Medical staff members walk at a general hospital in Seoul on July 29, 2024. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – With just 87 days remaining until South Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) for the 2025 academic year, an unexpected trend has emerged: Medical professionals, including former residents, medical students, and current professors, are advising aspiring medical students to reconsider their career paths.
On August 19, multiple posts appeared on a popular online community for college-bound students from individuals identifying themselves as medical students, professors, and residents.
These posts largely emphasized the drawbacks of the medical field and the increase in medical school admissions, urging students not to pursue medical education.
One contributor, who identified himself as a professor at a provincial university hospital, posted a message on August 17 titled “A letter to parents and students hoping to enter medical school.” In it, he advised against applying to his alma mater.
The professor explained, “When there was a graduate medical school system in the past, students needed to be in the top 0.1-0.3% academically to enter my alma mater’s medical school, and the students were truly brilliant.”
He continued, “This time, my alma mater has increased its admission quota by about 60%. Due to a reverse discrimination policy called ‘local talent selection,’ about 80% of new students must be recruited from the local area.”
He further noted, “While the current incoming students can still be called top performers, their learning ability and academic performance are lower compared to their seniors from a few years ago.”
The professor expressed concerns about the quality of education, stating, “Objectively speaking, when students with lower abilities enter at a rate 60% higher than the current quota, I honestly don’t have the confidence to educate them one by one.”
Another poster, identifying himself as a former medical resident who is currently unemployed, shared his perspective: “I don’t think I can continue my career as a doctor. To the public, I’m already a devil, an unforgivable ‘medical bastard,’ and a murderer. There’s no reason for me to continue in this profession.”
He concluded his post by imploring students to “please reconsider entering medical school.”
These posts have created a sense of unease among test-takers preparing for the CSAT. Some students have expressed confusion and concern on online forums, questioning why current medical students are strongly advising against pursuing medical education.
Adding to the anxiety is speculation in some YouTube channels focused on medical school admissions that it may be impossible to recruit new medical students for the next academic year.
This concern stems from the possibility that current medical students, who are boycotting classes in protest of the government’s medical school expansion policy, might fail their academic year en masse if they continue their protest into the second semester.
Critics argue that universities would lack the resources to simultaneously teach both the increased number of new students and the held-back current students.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
