"You Can Tell at a Glance They're from Seoul National University"... Transcript Format Undermines Blind Evaluation, Sparks Controversy

Controversy over Seoul National University Law School's admissions process
Unchanged despite criticism at last year's parliamentary audit

Seoul National University's School of Law has come under fire over claims that it is not properly implementing "blind evaluation" in its admissions process.

Baek Seung-a, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly's Education Committee, said during a parliamentary audit on October 16 that 94 of the 152 students admitted to Seoul National University's School of Law this year were graduates of the university. That amounts to 61.8% of all admitted students, meaning more than 6 out of every 10 came from Seoul National University.

Main Gate of Seoul National University. Courtesy of Seoul National University.

Baek criticized the university's distinctive transcript format. Unlike the portrait format commonly used by other universities, Seoul National University issues transcripts in landscape format. This makes it possible to identify an applicant's university from the appearance of the transcript alone, effectively undermining the purpose of "blind evaluation." The format of Seoul National University's transcripts was also criticized during last year's parliamentary audit.

"Just because Seoul National University is a little different and thinks it's special, does it really have to use a conspicuously different format from other schools?" Baek said. "You can tell at a glance that Seoul National University is Seoul National University. How is this blind evaluation?"

Seoul National University President Yoo Hong-lim replied, "The format and contents of transcripts are legally determined autonomously by each university under its academic regulations." He added, "We are continuing to work on revising the format, and we have also made a proposal to the Korean Association of Law Schools."

Baek also pointed out that Seoul National University's School of Law assigns a high 40% weight to qualitative evaluation in admissions but provides insufficient official guidance on the process, fueling the growth of a private education market to prepare applicants for oral examinations. "Students are paying for information because universities are not disclosing information they should make public," Baek said. "If students' admissions preparation already differs this much depending on their access to information and financial circumstances, can they really accept this as fair competition?"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.