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Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
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 Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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Just wanted to thank you for the info coralreefer_1. I'm considering the idea for a few years down the road as an option, and it's good to know what to expect from the general process, scholarship info, etc.  |
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AtmaWeapon
Joined: 30 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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| coralreefer_1 wrote: |
| AtmaWeapon wrote: |
| coralreefer_1 wrote: |
Well I highly recommend you select a handful of universities that have a department that interests you rather than applying to random and bulk schools. The application process can be a real pain is the behind, particularly because there are so many documents a foreign student must submit. Most of these school require "original and certified" documents, and while all schools vary slightly, getting documents such as bank records, birth certificates for yourself as well as both parents, sealed transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc etc
You do not have to be in Korea if you are applying from outside. They may want to do a phone interview, but otherwise being out of the country isn't really an issue. What will be more of an issue is you Korean Language ability.
Aside from the Korean, some schools demand to see a GRE score (if you don't have one, I highly recommend it). Even if the school does not require it for the admission, having the school will help with securing more scholarship money.
At the best schools in the nation, the application deadline tends to be 6 months or so before the start of the semester..while the average schools tend to accept application 3-4 months before the new semester. It is probably already too late to be doing anything any earlier than next fall. The issue is that because you out of the country, you would have to apply, get accepted..then have your "letter of admission", and "letter of visa issuance" mailed to you, which is what you need to process the visa. Then mail all of that off to the consulate, wait for more until that comes back..and then finally you would be good to go.
My suggestion would be as follows.
1. Do some research on the schools with your interest, and check their websites for procedures/required documents and deadlines for application, tuition, scholarship options..etc.
2. After doing all of that, come to a conclusion about whether or not you truly want to study in Korea.
3. Contact the schools international office for info (you will likely have to do this at step 1 because many schools do not keep updated info, or even detailed info on their English-version pages.)
Good Luck |
That's disappointing to hear about them wanting GRE scores, that was one of my other big reasons for wanting to go to a Korean University for my MA. I remember taking the GRE practice test when I was working on my BA; it was HARD. It seems so pointless to have to study so hard for a test that literally does not help you in any way in life, although that's true with a lot of hoops you have to jump through to even to get a BA. Obviously learning Korean is more difficult, but at least that will help you in your everyday life (in Korea). How much does it hurt my chances without taking the GRE?
Without going through each of the university websites individually, what types of MA programs are offered for someone who majored in/interested in political science and (American) history? I'm assuming anything history-related would be Asian history? |
As far as I know, most schools do not require a GRE exam. In fact as I was researching which schools to attend, the only one that said it was "required" was Sunkyunkwan University. I applied to the Business Department at Korea University, and at that school like most, a GRE (or in my case a GMAT) exam was "recommended but not exactly "required" Having one would probably help your chances for acceptance, but really I dont know of very many that have the GRE as a required stipulation to enter.
That said, that was almost 2 years ago I was researching universities, and since then the government has implemented a few laws/legal codes that require universities to supposedly be more stingy about admitting foreign students to weed out "unqualified students" as the news article/press statement on the issue mentioned, so more schools may be asking for it.
Honestly I do not know which schools would be best for what you want to study. The only way to know which universities offer those programs would be to spend the time to look around on different school websites and go through their departments/requirements for admission. I would imagine many schools have a political science department, but cant really name any specifically.
However, and this is just my opinion, but to make the best of choosing to study in Korea I would suggest looking into an International Cooperation program. Like marketing, politics in Asia tend to have a different philosophy than their western counterparts, so unless you plan on being a politician in Korea, I cant see how studying PS here would be all that beneficial. Lets be frank here, there is already a stigma about studying in Korea (as compared to the US/EU...etc), but coming to Korea to study International Cooperation (which is somewhat related to PS) may look better on a resume displaying your academic history and experiences. International Commerce/Trade was not my first choice for a subject (although I am interested), but I chose it because it was the one thing that the experience of being overseas benefited from given my previous studies.
As far as history, I have no idea. |
Thanks again. I found this (written by you in another thread):
"But as I have mentioned in thread similar to this one...what is more important is the accreditation of any degree you will receive, and what you hope to do with it afterward. Depending on what you want to study, the only accreditation most universities carry is the typical accreditation from the Korean Ministry of Education..which is the same accreditation that every 2-year tech school 40 km in the country carries. I have only heard of a handful of universities here that carry AACSB accreditation for business programs, but other than that, I have never heard of a Korean university having any outside or internationally recognized accreditation (not saying it doesn't exist, just that i haven't heard it) "
So aside from certain business degrees, basically unless you plan on staying in Korea for the rest of your life, your degree is worthless? For example, getting an MA in TESOL at a Korean University - this would only be good in Korea? If this is true, doesn't that completely defeat the purpose of getting your MA here as a foreigner?
As for getting an MA in TESOL, would that require taking the Korean language test? Is that a program that would be eligible for a scholarship for foreigners? |
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OiGirl
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: Hoke-y-gun
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Get your Korean degree evaluated by a company like ECE (https://www.ece.org) and many community colleges, etc. will accept it. |
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coralreefer_1
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| AtmaWeapon wrote: |
| coralreefer_1 wrote: |
| AtmaWeapon wrote: |
| coralreefer_1 wrote: |
Well I highly recommend you select a handful of universities that have a department that interests you rather than applying to random and bulk schools. The application process can be a real pain is the behind, particularly because there are so many documents a foreign student must submit. Most of these school require "original and certified" documents, and while all schools vary slightly, getting documents such as bank records, birth certificates for yourself as well as both parents, sealed transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc etc
You do not have to be in Korea if you are applying from outside. They may want to do a phone interview, but otherwise being out of the country isn't really an issue. What will be more of an issue is you Korean Language ability.
Aside from the Korean, some schools demand to see a GRE score (if you don't have one, I highly recommend it). Even if the school does not require it for the admission, having the school will help with securing more scholarship money.
At the best schools in the nation, the application deadline tends to be 6 months or so before the start of the semester..while the average schools tend to accept application 3-4 months before the new semester. It is probably already too late to be doing anything any earlier than next fall. The issue is that because you out of the country, you would have to apply, get accepted..then have your "letter of admission", and "letter of visa issuance" mailed to you, which is what you need to process the visa. Then mail all of that off to the consulate, wait for more until that comes back..and then finally you would be good to go.
My suggestion would be as follows.
1. Do some research on the schools with your interest, and check their websites for procedures/required documents and deadlines for application, tuition, scholarship options..etc.
2. After doing all of that, come to a conclusion about whether or not you truly want to study in Korea.
3. Contact the schools international office for info (you will likely have to do this at step 1 because many schools do not keep updated info, or even detailed info on their English-version pages.)
Good Luck |
That's disappointing to hear about them wanting GRE scores, that was one of my other big reasons for wanting to go to a Korean University for my MA. I remember taking the GRE practice test when I was working on my BA; it was HARD. It seems so pointless to have to study so hard for a test that literally does not help you in any way in life, although that's true with a lot of hoops you have to jump through to even to get a BA. Obviously learning Korean is more difficult, but at least that will help you in your everyday life (in Korea). How much does it hurt my chances without taking the GRE?
Without going through each of the university websites individually, what types of MA programs are offered for someone who majored in/interested in political science and (American) history? I'm assuming anything history-related would be Asian history? |
As far as I know, most schools do not require a GRE exam. In fact as I was researching which schools to attend, the only one that said it was "required" was Sunkyunkwan University. I applied to the Business Department at Korea University, and at that school like most, a GRE (or in my case a GMAT) exam was "recommended but not exactly "required" Having one would probably help your chances for acceptance, but really I dont know of very many that have the GRE as a required stipulation to enter.
That said, that was almost 2 years ago I was researching universities, and since then the government has implemented a few laws/legal codes that require universities to supposedly be more stingy about admitting foreign students to weed out "unqualified students" as the news article/press statement on the issue mentioned, so more schools may be asking for it.
Honestly I do not know which schools would be best for what you want to study. The only way to know which universities offer those programs would be to spend the time to look around on different school websites and go through their departments/requirements for admission. I would imagine many schools have a political science department, but cant really name any specifically.
However, and this is just my opinion, but to make the best of choosing to study in Korea I would suggest looking into an International Cooperation program. Like marketing, politics in Asia tend to have a different philosophy than their western counterparts, so unless you plan on being a politician in Korea, I cant see how studying PS here would be all that beneficial. Lets be frank here, there is already a stigma about studying in Korea (as compared to the US/EU...etc), but coming to Korea to study International Cooperation (which is somewhat related to PS) may look better on a resume displaying your academic history and experiences. International Commerce/Trade was not my first choice for a subject (although I am interested), but I chose it because it was the one thing that the experience of being overseas benefited from given my previous studies.
As far as history, I have no idea. |
Thanks again. I found this (written by you in another thread):
"But as I have mentioned in thread similar to this one...what is more important is the accreditation of any degree you will receive, and what you hope to do with it afterward. Depending on what you want to study, the only accreditation most universities carry is the typical accreditation from the Korean Ministry of Education..which is the same accreditation that every 2-year tech school 40 km in the country carries. I have only heard of a handful of universities here that carry AACSB accreditation for business programs, but other than that, I have never heard of a Korean university having any outside or internationally recognized accreditation (not saying it doesn't exist, just that i haven't heard it) "
So aside from certain business degrees, basically unless you plan on staying in Korea for the rest of your life, your degree is worthless? For example, getting an MA in TESOL at a Korean University - this would only be good in Korea? If this is true, doesn't that completely defeat the purpose of getting your MA here as a foreigner?
As for getting an MA in TESOL, would that require taking the Korean language test? Is that a program that would be eligible for a scholarship for foreigners? |
I would not say it is worthless..education is education at the end of the day. However how much value getting a degree here versus an online MA TESOL or some other type of degree can apply to your current and future situation is entirely subjective and dependent on numerous factors.
In the case of the US DoE, Korea has some kind of agreement with the US concerning recognition of education from schools with the accreditation from the Korean MoE. That said they tends to be a certain percentage that gets dropped from Korean university credits when applied to US standards. For example, lets say I did a BA here in Korea, and I wanted to enter grad school in the US..then I would have to submit my transcripts to a kind of evaluation company like mentioned in the previous post. From what I understand it is very unlikely 100% of your credits would transfer..maybe only something like 70-80%. This leads to believe that the quality of university education in Korea is not considered the same level as US university education (in this example) However I must say I have no info other than some chart I saw once on some site that basically said 1 Korean university credit equals .75 US credit.
Is that true? Well that is a discussion that is beyond the scope of my post. I will say that at the end regardless of what other people tell you or crap on the idea of doing a degree in Korea while you are here, doing a degree is better than not doing one..and can only add to your resume and overall education level.
How that degree affects future opportunities whether they be a promotion, better job, PhD program in Korea or some other place..etc, is hard to determine.
As far as MA of TESOL programs in Korea, I really don't know. That would be something that you would have to look at the university websites for, find their scholarship information, and make contact with the school to determine. As far as Korean language, even courses related to English such as English Education, English Lit, TESOL, etc...would at least in part likely be taught in Korean, so I would assume the same Korean Language standards would apply to those programs like any other, but again I do not know specifically and suggest contacting prospective universities and programs for that info. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| I've noticed that quite a few foreign grad students in Korea are from poorer countries. That should tell you something. |
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