An admissions officer at Keimyung University in Daegu prepares a document box for applications to the regional doctor admissions track on Sept. 7, as applications open for the program for the first time.YONHAP
Philosophy, a major long dismissed as impractical, is posting some of the highest competition rates of any humanities department at Korea's top three universities this admissions season.
Applicants and professors credit the AI boom for reviving interest in a field built on critical thinking rather than technical skills.
According to an analysis by Jongro Academy released Sept. 10, a day after early admissions applications closed, Seoul National University's philosophy department received 139 applications for nine seats, a rate of 15.44 to 1. That ranked third among humanities-track departments, behind sociology at 18.6 to 1 and social welfare at 16.57 to 1. The department's competition rate has risen every year since first exceeding 10 to 1 in 2021, when it stood at 12.5 to 1.
Korea University's philosophy department received 452 applications for four seats, excluding special admissions, for a rate of 113 to 1 — third among humanities-track departments, behind the university's business school at 198.33 to 1 and its School of Interdisciplinary Studies at 114.2 to 1.
Yonsei University's philosophy department posted a rate of 78 to 1, with 312 applications for four seats, ranking ninth among humanities-track departments.
"For prospective students, it's no longer just a discipline for memorizing the classics — it's emerging as a major that connects the humanities with science and technology and builds the thinking skills the AI era demands," Lim Seong-ho, the head of Jongro Academy, said.
"As AI rapidly begins to replace human intellectual abilities, the importance of philosophical questions like 'What does it mean to be human?' and 'How should we judge and live?' is, paradoxically, only growing," said Lee Soo-jeong, professor emeritus of philosophy at Changwon National University.
Professors say students preparing for law school and civil service exams are increasingly filling philosophy classrooms.
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"Our logic class fills an 80-seat lecture hall — we've had to split it into multiple sections," said Kim Hyeong-joo, a philosophy professor at Chung-Ang University. "Training that builds thinking skills also builds the ability to work with AI, which can supply huge volumes of knowledge."
Hwang Gap-yeon, a philosophy professor at Jeonbuk National University, said logical writing and reasoning skills are a core grading criterion on a range of exams. "Philosophy professors are heavily involved in writing questions not just for the Legal Education Eligibility Test, but also the Public Service Aptitude Test used in civil service hiring," he said.
Semiconductor-related contract departments, buoyed by the industry's current boom, also drew strong interest in this round of early admissions. Korea University's Department of Semiconductor Engineering, run under a contract program with SK hynix, received 408 applications for 28 seats, a rate of 14.57 to 1 — its highest since the department was established in 2021. Yonsei University's Department of System Semiconductor Engineering, run under a contract program with Samsung Electronics, posted a rate of 10.87 to 1.
Applications to the three schools' medical schools, by contrast, fell to 2,903, down about 11.3 percent from 3,271 in last year's admissions cycle.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
