One-third of new students at Korea’s ‘SKY’ universities are from Seoul

One-third of new students at Korea’s top three universities were found to come from high schools in the nation’s capital city, Seoul.

According to Yonhap News reports citing the state-run Higher Education in Korea website on Sunday, among 13,141 entrants to Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University, 32 percent were from high schools in Seoul -- double the national average.

By school, Seoul National University had the largest percentage of its students from Seoul, with 1,361 students making up 36.3 percent of the 3,746 new students. Yonsei University followed with 1,374 students from Seoul, accounting for 31.6 percent, and Korea University had 1,466 students from Seoul, comprising 29.1 percent.

The percentage of incoming students from small and medium-sized cities at these universities was 30.2 percent, which is 11.1 percentage points lower than the average for all universities (41.3 percent). The proportion of students from larger, self-governing cities was 15.9 percent, while 12.3 percent were from rural areas.

The other 11 percent were listed as "miscellaneous" but there was no detail on what that included.

Regarding the types of high schools, 55.4 percent of students came from general high schools, 14 percent from autonomous private high schools, 9.3 percent from international schools, 8.2 percent from foreign language and international high schools, and 3.9 percent from science high schools.