Integrated CSAT 'Science Students Invading Humanities' Becomes Reality... 60% of Humanities Admits at Kyung Hee University Are Science Students

60.3% of Successful Applicants in Humanities and Social Sciences at Kyung Hee University Are Science Students
96.5% of Successful Applicants in Kyung Hee University's Interdisciplinary Major Are Science Students
Half of Successful Applicants at Korea University, Yonsei University, and Hanyang University Are Also Science Students

After more than three years of waiting since the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person festivals have returned, bringing vibrancy to university campuses. On the 25th, students are enjoying the festival at Kyung Hee University in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] It has been revealed that more than half of the science-track students were among the successful candidates in the humanities and social sciences regular admissions at major Seoul universities for the 2022 academic year, before the integrated CSAT was implemented.

On the 29th, Jongno Academy analyzed the math subject choices of 776 final successful candidates in the humanities and social sciences regular admissions at Kyung Hee University. The results showed that 6 out of 10 (60.3%) chose calculus or geometry, indicating they were science-track students. Those who chose probability and statistics accounted for only 39.7%.

Among the 486 initial successful candidates in the humanities and social sciences departments of Seoul National University’s 2022 regular admissions, 216 (44.4%) were science-track students (those who took calculus or geometry). At other major universities such as Korea University, Yonsei University, Sogang University, Hanyang University, and Chung-Ang University, the proportion of science-track students among humanities and social sciences regular admissions successful candidates was around 50-60%.

At Kyung Hee University’s regular admissions general track, departments where science-track students accounted for over 90% included the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies, the Department of Big Data Applications, and the Department of Architecture (Humanities). The Department of Korean Medicine (Humanities) had 84.6% science-track students.

In the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at Kyung Hee University (28 students), science-track students made up 96.5% (27 students) of the final successful candidates, with 22 students (78.6%) having taken calculus and 5 students (17.9%) geometry. The Department of Big Data Applications (13 students) had 92.3% (12 students) science-track students, and the Department of Architecture (Humanities, 11 students) had 90.9% (10 students). The Department of Korean Medicine (Humanities) also had 11 out of 13 final successful candidates (84.6%) as science-track students, with 9 students (69.2%) having taken calculus and 2 students (15.4%) geometry.

Oh Jong-woon, Evaluation Director at Jongno Academy, explained, "As a result of the 2022 regular admissions with the integrated CSAT, Kyung Hee University was the first among major universities to publicly disclose the ratio of math subject choices by department among successful candidates. This shows the actual reality of science-track students, who chose calculus or geometry in math and science subjects in exploration, invading the humanities and social sciences departments."

Meanwhile, the 2022 school recommendation admissions results at Korea University showed that the average grade of successful candidates was 1.64 for the humanities track and 1.50 for the natural sciences track. Among colleges, the College of Medicine had the highest average grade at 1.16. The competition ratio for Korea University’s school recommendation admissions was 11.09 to 1, with 42.8% meeting the minimum CSAT grade requirements. The effective competition ratio relative to the number of recruits was 4.62 to 1. The rate of meeting the minimum CSAT requirements was 37.1% for humanities and 46.5% for natural sciences, a 9.4 percentage point difference, which is interpreted as reflecting lower math grades among humanities students compared to science-track students.

According to the 2022 regular admissions results at Korea University, graduates (including repeat test takers) accounted for 69.9% of applicants by qualification. Among the top 70% total scores by department, excluding the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies in the humanities track, the Department of Statistics scored 675.36 points (average percentile of Korean, Math, and Exploration subjects 93.3), the Business School scored 674.56 points (average percentile 94.5), and in the natural sciences track, the College of Medicine scored the highest with 717.03 points (average percentile 98.2).