Jongro Academy: "Highest Since the 2016 Academic Year"
Number of Successful Applicants from the Equivalency Exam Track Also Rising at Other Top-Tier Universities
Among successful regular admission applicants to Seoul National University, 44 came through the High School Graduation Equivalency Examination, marking the highest figure since related statistics began. As the number of successful applicants with this background has also generally increased at other top-tier universities, analysts say there is a clear trend of top-performing students choosing a College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT)-focused strategy instead of remaining enrolled in high school.
Jongro Academy announced on the 11th that its analysis of successful regular admission applicants to Seoul National University for the 2026 academic year showed a total of 44 candidates who came through the equivalency exam route. This represents a 22.2% increase from the previous year’s 36, and is the largest number since Jongro Academy began compiling such statistics for the 2016 academic year.
The number of students who gained regular admission to Seoul National University through the equivalency exam stood at only 5 in the 2016 academic year, but has steadily increased, reaching 30 by the 2020 academic year. Over the most recent five years, from the 2021 to the 2025 academic years, the figure exceeded 30 every year except for the 2023 academic year, and this year it surpassed 40 for the first time.
The number of successful applicants with an equivalency exam background is rising not only at Seoul National University, but also at other top-tier universities such as Yonsei University and Korea University. At Yonsei University, the number increased by 47.0%, from 83 in the 2024 academic year to 122 in the 2025 academic year, while at Korea University it rose by 30.4%, from 69 to 90 over the same period.
Other universities have also seen increases in successful applicants from the equivalency exam track for the 2025 academic year compared with the previous year, including Hanyang University (36.4%), Kyung Hee University (19.6%), Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (8.2%), and Sungkyunkwan University (4.1%).
As of the 2025 academic year, the total number of successful applicants with an equivalency exam background at 10 major universities in Seoul was 785, an 8.9% increase from 721 in the previous year.
One of the main reasons cited for the increase in successful applicants from the equivalency exam track at major universities is that withdrawing from school to avoid competition in school grades and focus on the CSAT has become established as an admissions strategy. In fact, the general high school dropout rates last year in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu, where many top-performing students are concentrated, were 2.6% and 2.7%, respectively. In a school with 1,000 students, this would mean at least 8 to 9 students per grade level are dropping out.
Jongro Academy CEO Lim Sung-ho said, “The fact that the number of equivalency exam students being admitted to top-tier universities such as Seoul National University is increasing shows that the equivalency exam is being recognized as one type of admissions strategy,” adding, “Recently, not only mid- and lower-performing students but also top-performing students are increasingly leaving school, which can be interpreted as a growing trend of strategic choices aimed at eliminating the burden of school grades and focusing on the CSAT.”
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