Korean Job Discussion Forums

[eIn07912]

A lot of English teachers in Korea finish up their year(s) and decide to pursue a graduate degree abroad or back home. I applaud those people. Never be satisfied with your current status or abilities. Constantly strive to better yourself, I say.

So, for those of you that did go on to study more (MA, MBA, PhD, JD, MD) I'm curious as to how your time spent teaching played on your graduate admissions?

I started researching grad school before I was finished with my bachelors degree. Here's what several of my professors told me are the most important parts about getting in to a great grad school"

1. Entrance exams (GRE, GMAT, LSAT) regardless of how poorly and well you performed as an undergrad or in a real world work environment, a high entrance exam score can land you in just about any place you want. I've heard people with GPAs in the "2 point-something" neighborhood blowing their GMAT or LSAT out of the water and landing in top tier or Ivy League schools.

2. Undergrad GPA - a high 3 or 4.0 can really open up a lot of doors for you in choosing a grad school.

3. How you did out in the world / personal experience. - This one is the most interesting of the three. I was told by several profs that while the first determine a good portion of grad school entrances, this last one always lands a few wildcards and underdogs in every class. Basically, a school wants to see what you did with your degree and how well you faired in the real world. Did you just get an internship then work one job for a couple of years? Because that's what most graduates did. Nothing really makes you stand out. However, did you pack up your stuff and live in a foreign country on the other side of the world? "Interesting" they might think. "Not a lot of Americans even travel abroad. Here's a guy/gal that even took that one step further."

So, tell me, if you wish, how did you time in Korea play when it came to the admission process? For myself, I'm not relying on it to get in somewhere. My GPA was good, but not stellar. And I know if I took a few months to really prep for an entrance test, I could do well on it. But I'm hoping my personal experience and unusual choice of life after university is that "little extra bit" that pushes me over the edge to get into a really great school. Sure I'd be more than proud to go to another state school again, but heck, you have to dream big to achieve big.

[djsmnc]

I think that along with "whole person" qualities that you mentioned, it's best to submit a sincere and carefully written personal statement that expresses where you plan to go with your studies/research and how your experiences have shaped that decision.

[otnemem]

Different types of grad programs stress different things, so it really depends. What kind of degree are you thinking of getting? I can't speak for a lot of things, but from everything I've researched and people I've talked to, Law School is 90% LSAT score and GPA, with your LSAT being more important. If your numbers are right at the cutoff for a certain school, teaching abroad could be the little difference that gets you in over, say, someone with identical numbers strait out of undergrad, or someone who worked a service job for a year after college.

At the same time, something like Teach for America, the Peace Corps, a Fulbright, etc is going to look better than teaching ESL in Korea.

I would imagine that it would be similar for most kinds of programs, but anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[peppermint]

On one of my applications, they specifically asked about adaptability, so I wrote about being the first foreign teacher ever at my elementary school, and how it was a learning process for me and the students.

I'll be starting my MLIS at my first pick in September, so it must've convinced them. A lot depends on your field, but I'd imagine you can spin the job to make it work for any degree- Even the slackest of hagwon monkey jobs allows you to gain public speaking skills, international experience and demonstrate a certain amount of adventurousness that can work for you in an application.

[jugbandjames]

[Mr. Pink]

Interesting questions.

Last year I applied to a Canadian university for an MA in history. They rejected me because I did not have enough history professors recommend me and because I did not have enough 4th year credits in history. I did have around an 85% average in all my previous history credits and a 3 year degree in history. This wasn't even a top tier university.

This year I applied to an Ivy League university for an MA in my teaching field (English) and I was accepted. I am not sure how my GPA would be measured, but it was a Canadian A grade, not A+. I wrote one of the best personal statements I've ever created and I had organized to have some great references, both academic and professional. My program of study does not require the GMAT.

So what does it take? I guess each university looks for what they want and it goes like that.

[jugbandjames]

[Mr. Pink]

[jugbandjames]

Mr. Pink, are you doing an English Ed. degree or something like that?

[Mr. Pink]

[jugbandjames]

Yea, it sounds perfect for what you need. Particularly if it's going to be a non-expert who will eventually be making hiring decisions, name recognition is very important.

I just get a bit irritated at the way people assume some of these "elite" schools are the best at everything (I'm not accusing you of this). That's just not how things work, especially in grad school. There are lots of excellent schools, and you really have to look at individual departments when comparing them. Of course, elite schools are more competitive to get into and I think that's where the myth that they are the best comes from. Many of the students are also wealthy and well connected, so you end up seeing them in more important positions after graduation, which adds to the school's notoriety but isn't necessarily evidence of a better education.

My cousin is a professor at an elite non-ivy school. Most of the students are just rich spoiled kids who think they're buying A's. He's even had student's parents call him before and give him the whole "do you know who I am" spiel. Similarly, I knew a guy in grad school who had a physics degree from Yale. He thought he was hot stuff. He flunked out in the first semester, like, big time. He didn't even complete some of his first semester projects. How did he get into Yale and do so well there? I'm not really sure--but his dad was on the state board of elections.