The number of students admitted to Korea's top 10 universities through the qualification examination (GED) reached 824 for the 2026 academic year, the highest in the past decade.
Jongro Academy said the findings came from an analysis of disclosure data from Academyinfo, a higher education information portal, released on the 26th.
Among the so-called "SKY" universities—Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University—Yonsei had the most at 113. Korea University had 77, and Seoul National University had 55.
The proportion of GED graduates among all incoming students at the top 10 universities also hit a 10-year high at 2.0 percent, up from 1.9 percent the previous year.
The number of GED graduates taking the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is also rising.
A total of 22,355 GED graduates applied for the 2026 CSAT, accounting for 4.0 percent of all applicants. Both the number and the proportion were the highest in the past decade.
"As more GED graduates take the CSAT, the number of high-scoring students among them is also presumed to be increasing," said Lim Sung-ho, head of Jongro Academy.
