Regular Admission Application D-5... The Variable is Cross-Application

Cross-application and transition to pharmacy undergraduate system as variables
Increase in science students considering cross-application after grade announcement
High differentiation in Korean for top grades, math for 2nd and 3rd grades

Students who completed the natural sciences essay exam at Sungkyunkwan University are leaving Sungkyunkwan University in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 21st. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The regular admission application for the 2022 academic year will begin on the 30th. As it is the first year the integrated CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) is conducted, it is expected that the number of science students applying across tracks will increase significantly, and the change of pharmacy colleges to an undergraduate system will act as variables.

According to Jongno Academy on the 25th, a survey of CSAT takers considering cross-application to the liberal arts track showed an increase from 26.8% immediately after the CSAT to 37.4% after the score announcement. After the score announcement, 48.4% of science track students with percentile scores in the 250-point range were found to be considering cross-application.

Since students who took calculus or geometry scored higher than liberal arts students (probability and statistics), the prevailing expectation is that cross-application to humanities recruitment units to raise university admission levels will become possible.

Nam Yungon, head of the Education Admission Strategy Research Institute at Megastudy, said, "Students who took probability and statistics need to check through mock applications whether they have a clear advantage and how many competing students are applying across tracks. Top-tier science students can consider cross-applying to humanities recruitment units with a high math weighting, and among universities without restrictions on math elective subjects, those that give additional points for calculus, geometry, or science exploration subjects may favor students who took calculus or geometry with relatively higher scores, so it is necessary to check the advantages and disadvantages according to elective subjects."

Due to these concerns, some universities have announced scoring systems in the inquiry area conversion standard scores that disadvantage science students when applying across tracks to liberal arts. Sungkyunkwan University designed the system so that even if the percentile score is 100 points, social studies inquiry takers receive 69.5 points, and science inquiry takers receive 68.0 points, causing a 1.5-point disadvantage. Seoul National University requires science inquiry takers to also take a second foreign language or classical Chinese to apply to liberal arts, making cross-application to liberal arts difficult.

By score range, discrimination is expected to come from Korean language subjects in the first grade, and from math in the second and third grades. Among the top students in the first-grade range, there was an 18-point difference in Korean, while math differences remained around 10 points. In the second-grade range, Korean had a 6-point difference, and math had 9 points. In the third-grade range, Korean had a 7-point difference, and math had a 9-point difference, showing higher discrimination in math.

Im Seongho, CEO of Jongno Academy, explained, "At Seoul National University, in humanities, if the Korean standard score is below 130 points (based on the Department of History Education), even a perfect math score cannot guarantee eligibility due to subject weighting conversion. In natural sciences, if the score is below 125 points (based on the Department of Earth Science Education), even a perfect math score does not allow application."

Since there is a large score difference in math, liberal arts students need to make careful decisions when applying to universities that place a high weighting on math. Science students are likely to focus on exploiting their advantage in math. For example, Incheon National University gives a 10% additional score for choosing calculus or geometry in all recruitment units, and some education universities such as Gyeongin National University of Education and Busan National University of Education also give additional points to those who chose calculus or geometry.

Admission experts advise that liberal arts students should make at least one out of three applications as a sincere choice during regular admissions. This is due to many top-tier science students being positioned in Korean and English subjects and a significant decrease in top liberal arts students in math.

CEO Im said, "As it is the first year of the integrated CSAT and the number of regular admissions at major universities has increased, and the undergraduate system in pharmacy colleges also affects the admission cutoff, various variables such as the concentration of top-tier science students will cause admission results to differ significantly from previous years."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.