An analysis found that current first-year high school students will need an average of 1.6 or better across the five College Scholastic Ability Test subjects — Korean, math, English, inquiry, and Korean history — to enter Seoul National University through the regular admissions cycle for the 2028 academic year.
Jongno Academy said on the 12th that this is the outlook from its analysis of the key elements of the 2028 freshman admissions plan that Seoul National University recently announced.
Starting with the 2028 academic year regular admissions, Seoul National University will change how it recruits freshmen. In regular admissions, it will abolish the regional balance track and change both the method and weight of the CSAT in the general track.
Specifically, in the first stage of the general track for regular admissions, the university will select three times the number of final admits based on 100% CSAT. In the second stage, it will combine 60% CSAT and 40% academic competency evaluation to select the final admits. Currently, the first stage selects twice the number of final admits based on 100% CSAT, and the second stage determines admits with 80% CSAT and 20% academic competency evaluation.
Applying these criteria, Jongno Academy said it estimates that to pass the first stage of the general track, the average across the five subjects must be 1.6 or better. Based on Seoul National University's 2026 admissions quota of 3,556, three times that would be 10,668. Adding the quotas for medical, dental, Korean medicine, and pharmacy schools, which total 6,498, brings those schools' combined quota to 17,166. The number of students whose five-subject CSAT average corresponds to 1.6 is estimated at 18,977.
Jongno Academy predicted that in the second stage of regular admissions, competition will likely be among students with a school record average of 1.2 or better. That is because the current nine-grade school record system will switch to a five-grade system in the 2028 academic year, which is expected to increase the number of students earning first-tier grades in all subjects.
Lim Seong-ho, head of Jongno Academy, said, "With many students tied on school records, it appears that students with superior CSAT scores will ultimately be connected to admission."