Two hundred and twenty-five freshmen at Seoul National University took a leave of absence in their first semester, with most of them believed to be preparing to take the college entrance exam again this year.

According to data provided by SNU to Rep. Kim Byung-wook of the People Power Party, the number is equivalent to 6.2 percent of all first-year enrollees at the nation’s top university.

The number of SNU freshmen taking time off right after enrolling at the university has more than tripled over the past four years from 70 in 2019. The number continued to rise to 96 in 2020; 129 in 2021; 195 in 2022 and 225 this year.

Observers and hagwon industry insiders suspect that the phenomenon is linked to an obsession among elite students over medical colleges.

Many top scorers of the college entrance exam, known as Suneung, enroll at SNU’s non-medical colleges as insurance. The students then retake the exam the next year with the aim of getting into med school, according to the same observers.

South Korea’s top 20 university departments with the highest cut-off points for admission are all colleges of medicine.

Many universities have disallowed taking a leave of absence in the first semester to prevent losing students amid a rise of Suneung retakers, but SNU doesn’t have such regulations.

In the past, pupils who couldn’t afford the tuition took time off to make money and entered a semester or two later, but now, an increasing number of students are just taking advantage of the system, the observers said.

As for the SNU College of Engineering, of around 800 freshmen, about 60, or 7.5 percent, took leave of absence as soon as they enrolled.

The number of SNU freshmen dropping out has also jumped from 97 in 2019 to 238 in 2022, the data from Rep. Kim's office shows.

Of the 3,484 first-year students at the university, about 7 percent dropped out.