After the 2022 Integrated CSAT, "Liberal Arts Invasion"
56% of Regular Admissions in Humanities Departments Are Science Track Students
"Liberal Arts Students Find It Hard to Predict College Admission Strategies"
This year, the phenomenon of "liberal arts invasion" has become pronounced, with all successful applicants in regular admissions for humanities majors in the Seoul metropolitan area?such as English Education and Child Studies?being selected from the science track. Analysts say that this has increased the instability in liberal arts students' strategies for college admissions.
On June 16, Jongro Academy analyzed data from the "Where to Go" college admissions portal, examining 340 humanities departments at 17 major universities in the Seoul metropolitan area. The results showed that, among successful applicants for the 2025 regular admissions, 55.6% had taken Calculus or Geometry in mathematics. This is the first time universities have released the proportion of mathematics elective subjects by department along with admission scores.
On the 21st, parents and students attending the "2025 College Scholastic Ability Test Analysis and Regular Admission, Medical School Application Strategy Seminar," co-hosted by the Korean Council for University Education and EBS at Samsung Hall, Ewha Womans University in Seoul, are listening attentively to the instructor's explanation. Photo by Jo Yongjun
This year, the number of successful science track students admitted to the analyzed humanities departments exceeded that of liberal arts students. Based on the typical trend?liberal arts students usually choose Probability and Statistics, while science students choose Calculus or Geometry?those who selected Calculus or Geometry were classified as "science track" students.
In particular, some majors saw 100% of their regular admissions freshmen coming from the science track. There were 21 such departments, including Child and Family Studies at Yonsei University, English Education at Hanyang University, Thai Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Media and Communication at Konkuk University, and Law at Sejong University.
This "liberal arts invasion" phenomenon has emerged since the introduction of the integrated College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in the 2022 academic year. In the integrated CSAT, Calculus and Geometry have resulted in higher standard scores than Probability and Statistics, even when raw scores are the same, making them advantageous for college admissions. As a result, science track students have increasingly been applying to humanities departments across tracks.
In line with the purpose of the integrated curriculum, universities are also moving to abolish the requirement for specific mandatory CSAT subjects. Unlike in the past, when students had to take certain inquiry or mathematics subjects to apply for science majors, the prevailing trend now is to not designate mandatory subjects but instead to award additional points for selected electives. Many universities give extra points to those who choose Social Studies in humanities departments, and to those who choose Science Inquiry or Mathematics Calculus/Geometry in science departments.
With the increase in cross-application by science track students, it is becoming more difficult to predict admissions outcomes for liberal arts students. Lim Seongho, CEO of Jongro Academy, stated, "Based on mathematics, the cross-application of science track students to humanities departments is very broad and significant in scale. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for liberal arts students to predict their chances of regular admission. Furthermore, since the differences in scores between elective subjects are not disclosed in the CSAT grading results, the predictability of admissions is becoming even more challenging."
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