More than 3 out of 10 Graduates Among Freshmen at 4-Year Universities in Seoul

This Year, Decrease in Enrolled Students Likely to Increase Proportion of Repeat Test Takers

On the morning of the 23rd, when the 2021 College Scholastic Ability Test score reports were distributed, examinees entered the auditorium at Ewha Girls' High School in Jung-gu, Seoul to receive their score reports. Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] It was revealed that more than 3 out of 10 students who entered four-year universities in Seoul last year were graduates, including repeat test-takers.

This year, the proportion of repeat test-takers among new entrants is expected to increase further due to a decrease in the number of enrolled students.

According to Jongno Academy Haneul Education on the 14th, among the 83,875 students who entered four-year universities in Seoul for the 2020 academic year, 28,500 were graduates including repeat test-takers, accounting for 34%. This is a 3.0 percentage point increase from the previous year (31.0%) and the highest in the past 10 years since the 2011 academic year.

Among the 342,699 entrants to four-year universities nationwide last year, 83,997 were graduates including repeat test-takers, accounting for 24.5%. This has increased for three consecutive years since the 2018 academic year and also recorded the highest figure in the past 10 years.

The higher proportion of repeat test-takers among entrants to universities in Seoul compared to the national average is analyzed to be because many middle to upper-middle tier students, generally scoring between grades 2 and 5 on the College Scholastic Ability Test during their repeat year, challenge university entrance again.

This year, the proportion of graduates among all applicants for the CSAT increased by 1.1 percentage points compared to last year, and the regular admission rate at universities in Seoul also rose by 2 percentage points. Jongno Academy Haneul Education expects the proportion of repeat test-takers to rise further to around the mid-30% range.

Meanwhile, last year’s high school university entrance rate was 72.5%, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous year (70.4%).

This was greatly affected by the decrease in the number of students. The number of high school graduates last year was 500,373, a significant 12.0% decrease from the previous year (568,736). However, the number of graduates among CSAT applicants increased compared to the previous year, slightly lowering the overall university entrance competition rate.

This year, with the number of high school graduates continuing to decline and the number of graduate CSAT applicants decreasing by about 9,200 compared to last year, the university entrance rate is expected to rise further.