One in Five Regular Admission Students Accepted to Seoul National University and Medical Schools Nationwide Are from Gangnam

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One out of five successful applicants in the regular admission process to Seoul National University (SNU) and medical schools nationwide came from the Gangnam 3 districts (Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa).

On the 9th, Kang Deuk-gu, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, and the organization Education Concern-Free Society (Sagokse) analyzed data on the regions of origin of new undergraduate students at SNU and new students at 29 medical schools nationwide from 2019 to 2022, obtained from the Ministry of Education. The analysis showed that the average proportion of new SNU students from the Seoul metropolitan area over the past four years was 63.4%.

The proportion of new SNU students from the Seoul metropolitan area has been increasing annually.

Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Deuk-gu. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The proportion of new SNU (all undergraduate departments) students from the Seoul metropolitan area increased from 61.8% in 2019 to 64.6% in 2022. Similarly, the proportion of students from the Seoul metropolitan area in medical schools nationwide rose from 44.2% to 46.3% during the same period.

The gap was even more pronounced depending on the admission type, with a higher proportion of Seoul metropolitan area students among those admitted through the regular admission process compared to early admission.

Over the past four years, the proportion of Seoul metropolitan area students admitted through early admission to SNU was between 58% and 59%, whereas the proportion admitted through regular admission was 78.4% in 2022. This means that 8 out of 10 students admitted through regular admission were from the Seoul metropolitan area.

This disparity was also observed in medical schools. The proportion of Seoul metropolitan area students admitted through early admission ranged from 36.1% to 38%, but it surged to 60.3% in 2022 for those admitted through regular admission.

Moreover, more than one out of five successful applicants in the regular admission process to SNU and medical schools nationwide were from the 'Gangnam 3 districts.'

In particular, in 2022, students from the Gangnam 3 districts accounted for over 22% of those admitted through regular admission to SNU and medical schools nationwide, nearly three times higher than the approximately 7% admitted through early admission.

Assemblyman Kang Deuk-gu emphasized, "We urgently need to examine whether the regular admission process is not only accelerating regional disparities with the Seoul metropolitan area but also encouraging concentration in private education hotspots. We must diagnose whether the current Korean university entrance system structurally fosters regional crises, and the government should include bold and definitive measures to resolve educational disparities in the 2028 university reform."

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