Although the number of Korean high-school students who applied to universities in the United States dropped this year due to recession and the continued weakness of the Korean currency, the number of students who were accepted to Ivy League universities increased, it was revealed on Wednesday.

The eight private universities on the east coast of the U.S. -- Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale -- constitute the Ivy League.

In the case of the Daewon Foreign Language High School, the total number of students admitted to Ivy League universities increased from 27 last year to 38 this year, including two each to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. A total of seven students were accepted by Stanford, an increase from last year's two.

Meanwhile, the total number of the school's students who applied to U.S. universities dropped from 131 last year to 94 this year. Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, which in 1998 became the first school to introduce a class for sending students to universities overseas, also saw a 20 percent decrease in the number of students applying to U.S. universities. However, the number of students admitted to Ivy League schools this year was 27, up four from last year.

All 81 students in the class for overseas universities in Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies succeeded in getting into prestigious universities abroad, including 15 to the Ivy League. Hanyoung Foreign Language High School, which sent four students to Ivy League schools last year, had 14 students accepted to the Ivy League. Such success is attributed to a positive assessment of extracurricular activities by Korean students, in addition to their SAT scores.