The Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy are enjoying record field days in the number of applicants for next year’s class, posting an average expected admission rate of less than 4 percent for both male and female students contending to study at the two military academies.

Last Saturday, 6,437 applicants sat down to take the Air Force Academy’s written exams with 5,284 men and 1,153 women competing for 159 and 16 spots, respectively. The expected average admission rate is 2.72 percent.

The Naval Academy also welcomed 4,872 applicants to take the academy’s written exam on Saturday, and will ultimately only accept 160 students.

Its average expected admission rate stands at 3.28 percent with 3,827 men applying for 144 openings and 1,045 women for 16.

Both academies reported the expected admission rates are the lowest in the schools’ histories while the Army’s Korea Military Academy also reported an expected admission rate of 4.53 percent.

“The easing of applicants’ visual requirements for admission to the fighter pilots’ course played a big role in the increased number of applicants to the academy this year,” said Air Force Academy spokesman Colonel Kim Yun-su. Applicants with eyesight deemed to be surgically improvable above the minimum 20/40 requirement for pilots can apply, even if their current visual abilities do not meet the standard. The Naval Academy attributed its record-high application numbers to intensified advertising efforts such as sending academy cadets on visits to their alma maters.

Megastudy college admissions consultant Kim Ki-han, however, told The Korea Herald that an increasingly complicated national college admissions process and a worrisome economy may be inducing college-bound students to apply to the military academies because they offer a simpler college application experience and a stable military job after graduation.

Military academy applicants who pass the written exams will undergo physical examinations and interviews before final acceptance decisions are made.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)