Drawing on fourth-sixth wave data from the Korean Education and Employment Panel, this
study investigated differences in performance on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) as
well as in the likelihood of being admitted into a prestigious four-year college between foreign
vs. academic high school graduates. Multivariate analyses showed that there were significant
differences in the level of CSAT performance favoring foreign language high school graduates
even after controlling for family background and school achievement. In addition, attending a
foreign language high school was found to be associated with a small but significant increase in
the odds of entering a selective four-year college after controlling for the other variables
including CSAT performance. Propensity score matching analysis confirmed that attending a
foreign language high school had a positive effect on the level of CAST performance, but
found no significant effect on the likelihood of entering a selective four-year college. Together,
these findings suggest that attending a foreign language high school exerts rather an indirect
effect via the CSAT performance on the odds of being admitted into a more prestigious
four-year institution.