As college application season in the U.S. comes to a close, seniors are gradually starting to resurface from their endless piles of essays. Although some countries, like the United Kingdom, are also concluding their application season, others, such as China and South Korea, are just beginning.
In both China and South Korea, college admissions essentially hinge on one day and one nine-hour-long test. If someone is sick or even just a few minutes late to the test, they are not allowed to take it and have to wait until the following year. In China, that test is the Gaokao, and, in South Korea, it’s the Suneung. Both tests are extremely rigorous and are required for college applications.The Gaokao covers everything from Chinese language, literature, geography, politics and history to mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and a foreign language, which is often English. Similarly, the Suneung tests Korean language, math, English and Korean history, with the option to also test Chinese as another foreign language.
In China, the pressure after taking the Gaokao is immense, and students have to apply to college directly before or after taking it, meaning they do not yet know their scores. Since universities in China place cutoff scores, a faulty estimate can cause a student to fall from a top-tier university to a second-tier one, and applicants can only rank three options. In fact, some second-tier universities won’t even accept someone if they didn’t rank that university first, even if they meet the minimum cutoff score.
Famously, in South Korea, the entire country pauses while students take the Suneung — flights and businesses suspend operations to provide test-takers with a quiet environment. After the test, admissions are no less stressful. Students are limited to applying to a maximum of six universities, but, unlike in China, they do not have to rank those to be admitted.
On the other hand, the United Kingdom also uses a system that requires applicants to rank colleges in order of their preferences, and they can apply to five total. Students have to make some difficult decisions: for example, instead of applying to both Oxford and Cambridge to maximize their chances of being admitted to a top school, they are only permitted to apply to one. Additionally, similar to second-tier Chinese universities, some colleges, such as the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom will reject a person who doesn’t rank their school first. In the U.K. and China, applications will first be sent to first-choice universities and will only be forwarded to later choices if the person is rejected from all of their higher rankings.
Soon, in just a few short months, most U.S. and U.K. students will be receiving their college decisions, Chinese students will be taking the Gaokao and, in November, South Korea will go silent as high schoolers focus on the Suneung and the test that determines their future.