Universities to Admit 6,311 Fewer Students

The number of students who will be selected through this year’s regular application system by 199 four-year universities across the country will be reduced to 181,014, down 6,311 compared to the previous year.

The Korea Council for University Education released the guidelines for regular application applicants on Tuesday.

With the introduction of the grade system by the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test (KSAT), it has become increasingly important for students applying for this year’s regular application to find out admission schemes that are more advantageous to them because different sections of the KSAT are reflected or regarded as more important and each section’s score converting methods are considerably different depending on the university.

The total number of students to be picked through the regular application system is 47.9 percent of the students to be admitted (378,268). This is the first time for universities to select fewer students through the regular application procedures when compared to the number of students to be accepted through the ad hoc admission procedures in the second semester (189,300).

A total of 164,853 students (91.1 percent) will be selected through the regular application scheme by 199 universities, while 16,161 students (8.9 percent) will be chosen through the special admission scheme by 151 universities.

A total of 128 universities weigh the student’s school record at about 30 to 40 percent in the admission. However, the KSAT score is still important as top tier universities minimize score gaps between students with the first level and the fourth level in the school grading system.

Student should pay more attention to how universities reflect the student school record, rather than how many percentage of the record is reflected because areas of the student school record are reflected and score gaps between different levels in the school grading system are different in each university.

Seoul National University, which belongs to Group "Na," selects students with only the results of the KSAT at the first round. Twice the number of necessary students is selected for the liberal arts major and three times are selected for science majors. Except for the KSAT score, essay writing and interviews are most important at the second round. All the students with grade one and two in the school record will get a perfect score and the emphasis is put on the scores of majoring subjects.

Korea University selects 50 percent of the students admitted through the regular application system with the Outstanding KSAT Score Students Admission Program. An interdisciplinary essay test is arranged for both science and liberal arts major students for regular admission and for students who have the same scores for the Outstanding KSAT Score Students Admission Program.

Although Yonsei University selects students through the regular application scheme as a "Ga" group university, it also selects students from the "Na" group for engineering and music majors. It also selects 50 percent of its new students solely based on the KSAT score.

Sogang University selects 30 percent of new students through the Outstanding KSAT Score Students Admission Program. Only the foreign language score is used for liberal arts major applicants, and the scores of mathematics, foreign language, and science are used for science major students.

Sungkyunkwan University, which recruits students from both the "Ga" and "Na" groups, picks 50 percent of its freshmen through the Outstanding KSAT Score Students Admission Program. The regular admission schemes for the "Ga" group (KSAT 40 percent, school record 50 percent, GPA 10 percent) and "Na" group (KSAT 50 percent, school record 50 percent) are slightly different.

Ewha Womans University selects 50 percent of its new students for liberal arts, science, and fashion majors solely based on the KSAT scores. Sookmyung Women’s University, which recruits students from both the "Ga" and "Da" groups, also selects students for the "Da" group based only on the KSAT scores. However, students should be aware that those who received an offer from a university by passing an ad hoc admission procedure are not eligible to apply for the regular admission scheme, even if they have not registered at the university.

Thus, students, who are planning to apply for an ad hoc admission procedure, should carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of it in comparison to the regular admission procedures before deciding to apply for each university’s admission scheme. For more information about the regular admission schemes, you can check out the KCUE’s website, univ.kcue.or.kr.

The KCUE will hold a university entrance information expo at the COEX, Samseong-dong, Seoul, from December 13 to 16. A totally of 57 universities, including Seoul National University and Korea University, are expected to participate in the event.

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