schools held a press conference at the LG Convention Hall at Ewha Women’s University on December 26 and announced both individual and collective plans for admission policies for 2008.

The deans of the seven schools said, “For the sake of diversity in admissions, the first semester admissions policy was executed, but the study atmosphere for sophomores was harmed because of the accepted students, adding, “In lieu of the discontinuation of first semester early admissions programs, we will recruit new students from the end of the first semester in August for second semester early admissions.”

The Korea Council for College Education raised the issue of discontinuing first semester early admissions programs in October with the Ministry of Education and the Presidential Committee on Education Innovation. Talks on improving the current college admissions system are currently underway.

In-Chul Lee inchul@donga.com