"Perfect Score on CSAT Recommended to Local University... Is It Ruining Life?"

Last Year’s Local Newspaper Columns Recently Spreading Online

"No way, would you ruin a young person's life?"

As it has been confirmed that there was only one student who achieved a perfect score on the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), an experience story about being embarrassed after recommending a perfect scorer to attend a local university is being re-highlighted online.

On the 9th, posts titled "What happened after recommending a perfect scorer to attend a local university" have been spreading across various social networking services (SNS). This post was written by a citizen named A last year for a local newspaper and has become a hot topic again after the CSAT score announcement.

In the post, A said, "I had the opportunity to have lunch with a high school senior who scored a perfect score on the CSAT. The student had a strong attachment to their hometown, Busan, but seemed to have already decided on the desired university and major." He then recommended to the student and their parents, who hoped to enter Seoul National University’s Business Administration department, "How about submitting an application to Pusan National University instead?" but was met with embarrassment.

On the 8th, the day of distribution of the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test score reports, third-year students at Gyeongbok High School in Jongno-gu, Seoul, are checking their scores. Photo by Joint Press Corps

Regarding the situation, A said, "As soon as I finished speaking, the people dining with us criticized me, saying 'What kind of irresponsible suggestion is that?'" and "The student also opened their eyes wide in surprise at the unexpected proposal, showing a look of disbelief."

Uncomfortable with the situation, A stated, "I still cannot understand whether attending a local university would really ruin the life of a perfect scorer on the CSAT," and pointed out, "The proverb 'Send the words to Jeju Island, but send the person to Seoul' shows how deeply rooted our inferiority complex toward Seoul is." He also argued, "There is deep discrimination in lumping everything outside Seoul as 'local,' and this dichotomy where Seoul is always sophisticated and advanced while the provinces are always naive and rough has dominated our society."

A explained that his recommendation for the perfect scorer to attend a local university was to prevent the student's talent from becoming 'ordinary.' He said, "(If the perfect scorer enters Seoul National University) they might just be a foreign student from Gyeongsang Province, not even from Busan." Therefore, the essence of recommending a local university was a request for the student to become a leader who transcends boundaries and breaks down the walls between Seoul and the provinces.

He continued, "While it is valuable to enter Seoul National University, settle in Seoul, and achieve personal dreams, the intention was to ask that the special talent of a perfect CSAT scorer be used to lead our society in a better direction," and concluded, "It is not wrong to dream of a society where a perfect scorer staying in the provinces is not a big issue." This post was written by A about an experience from 5 to 6 years ago and was first published in an opinion column of a local newspaper in Busan in January last year.

Netizens who read this post were divided in opinion, but many criticized A’s advice as crossing a line. Opponents said, "Would you have done the same if your own child scored a perfect CSAT?", "Why meddle in someone else's child’s decisions?", and "Why should students who studied hard be forced to bear the burden of local extinction?" Some netizens who agreed with A’s post responded, "It is definitely worth considering amid the issue of local extinction."