This Year and Next Year's Enrollment Increase Scale Changes
Jongno Academy "Affects Advantages and Disadvantages by Grade"
Jinhaksa "Cannot Predict Application Scale"
As 31 medical schools nationwide with increased quotas have submitted their medical school admission numbers for the 2025 academic year, an analysis suggests that the expansion of medical school quotas could also affect admission cutoff scores. It is expected that the score ranges for possible admission will significantly diverge in cases of increases in the 1,500 and 2,000 range, respectively.
According to the "2025 Academic Year College Admission Plan Submission Status for Medical School Quotas" announced by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Council for University Education, among the 32 medical schools with increased quotas for the 2025 academic year, 31 schools excluding Cha Medical School have decided on their admission numbers for next year and submitted changes to the college admission plan to the Council.
The total submitted increase amounts to 1,469 students, raising the total quota to 4,487 students. Including Cha Medical School, which has not submitted, the final quota size is expected to be around 4,567 students. Earlier, the government accepted requests for 'autonomous adjustment' from some national universities, deciding on an increase of around 1,500 students this year and applying a 2,000-student increase next year.
Regarding this, Jongro Academy expressed concern on the 3rd, stating, "The advantages and disadvantages of medical school admissions may vary by grade level." Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, analyzed, "For current high school seniors (2025 academic year admissions), applying the expanded medical school quota is expected to lower the combined percentile scores of Korean, Math, and Inquiry subjects by 2.91 points, and for high school juniors (2026 academic year admissions), by 3.9 points."
Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, is making an announcement on the allocation of 2,000 medical school quotas at the Joint Briefing Room of the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 20th. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@
He also estimated, "Among successful applicants in science and engineering fields at SKY universities (Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University), 67.7% will be able to enter medical schools based on the CSAT criteria in 2025, but this could expand to 78.5% in 2026." The differing increase scales this year and next could lead to changes in the score ranges required for admission. In particular, for high school seniors taking this year's entrance exam, the delay in finalizing the admission quota is increasing uncertainty in score predictions.
On the other hand, some argue that it is impossible to predict the cutoff scores themselves, so advantages and disadvantages by grade cannot be determined. Woo Yeon-cheol, director of the Admission Strategy Research Institute at Jinhaksa, said, "First, it is impossible to predict how many students will apply due to this medical school quota increase," adding, "The converted scores by school differ from the simple sum of percentile scores."
He further analyzed, "While increasing the admission quota is likely to lower the cutoff scores, if the number of prepared students increases, the cutoff scores may not drop significantly. However, in the case of regional talent selection, since universities are increasing their proportions and the eligible applicants are limited, the cutoff scores could fall significantly."
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