[Letters] Admissions officers’ advantage

Private educational institutes and cramming schools are thriving, and students are suffering in Korea. Fortunately, we can see a silver lining through the new admissions officer system. It allows more freedom for universities in the admissions process and offers them a great chance to escape from the conventional admissions model.

The new process is likely to bring other factors into play, such as school records and extra-curricular activities. Some might question the new Admissions Officer System and its validity. However, impartiality of the system is assured through the proper education of admissions officers and it will work go further than the previous system did to aid underprivileged students.

The new admissions system is effective in that it addresses the gist of the problem. Cram schools and private institutes are flourishing because competition between students is excessive.

Grades that Korean students receive are not absolute evaluation. The evaluation itself is already bounded for competition. If appraisal evaluations those students receive in school are the only things that really matter in the admissions process, the result is very obvious. Students will kill themselves to top the others and receive better grades.

By bringing up other factors into account in the admissions process, cram schools can be reduced.

The new system is starting in 2008 in 53 universities. It’s good that we are starting it early. The admissions officer system is already in use at top American Universities such as the University of California-Berkeley and MIT.

Ko Kwang-hyun, Daewon Foreign Language High