Even Graduate Students Are, “Going to Medical School…”

There are booming of `admitting to medical school` in juniors and seniors of science and engineering in prestigious universities. The wind of `admitting to medical school` is blowing not just in medical schools and dental colleges, but also in colleges of pharmacy and colleges of oriental medicine.

Mr. Park (28), who applied for the admitting exam for medical schools in the Seoul National University and the Gyongbuk University, was a graduate student of the Seoul National University and studied microbiology until last year. Mr. Park explained his reasoning for applying for the exam, “While I was studying at the graduate school, I realized that the door was too narrow to succeed with science.”

Ms. Huh, Soo-Jung (23. Senior, Life Science Department, Seoul National University), who passed the admitting exam for the college of oriental medicine in the Gyonghui University said, “I chose this major according to my grade, but I could not give up my longing for oriental medicine, so I challenged the exam,” and “I was very surprised that I met many of my classmates at the exam.” In case of the Life Science Department in the Seoul National University, it was known that more than 15 students out of 50 graduates this year took the admitting exams for medical schools or colleges of oriental medicines.

At the medical school in the Seoul National University, which is announcing the successful candidates on the 14th, 93 applicants applied for 10 spots, and it showed competition rate of 9.3 to 1, and at the dental college, 51 applied for 5, and it showed 10.2 to 1 competition rate.

This doubles the number of last year`s 4.2 to 1 when the university started to admit students from other universities. In case of the medical school and the dental college of the Yonsei University, the applicants were also increased more than twice as much as last year, so it showed the competition rate of 20.5 to 1 for the medical school and 31 to 1 for the dental college.

For this year, out of 41 universities, which have medical schools, 31 universities, including Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University, and Catholic University, are planning to admit 203 students by the end of February. Total of 5,595 applied so far, so it shows 27.6 to 1 competition rate. This is 1,270 more than last year by numbers.

The Yonsei University introduced admitting to medical school in 1994 for the first time, and applicants are increasing radically since 2000. Since most universities taking English, biology, and chemistry as exam subjects on top of GPA, so virtually students of science and engineering make the absolute majority of applicants. Medical schools of each universities explains that most of the successful candidates are from prestigious universities such as the Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University.

There are many students preparing to admit to medical school while in school systematically. Even the exclusive admitting prep institute, Kim Young Institute is separately operating the `medical and dental school admitting prep class` and `college of oriental medicine admitting prep class` for juniors and seniors of science and engineering. The head of the admitting prep class team, Yoo, Joon-Chul said, “Most of students prepare for the admitting exam for more than a year, and students were increased by 20% this year.”

Professor Chon, Jong-Sik of the Life Science Department in the Seoul National University said, “The main reason for the students of science and engineering to go to medical school is income,” and “unless we improve the treatment in epoch for the basic science researchers, we cannot stop the admitting trend.”

On the other hand, medical schools are welcoming this situation. Before the operation of specialized graduate school system, they can produce doctors with various major backgrounds. Professor Gwon, Oh-Joo of the Catholic University Medical School said, “Students of science and engineering, who has knowledge in basic science, have much to contribute in medicine,” and “more than half of the admitting students are keeping their grades within the top 20%, so they are adapting well.”

In-Jik Cho cij1999@donga.com