The Alchemy Institution was extremely strict when it came to recruiting students. In fact, it was tens or even hundreds of times more strict than the four major institutions! The four major institutions could recruit several hundred students every 20 years, but what about the Alchemy Institution? It would be considered decent if they could recruit one student every 100 years.
This was because students recruited into the Alchemy Institution would generally form traditional master and disciple relationships. Thus, the alchemy grandmasters would all be extremely careful when selecting students. They would rather have fewer disciples than have untalented or immoral disciples.