Seoul Nat’l Univ. to Expand Admissions Officer Program

Seoul National University will admit about 1,200, or 40 percent, of its freshmen through selection by admissions officers from the 2011 school year.

The university will also adopt a regional allocation system so that students from provincial areas have a better chance to enter the country’s most prestigious school.

University president Lee Jang-moo told a news conference yesterday that more students will be admitted from provincial areas (753) from 2011 and selected by admissions officers.

The university will also admit students under special education and foreigners’ admissions program.

The regional allotment system will enable admission officers to accept 38.6 percent of the students admitted to Seoul National, four times more than the 331 students, or an estimated 10.6 percent, whom the school said it would select through admissions officers.

The university is increasing the number of students selected by admissions officers since it adopted programs for admitting less privileged students, but this is the first time for the school to set an authorized number of students.

The university plans to introduce a regional allotment system for 140 students next year and some 190 in 2011 selected under equal opportunity selection. Lee said the school is considering a minimum number of admitted students to county-level areas where there have long been no students admitted to the university.

The university is also considering abolishing the regular essay test over the long term. If high school education for reading and essay writing is evaluated as sufficient for use in university admission, the school could abolish the essay in regular admissions over the long term.

The College Scholastic Aptitude Test will be administered in November next year and students will be informed of their scores individually Dec. 8. The format of the test will remain the same as this year’s.

The sheets for next year’s test will have covers, so applicants are advised to be careful about how to spend their time on each section. The covers will prevent them from skimming through questions before the test starts.

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