Shift Toward Larger High Schools Following 5-Grade GPA System; 31% Increase in Freshmen at Schools with 300+ Students

The introduction of a 5-grade GPA system has led to a clear trend of freshmen concentrating in large-scale high schools with higher student populations.
It appears that as competition for GPA grades becomes more intense, students and parents are concluding that attending schools with more students is more advantageous for securing desired grades.
This is because a larger student body increases the number of students who can receive top-tier grades.
According to an analysis by Jongro Academy of the number of first-year students at 1,700 general high schools nationwide, as disclosed on School Info, the number of students who entered general high schools with 300 or more students this year reached 107,080.
This is a 30.6% (25,063 students) surge compared to 82,017 last year.
On the other hand, the number of students entering general high schools with 200 or fewer students decreased by 5,699 (2.3%), from 250,154 last year to 244,455 this year.
Considering that the total number of first-year general high school students nationwide increased by 19,364 (5.8%) compared to the previous year, most of the additional students have enrolled in large-scale schools.
Of the total first-year high school students, 30.5% enrolled in schools with 300 or more students, while 69.5% enrolled in schools with 200 or fewer.
Compared to last year, the enrollment rate for large-scale schools increased by 5.8 percentage points, while the rate for small-scale schools decreased by the same margin.
The number of general high schools with 300 or more students also rose by 70, from 236 last year to 306 this year.
Lim Sung-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, stated, "With the growing preference for large-scale high schools, regions with high student populations are bound to produce more students with top-tier GPAs," adding, "In a situation where admissions via rolling admissions (susi) are overwhelmingly high, university entrance results are also likely to be higher in these regions."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.