The high school GPA cutoff for admission to Korean medical schools reached its highest level in three years for the 2026 academic year, according to new data. The average GPA of admitted students at nine medical schools stood at grade 1.22, up about 0.2 grades from the previous year.
Jongro Academy said Wednesday that its analysis of 2026 admission scores at nine medical schools — Catholic University of Korea, University of Ulsan, Kyungpook National University, Chonnam National University, Konyang University, Hallym University, Eulji University, Gyeongsang National University and Kosin University — showed increases across the board compared with both the 2025 and 2024 academic years.
These schools, out of 39 medical colleges nationwide, publicly disclosed admission GPA scores through their websites. Korean high schools use a grading system in which grade 1 is the highest. The average minimum admission grade at the nine schools was 1.22, up 0.19 grades from the previous year.
At the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, the average GPA of final enrollees for the 2026 academic year was 1.15, up 0.08 grades from 1.23 in 2025 and 0.31 grades higher than 1.46 in 2024.
Kyungpook National University's medical school posted a top 70% cutoff of grade 1.35 for 2026, up 0.16 grades from a year earlier and 0.27 grades higher than in 2024.
At Gyeongsang National University's medical school, which released the 80% cutoff among final enrollees, the 2026 figure was 1.11, higher than both 2024 (1.12) and 2025 (1.37).
The average GPA of new students at Catholic University of Korea's medical school was 1.30 for 2026, a significant increase from 1.42 in 2025 and 1.49 in 2024. As a Seoul-based medical school, Catholic University was not affected by the 2025 expansion of medical school quotas.
The national medical school admission quota was sharply increased for the 2025 academic year but returned to the pre-expansion 2024 level for 2026.
Jongro Academy said the rise in admission scores, regardless of whether quotas were expanded, suggests a stronger trend of top-ranking students choosing medical school. "This can be interpreted as a pronounced phenomenon of students with top grades concentrating on medical school over other majors," said Lim Seong-ho, head of Jongro Academy.
The medical school craze is also evident in the regular admissions track. In the 2025 science-track regular admissions, 76.9% of students in the top 1% chose medical school.
