On the 7th, Jongno Academy reported that among the 10 students admitted to Seoul National University's regular admission process this year, 2 were repeat examinees. This marks the highest proportion of repeat examinees in the regular admission process in 10 years.
According to Jongno Academy, the proportion of repeat examinees among Seoul National University regular admissions increased from 19.3% in the 2024 academic year to 21% in the 2025 academic year, an increase of 1.7 percentage points. During the same period, the proportion of current students admitted rose from 38.1% to 40.3%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points. In contrast, the admission rate for first-time examinees fell from 40.4% to 36.4%, a decrease of 4 percentage points. Typically, first-time examinees have had a greater chance of admission than current students at Seoul National University, but this year the situation has changed.
The admissions industry notes that the expansion of medical school quotas and the moderate difficulty of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) have had a combined effect. First, many students in their senior year of high school, who narrowly missed medical school due to one or two questions when they were high school seniors, have decided to retake the CSAT, thereby increasing the proportion of repeat examinees. Lim Sung-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, said, "High-scoring repeat examinees aiming for medical school have the qualifications to attend Seoul National University, which is why it can be analyzed that they were admitted to both medical school and Seoul National University," adding, "There is also a possibility that they may exit to medical school afterward."
CEO Lim noted, "The changed admission trends for first-time and repeat examinees were influenced by the difficulty of the CSAT." He explained, "Typically, repeat examinees score higher than high school seniors, so when the CSAT is difficult, repeat examinees have an advantage, and the score gap with current students widens significantly. This year’s CSAT was relatively easier, which appears to have reduced the gap between repeat and current students, resulting in an increase in current student admissions."
Meanwhile, among this year's Seoul National University regular admission students, 63.6% were from general high schools. This was followed by specialized high schools and autonomous private high schools (27.5%), art and sports high schools (5.9%), high school equivalency exam (2.3%), and specialized vocational high schools (0.6%). The distribution of admitted students by region included Seoul (46.8%), cities (37.8%), metropolitan cities (11.8%), and counties (3.6%).