Seoul National University Natural Sciences Admission Scores Lower Than Korea University... What Is the Reason?

Seoul National University Natural Sciences Overall 94.3 Points, Down 1 Point from Previous Year

As the phenomenon of top-tier science students concentrating on medical schools intensifies, an analysis has shown that the regular admission cutoff scores for pure natural sciences at Seoul National University (SNU) have fallen below those of Korea University.

On the 2nd, Jongno Academy analyzed the 70th percentile cutoff scores for Korean, Math, and Inquiry sections of the 2023 regular admissions for SNU, Korea University, and Sungkyunkwan University. For the pure natural sciences general admission track excluding medical-related fields, SNU scored 93.9 points, which is lower than Korea University’s 94.9 points. Yonsei University announced its own converted scores rather than percentile scores, making direct comparison with other universities impossible.

For all natural science departments including medical-related fields, Korea University’s cutoff was 95.1 points, while SNU’s was 94.3 points. Compared to the 2022 academic year, SNU’s score dropped by 1 point from 95.3, whereas Korea University’s score rose by 1.1 points from 94.

Even looking only at the medical school, Korea University’s cutoff was slightly higher than SNU’s. Korea University’s College of Medicine cutoff was 99.4 points, 0.1 points higher than SNU’s 99.3 points for the College of Medicine. When comparing only pure natural sciences excluding medical-related fields such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and pharmacy, Korea University had the highest cutoff at 94.9 points.

The admissions industry evaluated these results as quite unusual. Jongno Academy analyzed that the intensified concentration on medical fields caused students who would have normally entered SNU’s pure natural sciences to instead choose medical schools in the metropolitan area or provinces. This is because in the humanities, where the medical school concentration effect is minimal, SNU still maintains a higher cutoff score of 95.7 points compared to Korea University’s 94.1 points.

Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, said, "Within the same university, the cutoff scores for medical schools have risen while those for other natural science departments have declined. It is worth watching whether this phenomenon will lead to a trend change." He added, "Changes in cutoff scores for natural sciences at top-tier universities can cause significant confusion for examinees, so universities need to disclose scores more precisely than just the average 70th percentile score."