On the 29th, applications open for the 2026 regular college admissions.
According to the Korean Council for University Education's "2026 academic year college admissions plan" on the 28th, four-year general universities will accept applications for regular admissions from the 29th to the 31st. Junior colleges will accept applications until Jan. 14 next year.
Test takers may apply to three universities in total in the regular admissions, one each in Groups A, B, and C (ga, na, da). Students who were admitted in the early admissions cannot apply in the regular round regardless of whether they registered. Applications for the regular round can be submitted through agency websites such as Jinhak Apply and Uway Apply.
On the application websites, applicants can also check last year's regular admissions competition rates and this year's real-time competition rates. This year, four-year universities nationwide will admit 69,272 students through the regular round, accounting for 19.8% of the total quota of 349,289. The intake is smaller than last year's 70,688 (20.4%).
This year's regular-round competition is expected to be fiercer than last year. The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was more difficult, and the number of test takers increased by 30,410 from the previous year.
The admissions industry said applicants should examine each university's weighting by CSAT section. In particular, it is necessary to consider the weight of the English section, where only 3.11% earned the top grade this year. Among the so-called "SKY" (Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University), the weight of English is relatively high in the order of Yonsei University, Korea University, then Seoul National University.
Meanwhile, announcements of successful applicants for the 2026 regular admissions will be made by Feb. 2 next year. Registration will be from the 3rd to the 5th of the same month, and the deadline for additional acceptance notices due to non-registration is the 12th.