"SKY Popular Majors with Job Guarantees? ... Half of Admitted Students 'Decline Enrollment'"

SKY Popular Departments Also Select Waitlisted Candidates
Medical School Preference Seems to Have an Impact

As the craze for medical schools intensifies, there is a surge in the number of students who forgo enrollment despite being initially accepted into the most popular departments of Korea's top universities. Not only the semiconductor contract departments, which guarantee employment at major corporations, but also the School of Advanced Convergence at Seoul National University, which offers internship opportunities at major U.S. tech companies, had to select additional successful candidates.

According to Yonsei University and Korea University on the 22nd, Yonsei's Department of System Semiconductor Engineering saw 37 students (49.3%) out of 75 admitted initially decline enrollment, while Korea University's Department of Semiconductor Engineering had 10 students (50.0%) out of 20 do the same.

Students checking their College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) score reports [Image source=Yonhap News]

Both departments are employment-conditioned contract departments; Yonsei has agreements with Samsung Electronics, and Korea University with SK Hynix. Although these departments guarantee employment at Korea's top corporations after graduation, nearly half of the initially accepted students declined to enroll.

At Seoul National University, initially accepted students also declined enrollment, prompting the selection of additional candidates. The newly established School of Advanced Convergence at Seoul National University for the 2024 academic year (with a regular admission quota of 148 students) reportedly had 18 students, about 12%, decline enrollment.

This department was established in line with the government's semiconductor promotion policy and offers an overseas internship program for 100 students, but it failed to attract students.

The underlying reason why even popular departments at prestigious domestic universities are struggling is attributed to the 'medical school craze.' It is interpreted as a phenomenon where students initially accepted into science and engineering fields who also passed medical school admissions eventually choose to enter medical schools instead.

This trend of enrollment refusal was also observed in the 2023 regular admissions. An analysis of the regular admissions results for Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University showed that out of 4,660 admitted students, 1,343 (28.8%) declined enrollment.

In particular, all three universities saw an increase in the proportion of students declining enrollment in humanities departments. This was explained as a result of science and engineering students who cross-applied to humanities departments eventually moving to medical or engineering schools.

On the other hand, the number of medical field enrollment refusals at Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University in 2023 was 63, significantly down from 94 the previous year. No students declined enrollment at Seoul National University College of Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine had 8 students (down from 10), and Korea University College of Medicine had 4 students (down from 6) who declined enrollment.