With applications for most regular admissions for the 2026 academic year now closed, departments with corporate contracts that guarantee high salaries after graduation posted high competition rates.
On Jan. 2, an analysis by college admissions firms including Jinhaksa of department-by-department competition rates for the 2026 regular admissions, which closed on Dec. 31, found that Hanyang University's Department of Semiconductor Engineering recorded 11.80 to 1.
This was higher than the average competition rate for regular admissions at 11 major Seoul-based universities (Kyunghee University, Korea University, Sogang University, Seoul National University, University of Seoul, Sungkyunkwan University, Yonsei University, Ewha Womans University, Chung-Ang University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Hanyang University).
Hanyang University's Department of Semiconductor Engineering is one of the contract departments partnered with SK hynix. Sogang University's Department of Semiconductor Engineering, also partnered with SK hynix, posted 9.00 to 1, and Korea University's Department of Semiconductor Engineering recorded 7.47 to 1, both showing high competition.
Attention appears to have focused after projections that SK hynix would pay an average performance bonus of 1 billion won per employee.
By contrast, Yonsei University's Department of System Semiconductor Engineering, partnered with Samsung Electronics (5.84 to 1), and Sungkyunkwan University's Department of Semiconductor Systems Engineering (5.33 to 1) were around the average competition rate of the 11 major Seoul universities (5.37 to 1).
Woo Yeon-cheol, head of the Jinhaksa Admissions Strategy Research Institute, said, "This reflects factors such as employment prospects and salaries after graduation in students' preferences for universities."