Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Benicio]

There was an interesting article last year* about Ivy League universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. beginning to put a secret limit on the number of Asian students accepted as they are way over represented in the student body as compared to the general population- sometimes up to 30%.

* the article is somewhere in my office. I could find it if need be.

[agoodmouse]

[Mr. Pink]

I had a Korean student of mine go to Canada in the hopes of trying to circumvent the Korean university entrance process. This guy is a pretty good example of how things can go wrong.

He just couldn't keep up with the English language deficiency he was running...the guy would stay up till 3-4am doing homework and trying to learn English.

After like a year and a half he came back because it was too hard for him and he figured university would be even worse. He told me the home sickness was another huge factor for him.

He came back and did 3rd year high school at a Korean high school - not the same one I had taught at. He couldn't return there as it would be shameful. After that, he had to self study for a year to try and get good KSAT scores. In the end the guy just couldn't do it.

Last I heard from him he was looking to study abroad somewhere...no idea where now.

But it doesn't surprise me that students are returning. They face a huge uphill battle in terms of language and cultural differences. It doesn't matter how good their English is...university is hard language wise even for native speakers.

About the whole GPA thing...I think that depends on how hard we work at university. When I was younger and got my first degree, I goofed around a lot, partied a lot, etc. So my GPA was pathetic. When I went back later for my second degree, all I did was study. My GPA was in the top 5 of my program.

Canadian universities are designed to get people to dropout. They make a lot of money from first year students and they want to see 50% of these drop out. I remember when I got my first degree about 80% of those I started with in Rez in my first year, dropped out before I graduated. So about 20% of the people I knew first year, were there in 3rd or 4th year. That is pretty scary. Most of those guys dropped out cause their grades were so bad, not because of economic factors.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Benicio]