Expansion of Non-Major Fields Favors Science Track
Integrated CSAT: Calculus Advantageous for High Scores in Math
It has been identified that all the first admitted students to Seoul National University's Division of Liberal Studies last year were science track students. As the government promotes the expansion of no-major admissions at major universities for the 2025 college entrance exam, which this year's high school seniors will take, there is a forecast that this policy will be more advantageous to science track students.
On the 14th, Jongno Academy announced that 100% of the first admitted students to Seoul National University's Division of Liberal Studies for the 2023 academic year were science track students. It is also known that this ratio reached 94.6% in the 2022 academic year.
For the 2023 academic year, the top 70% admission cutoff score for Korean, Mathematics, and Inquiry subjects in Seoul National University's Division of Liberal Studies was 98.3 points. This ranked second in the humanities at Seoul National University, following the Department of Political Science and International Relations (98.5 points), and ranked fourth among science tracks, following the regional balance admission for the College of Medicine (99.5 points), general admission for the College of Medicine (99.3 points), and the College of Dentistry (99.0 points).
The fact that science track students monopolize admissions to the Division of Liberal Studies is largely due to the integrated CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) implemented from the 2022 academic year. The current integrated CSAT favors science track students, who tend to score higher standard scores in Mathematics and Science Inquiry subjects compared to humanities students. Calculus yields higher scores than Probability and Statistics; even if both receive a raw score of 100, the standard score for Calculus is ultimately higher.
In the case of Korea University's Division of Liberal Studies, which separately selects humanities and natural sciences students, the regular admission cutoff last year for Type B (humanities) was 95.5 points, ranking second after the Department of Statistics (95.6 points). Type A (natural sciences) had a cutoff of 95.0 points, ranking 15th out of 31 departments, which is mid-tier.
Korea University's Division of Liberal Studies had previously recruited students who took the Probability and Statistics math section under Type B separately until last year, but for the 2024 academic year, it plans to integrate admissions for the Division of Liberal Studies. Ultimately, science track students are expected to have an advantage over humanities students.
On the afternoon of the 27th, when the Ministry of Education announced the '2028 College Entrance Reform Plan' to be applied starting with current 8th-grade students, a large bookstore in Seoul displayed workbooks related to high school mathematics calculus, probability, and statistics. [Photo by Yonhap News]
In the ongoing 2024 academic year college entrance, Seoul National University's Division of Liberal Studies plans to select 118 students, which is 3.6% of the total recruitment, while Korea University's Division of Liberal Studies plans to select 90 students, which is 2.3%.
Im Seong-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, pointed out, "If the Division of Liberal Studies conducts integrated selection for humanities and natural sciences without separately designating the number of admissions, it will ultimately favor science track students, and humanities students may face reduced opportunities for admission."
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