Seoul National University Admission 2027: Deadlines, Requirements, Fees for International Students

Admission at a glance

Seoul National University (SNU) is a national university in Gwanak, Seoul, and the most internationally recognised university in Korea. International undergraduates apply through the Global Talent Special Admission, split into Global Talent I for applicants whose parents are both foreign nationals and Global Talent II for overseas Koreans and foreign or naturalised applicants who completed their entire school education abroad. The university runs two intakes a year, an early cycle (Spring, starting March) and a later cycle (Fall, starting September), each with its own guide and deadline; the Spring 2027 cycle opened for online applications from 6 to 9 July 2026.

SNU's review is a single-stage document evaluation covering academic ability, aptitude for the chosen field, language ability and extracurricular activity, with a video interview or practical test for some colleges. There is no fixed quota per major and SNU does not publish acceptance rates or competition ratios. Language proficiency is demonstrated with either Korean (TOPIK level 3 or above, or completion of level 4 or above at a recognised Korean-language institute) or English (TOEFL iBT 80, IELTS Academic 6.0, or TEPS 269), and applicants whose whole secondary education was taught in Korean or English can submit proof of that instead.

Tuition is the same for Korean and international students. SNU sets it per college rather than as one university-wide figure: humanities, social sciences, business, law and most education tracks charge about KRW 2.44 million a semester, general science and engineering colleges charge roughly KRW 2.98 million to 3 million, and six-year professional programmes (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine) rise well above that once a student reaches the clinical years, up to about KRW 5.04 million a semester for medicine. The undergraduate application fee is KRW 70,000. After document review and, where relevant, an interview, SNU announces preliminary admission results, collects original documents, then announces final results before registration opens.

Requirements

Bachelor

Applicants and, for Global Talent I, both parents must hold non-Korean nationality, and the applicant must hold or be expected to hold a high school diploma recognised by an official education authority; home schooling, online-only study and equivalency exams such as the GED are not accepted, except where a documented Covid-19 disruption is explained and evidenced. Global Talent II is for overseas Koreans, foreign nationals, or naturalised marriage migrants who completed their entire pre-university education abroad.

Master's and PhD

Graduate applicants apply to a specific graduate school or department rather than the university as a whole; a relevant bachelor's degree (or master's degree for doctoral applicants) recognised as equivalent to an SNU degree is the general baseline, and each graduate school sets its own further academic and language requirements.

Full requirements and documents