The number of early admissions applicants to South Korea's four government-funded science and technology institutes has topped 30,000 for the first time for the 2027 academic year. Admissions consultants attribute the increase to a combination of factors, including growing interest in semiconductor contract programs and the launch of new artificial intelligence majors at these schools.
According to Jongro Academy on the 5th, early admissions applications to the four institutes — the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) — totaled 33,349 for the 2027 academic year. That is up 8,926, or 36.5%, from 24,423 a year earlier. Applications to the four institutes have more than doubled in four years from 15,443 for the 2023 academic year.
DGIST posted the steepest increase, with applications up 48.9% from a year earlier, followed by UNIST at 41.6%, GIST at 36.2% and KAIST at 20.1%. The average ratio of applicants to available seats at the four institutes rose to 16.13 to 1 this year from 14.14 to 1 last year.
Analysts point to the creation of AI-related majors as one driver of the growing interest. The four institutes will admit a combined 340 students to the new programs for the 2027 academic year — 100 each at DGIST, UNIST and GIST, and 40 at KAIST.
Interest in the semiconductor contract programs run by the institutes has also increased. Applications to the Samsung Electronics (005930) semiconductor contract programs rose 80.6% at GIST and 53.9% at DGIST from a year earlier. The applicant-to-seat ratio climbed to 11.56 to 1 from 6.40 to 1 at GIST, and to 15.22 to 1 from 9.89 to 1 at DGIST. Applications to KAIST's School of Semiconductor System Engineering fell 56.0% from a year earlier after the number of seats was cut to 40 from 100, but the ratio still rose to 4.63 to 1 from 4.20 to 1, underscoring demand for chip-related studies.
Admissions consultants say it remains to be seen whether the jump in applications will translate into higher admission cutoffs. "Because applications to the science institutes are not counted against the six-application limit for early admissions, actual enrollment results can shift depending on the final choices of students who also applied to medical schools and science and engineering departments at general universities," said Lim Sung-ho, head of Jongro Academy. "Since both applicants and available seats increased at the same time, students holding multiple offers from medical schools and general universities and moving between them will be a variable for admission cutoffs going forward."
