No fewer than 3,093 students applied for five additional medical school recruitments for the class of 2024, reaffirming a “medical school craze” that went way beyond simple concentration.

Jongro Academy, a prominent extracurricular educational institute, has disclosed application details of 22 medical, pharmaceutical, dental, veterinary, and oriental medicine schools offering additional recruitment for the 2024 academic year. These applications were part of the general admission process and reflected the university's situation after Wednesday's first round of applications closed.

Additional recruitment is the final process of universities with vacancies after the deadline and is considered the "last train" for university admission.

According to the institute, 22 universities with medical and pharmaceutical schools could not fill their enrollment quota and recruited 27 students, attracting 11,035 applicants. The average competition ratio was 408.7 to 1, a significant increase compared to last year's 299.2 to 1.

Among them, medical schools at five universities -- Chungnam National, Konyang, Dankook, Wonkwang, and Kangwon National University -- recruited one more applicant each, but 3,093 students applied to fill the vacancy, resulting in a competition ratio of 618.6 to 1. It is almost double that of last year, when 1,642 applicants vied for four additional vacancies.

The highest competition rate was at Chungnam National University College of Medicine, where 790 applicants competed for one position. With a 790-to-1 competition ratio, it also ranked first among the 22 universities that held additional recruitment.

Konyang University followed with competition rate of 670 to 1, Dankook University (619 to 1), Wonkwang University (579 to 1), and Kangwon National University (435 to 1).

The competition rate for additional medical school recruitment was also higher than other medical schools. For oriental medicine, it was 532 to 1, the second highest after medical school, followed by dental school (455.5 to 1), veterinary school (354 to 1), and pharmacy school (318 to 1).

Lim Sung-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, said that expanding the number of medical school students will likely attract top high school students in natural sciences, repeaters, and those already enrolled in other colleges.

"This year, students admitted to the top science departments at Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University in the regular entrance examination but failed to enroll there due to duplicate admissions to medical schools have increased sharply," Lim said. "In addition, the medical school concentration phenomenon has intensified in the supplemental recruitment for the 2024 entrance examination, which is the final stage of the entrance examination."

Lim noted that the trend will likely deepen with the increase in medical school students in 2025.

"It is likely that a significant portion of the top high school students in the natural sciences, as well as repeaters, will be preparing for medical school," he said. "It is also highly likely that students in their junior and senior years, as well as freshmen at top science and engineering schools, will be preparing for medical school.”