"I Don't Want to Be a Doctor, I'd Rather Go Straight to 'Samjeon-Nyx'... Yonsei and Korea University Contract Department Cutoff Hits Record High"

"Emerging as an Alternative to Medical Schools"

The early admission grade cutoff for the semiconductor contract departments at Yonsei University and Korea University for the 2026 academic year has reached an all-time high. This is attributed to the semiconductor super-boom, which has intensified competition to join Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

According to Jongro Academy on April 26, the average early admission cutoff grade for the Department of System Semiconductor Engineering at Yonsei University, a contract department with Samsung Electronics, was 1.47 for the 2026 academic year. This marks a significant increase from 3.1 in the department's inaugural year in 2021, and is the highest in six years.

Similarly, the average early admission cutoff grade for the Department of Semiconductor Engineering at Korea University, a contract department with SK hynix, was 2.68. This also represents a substantial rise from 3.25 in 2021, setting a new record.

Korea University also released the regular admission cutoff scores. For the 2026 academic year, the regular admission cutoff for the Department of Semiconductor Engineering was an average percentile score of 96.67 in the Korean language, mathematics, and science subjects, up from 95.33 the previous year. Notably, the cutoff grades for Yonsei University's curriculum-based admissions (recommendation track) and Korea University's comprehensive admissions (academic excellence track) have risen to the low 1.0 range, which experts say is comparable to the cutoff for medical schools.

Jongro Academy CEO Lim Sung-ho stated, "In the past, top science students mainly focused on medical schools or the College of Engineering at Seoul National University, but now, some are shifting towards the semiconductor contract departments at Yonsei and Korea University. While the preference for medical schools remains high, for top students who are less interested in medicine, these contract departments have become viable alternatives to medical school."

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