Fewer seats in regular admission this year

College applicants will face more competition to gain admission to the nation’s universities, according to the Korean Council for University Education, which announced the admission guidelines for the 2012 academic year.

The number of freshmen slots across 200 four-year universities nationwide will decrease 3.4 percent from the 2011 academic year, which is about 5,044 fewer freshmen.

Of the 382,773 total freshmen seats expected for the 2012 academic year, about 38 percent will be filled through regular admission, while 237,693 will be filled through early admission.

Until last year, universities that did not fill their early admission seats made up the shortfall by admitting more students in the regular admission round. The practice will now end starting this year, with universities now required to fill all of their early admission seats with applicants who applied early. Universities in Korea set and announce beforehand the number of early admission seats.

“The decrease in the number of regular admission seats is due to the increase in the number of students to be admitted early, as well as a decrease in the country’s college-aged population,” said a KCUE official.

Universities are divided into three groups to discourage students from applying to too many schools in the regular admission round. Each applicant is only permitted to apply to one school in each group.

A total of 53,338 students will be accepted during regular admission to group A, which is composed of 149 universities, while 54,623 will be admitted to group B, which has 154 universities, and 37,119 freshmen will be accepted to group C, made up of 152 universities. The application period for regular admission begins at the end of December.

Students accepted in regular admission will be notified before Feb. 3, 2012, and those accepted off the wait list will be notified before Feb. 22.

Furthermore, the KCUE announced that a total of 89 universities will base regular admission decisions on CSAT scores solely. CSAT scores will be weighted 80 percent at 40 universities, and 60 percent at 37 universities.

More schools this year will also increase the weight of interviews in making regular admission decisions. Interviews will be weighted more than 20 percent at 37 universities, which is three more than last year.

The official application handbook is available on the Web at http://univ.kcue.or.kr.

By Yim Seung-hye [sharon@joongang.co.kr]