This study investigated the reasons why students chose a particular academic track in high
school, their future majors in college, and elective courses for science and mathematics. We
surveyed 414 female and male high school students of year 11 in the Seoul area. The results
are the following. Firstly, the major factors why students chose a particular academic track in
high school and their future majors in college were their interests and achievements in
mathematics and science (48.8%), their aptitude for the fields, and their plans for future
vocations. Secondly, external factors (27.8%) such as the Korean SAT, their high school GPA,
and the school curriculum were also significant; although student interest (44.9%) was the most
important factor in choosing elective courses for science. According to the survey, however, 44.7
percent of the participants gave up their original choices of elective courses in science as a
result of external factors. Finally, in choosing elective courses for mathematics, external factors
(40.1%) were considered more important than any other. In addition, the percentage of pointed
external factors in the case of mathematics was 12.3 percent higher than in the case of science.
The results indicate that students' selective rights for choosing elective courses in science and
mathematics were not sufficiently guaranteed and some educational plan is required to solve
this problem.