There are two tracks in SNU International Admissions: International AdmissionsⅠ and International AdmissionsⅡ

International AdmissionsⅠ:
Both the applicant and his/her parents are not citizens of Korea; the applicant is a high school graduate or has attained an equivalent level of education.

International AdmissionsⅡ:
The applicant holds either Korean (including international marriage migrants who are naturalized as Koreans) or foreign citizenship and undertook all of his/her education (both primary and secondary; from the first year of elementary school to high school graduation) outside of Korea.

If you have facts to prove your eligibility, you may submit an explanatory statement along with documentary evidence during the online application period. After the online application, it is up to the Admissions Committee to decide if the applicant is eligible for consideration.

To be eligible for International AdmissionsⅠ, the applicant and his/her parents must ALL renounce their Korean nationalities before the application deadline. If you have obtained foreign citizenship over Korean nationality OR have renounced your Korean citizenship from dual (Korean and foreign) citizenship/nationality, you should submit a documentary evidence for renunciation of Korean nationality for you and your parents (i.e. Certificate for renunciation of Korean citizenship, Korean residence registration as a foreigner etc.).

Note that the guidelines do not apply if you and your parents have dual citizenship of nations other than Korea (i.e.: China/US).

The applicant and his/her parents must have acquired foreign nationality before the applicant’s admission to high school.

You may not apply to more than one program per admissions season. Should you wish to study more than one program, you may apply for a double major after admissions.

Once you have made your payment for your application, you are not able to make any changes to your name, major, and admissions types. However you may modify your personal statement and files until the deadline of online application period. For any small changes, please contact the Office of Admissions directly.

International applicants are required to upload the scanned versions of all the documents through our online system. After the announcement of Preliminary Admitted Applicants, the applicant is required to submit the original documents either by post or visit before the designated deadline.

Please note that admission decision will be rescinded if Preliminary Admitted Applicants do not submit original documents.

You can upload a scanned file of you and your parents’ passport on the online application website. For passports, you don’t need notarization. If you don’t have a passport, you can submit any other official documents from your nation. However, for documents other than passports, a notarized translation is required.
(For Chinese nationals, Household Registration certificate or Resident Identity Cards are not accepted as proof of your parents’ nationality.)

You are to submit any official document that proves you and your parents’ relationship (i.e. Birth Certificate).

In case of your parents’ divorce/death, related documents should be submitted instead (i.e. Document indicating divorce and custody/parental authority, death certificates, etc.).

During application:

The Apostille ensures that public documents issued in one signatory country will be recognized valid in another signatory country.

We only request Apostille certificates after the announcement of preliminary admitted applicants. Therefore, you do not have to submit it during the application period.

Since not all countries are signatories of the Apostille convention, first refer to the website below to check whether the country where your high school is located is a signatory nation: http://www.hcch.net/en/states/hcch-members

For students from non-signatory countries: Applicants from these countries should submit the official certificates with the attachment of an Authentication (ex. Certificate of Authentication or Certificate of Overseas Educational Institutions) issued by the Korean Embassy or Consulate.

After the announcement of preliminary admissions decision, applicants from overseas high schools must submit the original documents with an Apostille of Authentication issued by the Korean Embassy or Consulate by post/visit. For your convenience we advise you to prepare your Apostille documents in advance.

You should prepare the graduation certificate and transcript from the High School or the Senior High School you have attended. Any document from the institution that corresponds to that of Korea’s high school is accepted.

If your diploma qualifies you to apply to universities in your country, your diploma will be recognized.

If online submission by the applicant is impossible, recommenders may upload those documents through the online recommendation page.

Once you pay the application fee, an automated invitation email including a secure web link to the online Letter of Recommendation system will be sent to the e-mail account of your recommender. The recommender will follow the directions in the link and will fill out the recommendation online.

Also, we have uploaded a Guide to help recommenders with the procedure here: https://en.snu.ac.kr/admission/undergraduate/application

Please refer to it for further guidance on this matter.

Some email accounts are not supported by our system. If your recommender has not received the automated email, please try changing the email address (of the recommender) from the online application website.

The application fee is KRW 70,000 for Undergraduate, KRW 90,000 for Graduate program.

Please complete payment via online application using one of the two following methods.
1) Account deposit
2) Credit card for international

If you choose to submit standardized test results and other indicators of academic achievement as supplementary material, you should first upload a scanned version of the paper transcript or score report during the online application period and then request the corresponding educational organization (e.g., ETS, College Board, IBO, etc.) an online score report to SNU once you are preliminarily admitted. For standardized tests administered by the ETS, SAT, AP and ACT please note that the official code of SNU is 7972.

We do not accept your personal ID and password for the test website due to our policy.

Please note that these score reports are handled separately from your language proficiency exam score reports. (TOEFL, TOPIK, etc.)

Either proof of Korean or English proficiency is required for the application.

Either proof of Korean or English proficiency at the following levels is required:
1) Korean Proficiency: TOPIK level 3 or higher
2) English Proficiency: TOEFL iBT 80, TEPS 551, IELTS 6.0 or higher
* Other official documents indicating proof of language proficiency are accepted as well
(i.e. SNU Korean Language Center Level 4 or higher.)

We only accept scores that are available before the submission of documents deadline.
If your scores are out before the deadline but you are unable to submit the original score report (i.e. SAT etc.) due to delays in processing the score report, you may upload a copy of the report (i.e. a screen-shot of the score report captured online) within the designated period of document submissions. Preliminarily Admitted Applicants will be required to submit the original documents.

Supplementary Materials include documents that may help showcase the applicant’s activities both inside and outside of school during the high school period(extracurricular activities, awards, etc.). The number of documents acceptable is limited to the maximum of 10.

As stated in the admissions guide, the online application website is optimized for Internet Explorer and Google Chrome in Windows Operating System. Any other browsers will not work. If Chrome and Internet Explorer browser do not work, please email snuadmit@snu.ac.kr with a detailed description of your issue.

The quota for international admissions is not predetermined, and there is no additional selection in case of non-enrollment of admitted students. However the College of Education offers admissions within the limit of 10% of the student quota for each field of study for the designated year, in accordance with the “Teacher-Training Institution’s Quota Regulation” implemented by the Ministry of Education.

Admission decisions are based on a number of factors, including academic achievement such as grade point average (GPA), study plan, personal statements, letters of recommendation, as well as other achievement records and/or descriptions of specific qualifications.

In reviewing applications, the admissions committee considers the level of studies completed, the quality of achievement, characteristics of the institution attended, appropriateness of goals and suitability of preparation for the proposed program of studies. Proficiency in Korean and other languages is also taken into consideration. Depending on the policy of the college or department to which the applicant is applying, interviews and examinations may also be required.

Applicants will be notified of interviews when deemed necessary.

‘Preliminary admitted’ qualification is valid within the admission of each semester, and cannot be deferred to next admissions. If you wish to request a leave of absence after the registration, please directly contact your department.

Although we offer a number of courses in English, we strongly advise students to study Korean during their time at SNU as most courses are in Korean. Please note that the level of Korean proficiency required to achieve a degree will vary according to the program you wish to attend. Therefore, we would kindly recommend that you contact the department of your interest directly for this matter. All inquiries specific to the department/major of your interest can be better assisted by the staff at the department.

Also, please keep in mind that there is a high chance that you may not be able to fulfill credits required for graduation without taking courses offered in Korean regardless of your major.

SNU does not accept international transfer students. If you are interested in studying in SNU, you will have to apply as a freshman. Also, SNU does not acknowledge credits achieved from other education institutes prior to enrollment at SNU as part of the student’s credits required for graduation from our university.

Admitted applicants should apply for the dormitory to the relevant office during the student selection period according to application instruction. Freshmen should apply online at the SNU Gwanak Residence Halls website (http://dorm.snu.ac.kr). For more detailed information, please do not hesitate to contact SNU Gwanak Residence Halls (http://dorm.snu.ac.kr).

Selected number of admitted students will receive the Global Talent Scholarship, which covers the tuition fee and living costs partially. The recipients will be announced along with the final admission decisions.
For more information, please visit [Scholarship] under [FAQ] tab for more information on scholarships. (https://en.snu.ac.kr/admission/overview/faq/scholarships )

We kindly advise you that inquiries regarding scholarship information should be addressed to the SNU staff in charge:
- Email: intlscholarship@snu.ac.kr
- Tel. +82-2-880-2519
- Web: http://oia.snu.ac.kr/page/scholarships.php

You may also find out about scholarships available for international students at:
https://en.snu.ac.kr/admission/graduate/scholarships/before_application or
https://oia.snu.ac.kr/page/scholarships-ud-KGSP.php (for Korean Government Scholarship)

Unfortunately, SNU does not offer application fee waiver.

Unfortunately, SNU needs to keep hold of all applicant documents for ten years regardless of admissions results due to government regulations, and so applicants will not be able to receive any documents submitted with their application.

Who do I contact for information about the application process?

Mail to: Office of Admissions, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
Tel 82-2-880-6971, 6977
Fax 82-2-873-5021
E-mail snuadmit@snu.ac.kr