"Want to Become a Doctor" SKY Humanities Students Dropping Out Midway, Highest in 5 Years

2,131 Mid-Year Dropouts Last Year... Especially Many in Humanities
Medical School Concentration Accelerates "Likely to Increase This Year as Well"

Last year, it was confirmed that 2,131 students dropped out midway from the so-called 'SKY' universities?Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University. This is the highest number in the past five years, and it is analyzed that the phenomenon of concentration in medical schools is intensifying, especially because many of the dropouts were liberal arts students.

According to an analysis of university disclosure data by Jongno Academy on the 3rd, the number of mid-term dropouts from Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University over the past five years showed a continuous upward trend: 1,339 in 2018 (1.8% of enrolled students), 1,415 in 2019 (1.9%), 1,624 in 2020 (2.1%), 1,971 in 2021 (2.6%), and 2,131 in 2022.

The number of mid-term dropouts at Seoul National University increased from 281 (1.3%) in the 2018 academic year to 412 (1.9%) in 2022; at Yonsei University, from 477 (1.9%) to 822 (3.0%); and at Korea University, from 581 (2.1%) to 897 (3.4%).

According to Jongno Academy, among the reasons for mid-term dropout (such as withdrawal, non-registration, failure to re-enroll, academic probation), the majority were withdrawals, accounting for 81.4% as of 2022. Among these, many students withdrew between January and February after attending school and then preparing again for college entrance exams and receiving acceptance notifications.

Compared to the previous year (2021), the number of mid-term dropouts in the natural sciences slightly decreased, while those in the liberal arts increased. Last year, the number of mid-term dropouts in the liberal arts at the three universities was 688, a 50.9% increase from 456 in 2021, which is also the highest in five years.

Seoul National University Main Gate [Image source=Yonhap News]

Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, said, "Students who initially applied across fields from natural sciences to liberal arts may have struggled to adapt to school and then returned to natural sciences, and this can also be seen as an intensification of the concentration in medical schools. Based on last year's trend, there is a possibility that the number of top-tier repeat test-takers will increase somewhat this year as well."

The acceleration of the concentration in medical schools is appearing from elementary and middle school students. In a survey conducted in May by Jongno Academy targeting 1,395 parents?676 of elementary school students and 719 of middle school students?88.2% responded that they hope their children pursue natural sciences. Among them, 92.3% of elementary school parents and 84.4% of middle school parents expressed this preference.

The preferred majors among parents hoping for natural sciences were medical fields (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy) at 49.7%, ranking first, followed by engineering fields at 40.2%. Only 10.1% responded that they hoped their children would pursue pure natural sciences.

In particular, the preference for medical fields among elementary school parents (52.3%) was higher than that of middle school parents (47.0%). In the case of natural sciences, the preference for medical schools including those in provincial areas (44.0%) surpassed that for Seoul National University's science and engineering fields (20.5%) and KAIST (18.8%). This indicates a tendency to prefer provincial medical schools over other majors at Seoul National University.

In fact, according to recent education industry reports, medical school preparatory classes for elementary and middle school students are increasing, especially centered around Gangnam-gu, Seoul. These academies, operated with small elite classes of fewer than 10 students, require entrance exams, and the competition rate is reported to reach up to 10 to 1.

An academy official said, "Students tend to choose medical schools over science and engineering fields in natural sciences, and within medical schools, many go into specialties like dermatology or plastic surgery rather than majors directly related to life sciences. Ultimately, the trend is that the most outstanding students choose well-paying and comfortable jobs."

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