Korean Job Discussion Forums

minos · Joined: 01 Dec 2010 Location: kOREA

So Some of my friends are thinking about this (specifically at a SKY school).

Certainly the English graduate programs....

Anybody know what the entry requirements are? My college grades aren't too amazing, but I could probably ace the GRE or any graduate program test.

Is getting into a SKY school as a foreigner difficult?

dongjak · Joined: 30 Oct 2010

Go to each of the website and search the requirements. Every university is different. Also some of the Universities, despite the program being taught entirely in English, require a certain level of Korean proficiency.

The GREs are for American Universities, I have never seen the test being applied to a Korean University but I may be wrong.

There are also, lots of scholarships available to foreign students.

A simple search of the University you want to attend can tell you what you need to get accepted and can help you with the application process.

minos · Joined: 01 Dec 2010 Location: kOREA

dongjak · Joined: 30 Oct 2010

I am going to a Korean Unviersity, but not for a Master's. Before I choose my university and my program this was my process:

1. I searched "Korean University" on wikipedia and found a list of all the Universities in Korea.
2. I narrowed my search down to the universities in Seoul.
3. I went to each of the websites, found out what programs they offered and what were the admission requirements
4. I choose the program I liked, made sure I met the requirements,gathered my documents and applied.
5. I went to the school interview and a few weeks later, found out I was accepted
5. I searched scholarships that were available to me and applied
6. I received a full scholarship and started my studies.

I searched the SKY university website before and I don't remember their application process or admission requirements being vague. They are all pretty straight forward.

That said, as a foreign student you have a high chance of getting a scholarship, especially if you are from the west, as Korean Universities are trying to internationalize their programs and want students other than the large amounts coming in from China, Mongolia or Southeast Asia. This means being from the West gives you a greater chance of getting accepted.

Just look again on the websites, Seoul National University has a pretty clear website with an admission guideline you can download and view in a pdf file, I believe Korea University has the same. Not sure about Yonsei.

Good Luck.

Thiuda

coralreefer_1 · Joined: 19 Jan 2009

I think it might be more difficult than many may believe. I was rejected from grad school at Korea University for the spring semester( not the GSIS, but the normal graduate school), even though I finished my BA with a 3.94 gpa, have several years of management work experience under my belt, a native English speaker(i was applying for international business department) and turned in a level 5 TOPIK score.

Granted in that program GRE or GMAT scores were not required (but recommended) and I'm pretty sure I was rejected because of a formality with the financial support document that was sent from the US. I guess I will never know for sure, but despite that many will tell you that you can walk into those programs quite easily if you are western, I do not believe that is true anymore. Added to that all universities in Korea just changed some things to toughen the admissions process for foreign applicants to weed out more "unqualified" candidates as was said in the newspaper article I read abut it a few months back.

Even if the programs say GRE/GMAT/TOPIK are not required...you would be wise to submit as many of those as you can to increase your chances. Also, even though you may be a native English speaker, submitting a TEPS/TOEIC or some other type of English test score would be good as well. I found out I missed my chance at a 100% scholarship (if i had been accepted) because I didn't have a level 6 TOPIK, or even a TEPS score. As strange as it sounds, according to the scholarship policy of that graduate school, a satisfactory score on an English exam would have given me 100% scholarship.

Hugo85 · Joined: 27 Aug 2010

To be noted that to apply for Ph.D. you pretty much need a Masters outside of the US.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Hugo85 · Joined: 27 Aug 2010

Thiuda · Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:10 pm Post subject:

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

atwood · Joined: 26 Dec 2009

atwood · Joined: 26 Dec 2009

coralreefer_1 · Joined: 19 Jan 2009

I chose KU because of several reasons.

1. They are AACSB and EQUIS accredited. So are a few others in Seoul (AACSB only) but as far as I could find out KU is the only one that has the WHOLE business departments accredited. Most of the others have only their MBA programs accredited, but I wanted to pursue a more focused area of study than simply MBA. KU offered the chance to get an accredited degree in International Business, International Finance, and a few other focused areas of study.

2. Again more on the field of study I wanted. My BA is International Trade, and I wanted to stay on course with that with either International trade, international business, or international commerce. Some of the other schools I looked at had similar programs, but they fell into those universities humanities college, not their business college (which meant no accreditation)

3. Also, KU had the best scholarship options when compared to percent of scholarship money granted versus requirements to receive and maintain scholarship.

4. When I was contacting universities for more specific information, KU was the only one that was very prudent to actually reply to email requests for information. I was also interested in Sunkyunkwans foreign trade department, but repeated emails went unanswered concerning questions I had about various things. Same thing with Yonsei's GSIS (even though it has no AACSB accreditation I was interested in their International Commerce major), yet I could not get an answer to questions, and even when I called them personally to get information, they would simply refer me to the office of the director of that program who was never able to be reached and when told to leave my contact information on 4 different occasions after failure to make contact, I was never blessed with a callback or return contact by phone or email.

UknowsI · Joined: 16 Apr 2009

I'm doing a PhD here in Korea, and I think studying here at graduate level is a quite rewarding experience. If you are not sure if you will get accepted or not, just apply for all 3 SKY schools and you have a fair chance to be accepted to at least one. If you are going to study science/engineering, Postech and KAIST are also worth looking into, but otherwise I would just focus on the SKY schools.