Study Abroad (Korea University): Application Timeline

Hello, hello all! It's been a while, but as I've mentioned in my previous post, I will be blogging about my semester abroad at Korea University these next few months. As I'm still on winter break right now (and have been for the last two months), I've decided to walk you all through my application and pre-departure process.

Which Program Should I Choose?

At my university, there are various programs divided by major, cultural immersion, and etc for studying abroad. The two that were open to me -- a business student -- were the School of Arts and Letters and the School of Business' study abroad programs. I decided to study abroad through the business school's program due to the ability to transfer business electives from abroad back to my home institution. Another factor was the absence of a language requirement for the business school's program. The School of Arts and Letters, on the other hand, houses all of the cultural and language classes within my school, so one year of Korean language study was needed. I'd only taken a semester's worth of Korean, so I definitely would not have been able to study abroad this semester if I had gone with their program. Their program is nice, however, if you want a more language intensive/centric program. It's all up to what you want out of your program. I want to study abroad but I also want to graduate on time, so the business school's program is personally a better fit for me. 

Application Timeline

Home Institution Nomination Deadline (Oct 30)

Every university does this a little bit differently, so I can't tell you what this part of the process may look like for you; I can only talk about my university's nomination process. The way it works is that my school can only nominate as much students for a study abroad institution as the study abroad institution sends to my school. Therefore for popular schools such as ESADE in Spain or any school in Paris for that matter, competition is pretty rough as my school can only send around 4-5 kids. This is due to the fact that ESADE and schools in Paris have the capabilities to send over only 4-5 of their students every semester. As my school and these schools have an agreement with each other, it's important to send around the same number of students as the partner school. Fortunately for me, Korea isn't really that popular of a destination for kids at my school, haha, so getting my business school's nomination wasn't that hard.

                   

In order to receive a nomination, I had to submit an online application comprising of four essays and other information. In addition, I also had to do an in-person interview with my business school's study abroad adviser. The application, one's GPA, and the interview then gets scored by the reviewers, and each student is ranked from the highest to the lowest score. Those at the top of the list receives their first choice study abroad school, while those below typically got their second or third or fourth or so on pick (we had to rank the 31 study abroad schools/locations in order of most desired to least desired). This is why for those looking to study abroad in Spain and Paris, the essays and the interview are crucial in raising one's rank. Like I said before, however, Korea's not that competitive   LOL (3 people applied to Seoul National University and 3 applied to Korea University), so we all got nominated.

Korea University Application Deadline (Nov 30 -- Korea Time)

***NOTE: Make sure you take into account that every single deadline at this point is KOREA time. This means that if you're in the USA, the application is due Nov 29.***

After you've been successfully nominated by your home university, Korea University's Exchange Program Manager will contact you about applying to Korea University itself. You'll have about a month -- all of November -- to complete the application and gather any additional documents they ask for. In order to apply to KU, you'll need the following items: 

• Online application form
• One (1) photograph 
• One (1) signed pledge statement 
• Official academic transcript
• One (1) letter of academic recommendation (needs to be a professor or academic adviser)
• Statement of Purpose and Goals (1-2 pages)
• Copy of passport ID page
• Confirmation of international health insurance while abroad
• Certificate of Health: dates showing 1 chicken pox shot + 2 shots of MMR (or the shots of                                            these individually) + you need to get a TB skin test

Everything needs to be written and completed in ENGLISH. 

The nice thing about KU's application process is that everything is done online. My friends who applied to study abroad programs at Seoul National University and Yonsei University had to complete both an online application AND send in a physical copy of everything listed above. I find that super 麻烦 (troublesome); not to mention, rush delivery is expensive. I think my friend paid about $20-$30 to deliver her physical application. 

KU Acceptance Letter (Early Dec)

I received a PDF copy of my Letter of Admission around early December, while the physical copy arrived at my business school's study abroad office around early January. Aside from the admission letter, the admission packet also includes documents and forms needed for a Korean visa! 

That pretty much sums up the application process for Korea University Business School :) I'll talk about applying for visas and housing in my next post!