Susi Application Submission

The procedure of submitting an application online and paying the application fee within a designated period in order to apply to a university's Susi (early) admission track, and a core step in college

Susi Application Submission

Overview

Susi application submission (수시 원서 접수) refers to the procedure in which high school seniors and graduates submit applications through an online application system and pay the application fee within the period announced by the Korean Council for University Education (한국대학교육협의회) in order to apply to a university's Susi (early) admission track. It is usually carried out intensively for three to five days around the second week of September each year, and the universities, tracks, and academic units (모집단위) applied to during this period become the starting point that determines whether the applicant is admitted in the subsequent Susi selection process. Because the results of application submission are immediately linked to the schedules of the main examinations (본고사), such as interviews, essay writing, and practical tests, it can be said that for examinees this is a turning point that governs the entire college admission strategy.

Key Details

1. Structure of Susi Admission

Unlike Jeongsi (regular) admission, Susi admission is a track that selects students through a variety of factors such as school records, essays, practical skills, and interviews, with a low or zero weighting given to CSAT scores. About 70–80% of all university admission quotas are filled through Susi, and the main track types are as follows.

Curriculum-based school record track (학생부교과전형): Selection based mainly on internal (coursework) grades. It is subdivided into regional balance (지역균형) and general tracks, among others.
Comprehensive school record screening (학생부종합전형, "Hakjong"): A comprehensive qualitative evaluation of not only coursework grades but also detailed competency and specialty notes (세부능력특기사항), creative experiential activities, and reading and inquiry activities.
Essay-writing track (논술전형): Combines the score of an essay examination in the form of a university-specific test with school records.
Practical skills track (실기전형): Selection centered on practical examination scores in the arts and physical education fields.

2. Application Schedule and Method

Application submission generally begins in the second week of September, with each university setting an application period of about three to five days. Applications are made online through the Korean Council for University Education's common application system or private application agency sites such as JinHak Apply (진학어플라이) and Uway Apply (유웨이어플라이). Examinees proceed in the order of signing up, completing the common application, entering the track and academic unit they wish to apply for on each university's application, and then paying the application fee. Because traffic surges on the deadline and errors may occur, it is recommended to complete submission by the day before the deadline if possible.

3. Application Fee and Payment

The application fee varies by university and track, but is generally in the range of 30,000 to 90,000 won, and tracks that include essays, practical tests, or interviews are relatively more expensive. Payment can be made by credit card, bank transfer, or simple payment, and the application is finally confirmed only once payment is completed. If the application period ends while the fee is unpaid, the application is automatically cancelled. Children of persons of national merit, basic livelihood security recipients, and others may be eligible for fee reductions, so applicants should check each university's guidance in advance.

4. Application Strategy and Precautions

Beginning with college admissions for the 2024 academic year, the limit on the number of Susi applications (previously six) was abolished, allowing examinees to apply to multiple universities without any restriction on the number of applications. However, because essay, practical, and interview examination schedules often overlap, the actual number of applications that can be made is limited. Therefore, applicants must distribute their applications in a balanced way across reach, match, and safety choices (상향·적정·하향), and must compare examination schedules in advance to check for conflicts. In addition, since cancelling an application is in principle impossible after submission, applicants must reconfirm the academic unit, track name, and examinee number before final submission.

Latest Trends

Beginning with the 2024 academic year, the college admission self-introduction letter was completely abolished, and in the same year the limit on the number of Susi applications also disappeared, broadening examinees' range of choices while raising the difficulty of formulating a strategy. In the 2025 academic year, owing to the effect of expanded medical school quotas, the number of Susi admissions in the medical and pharmaceutical fields increased significantly, and the trend of expanding the proportion of regional talent tracks (지역인재전형) and regional balance tracks (지역균형전형) continued.

Under the 2028 academic year college admission reform plan, a five-grade internal grading system and an integrated CSAT format (abolition of elective subjects in Korean language and mathematics and exclusion of advanced mathematics) are scheduled to be applied beginning with students who enter high school in 2025, so the discriminating power of the curriculum-based school record track and the way Susi tracks are designed are expected to change. In addition, owing to the decline in the school-age population, the consolidation and abolition of academic units at universities and the expansion of major-free and free-major admissions are underway, while the essay-writing track is shrinking and the structure centered on comprehensive school record and curriculum-based tracks is strengthening. Even at the application submission stage, improvements in mobile application convenience, real-time disclosure of competition rates, and services linked to admission counseling are expanding.