This year, 180 students admitted to the natural sciences track at Seoul National University through the regular admissions round declined to enroll. It is the largest number in five years.
According to Jongno Academy on the 18th, the total number of admitted students who declined to enroll for the 2026 academic year at Seoul National University through the regular admissions round was counted at 224. The natural sciences track had the most at 180 (80.4%). It was followed by the humanities at 36 (16.1%) and arts and physical education at 8 (3.6%).
The number of students declining to enroll in the natural sciences track at Seoul National University this year rose slightly from last year (178). It is analyzed that in both last year and this year, the expansion of medical school enrollment quotas led to many students declining to enroll. Compared with the 2023 academic year (88), before the increase in medical school quotas, the number more than doubled.
Specifically, 16 students did not enroll in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies in Advanced Convergence, 15 in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and 14 in the College of Nursing. In the natural sciences, there were three departments with no enrollment declines: the pre-medicine department, the Department of Energy Resources Engineering, and the Department of Statistics.
Jongno Academy predicted that starting with the 2027 academic year, when the regional physician system is introduced, more admitted students in the natural sciences track at Seoul National University will leave.
Lim Seong-ho, head of Jongno Academy, said, "Those who decline to enroll in the natural sciences track at Seoul National University through the regular admissions round can in effect be seen as mostly students with overlapping acceptances to medical schools," and noted, "Those declining to enroll in the humanities track at Seoul National University are also presumed in most cases to have been simultaneously admitted to medical schools, dental schools, and Korean medicine schools that select from the humanities track."