Korean Job Discussion Forums

[misher]

i have a friend that is an adopted Korean that is looking to move back to Korea and live permanently. He is currently teaching English and studying Korean at the same school as me and once his Korean is good enough, he wants to enter a Korean University. At first I thought that it would be for an MBA or some other graduate program but he actually wants to enter SNU or KAIST in an environmental engineering field at the undergraduate level. His major from his US university is basically useless and he doesn't want to teach English/edit/work in education or accounting (his US major which he says was a mistake) for the rest of his life. He's not THAT old or anything (27) and he does want to stay in Korea for the rest of his life. Do you think this route is ok? I know there is a lot of negativity towards Korean Unis here but he is set on staying here. Thoughts? Anyone know anyone that did an undergrad/grad degree here in something other than Korean studies/business related fields?

[Platinumrose]

[misher]

Even though I've only known him for 5 months, he's a pretty motivated guy. His Korean is miles ahead of mine and he couldn't stomach crunchin numbers for the rest of his life. I think he'll be just fine too.

[Draz]

Why would he want to study engineering in Korea as a kyopo? With so many Koreans going to the US (Canada, etc) for a university education, wouldn't it make way more sense for he, as a native speaker of English, to do that? Those Koreans aren't studying in the US for the savings... he's already got an American degree, and he's a native English speaker though so... I don't know.

I'm contemplating doing the exact same thing (but with a slightly different major) and I wouldn't even consider studying in Korea.My gut says it's a terrible idea, but my gut doesn't want to live in Korea forever either.

[ed4444]

Tell him to skip studying Korean and register at POSTECH Uni. Since last week they are delivering all of their lectures at both undergraduate and graduate level in English only.

He can study Korean after his classes or by chatting with his fellow students at the same time.

[satishku]

If he has an undergraduate degree already, he should enrol in a Masters program. If he is willing to pay his tution, I think many universities wont care what his undergrad field was. I know people who had backgroud in Humanities and studied Masters in Information System. A Master degree is going to be better n more useful, even if it is a bit tougher.

[misher]

[jvalmer]

[doggyji]

For a quick reference, both KAIST and SNU were ranked within the world's top 50 engineering universities in 2009 according to this. I went to SNU engineering for a year and graduated from the University of Toronto engineering. It's hard to tell any major difference as an undergraduate student. At least, I can tell you I had no complaints about the facilities at SNU. No matter how good your marks are, if you have studied, for example, history, I can never imagine any slightly competitive engineering graduate program will accept you. Engineering programs tend to have the heaviest course load among all undergraduate studies. If you have studied science though, I believe you have a chance to be accepted with a condition that you will take a few pre-requisite undergraduate courses. I had to take one undergraduate course in my graduate engineering program because my undergraduate engineering discipline's focus was quite different.

[jvalmer]

An undergrad degree in an engineering related field like math, sciences, computer science would make it a lot easier to be admitted to an engineering graduate program. Most likely he'll have to get an undergrad degree in engineering. Unless, he has mensa like numbers and can blow their socks off with his knowledge. I'll say it's possible to be admitted without a science like degree, but extremely difficult.

[whiteshoes]

IMHO, he should go to SNU. The only thing better than going to SNU for your undergrad is getting an undergrad from abroad. He'll have both.

Don't forget the role "seniors" play in Korea. A degree from SNU will be very valuable in this regard.

A friend of my went to Korea University. Along the way, I made friends with a student there. My friend who has graduated always asks me how her "junior" is, and if there is anything she can do to help her "junior."

The value of a degree in Korea, within Korea, is totally based on the brand name. I'd go to the school where you'll have the most "seniors" and I'm pretty sure that would be SNU.

Other people with more experience here might know of a better place to go with this frame of mind, but I think SNU is the top one. Maybe Yonsei or even KAIST?

[Draz]

[UknowsI]

I have to say he has to be quite committed to do an undergraduate engineering degree here. Being 27 years he will literally be 10 years older than many of his classmates. It is expected that you don't have much of a social life but spend almost all your time studying. It is possible to have a pretty nice social life if you try, but when he has to catch up with students who has done nothing but studying mathematics for the last few years, it can be quite tough. To spend 4 years locked up in a study room might be ok when you are 18 years old, but for a 27 year old I think it will be much harder.

I know other people who have studied here and then got good jobs in their field in Korea. However they had at least a master's degree, and Korean employers are very focused on age. Maybe he can get a little slack because he is foreign, but he might be too old to get hired by the time he graduates.

However, it can be very cheap to get a degree here. And if he is able to study here for free he wont lose much even if something goes wrong along the way.

I am doing a PhD in Engineering here, so if you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

[ttompatz]

[CentralCali]