[edit]
since starting this thread a LOT of people have been asking questions that no one can answer.
if you want to know SPECIFIC questions ASK YOUR SCHOOL'S INTERNATIONAL OFFICE!!!!

things that you should ask at your school's international office:
- scholarship advice
- course advice (ie- whether credits will match up or not)
- what study abroad programs are offered
- cost
- study abroad term

DON'T BE LAZY! no one here knows whether or not community college students can do study abroad, no one knows how much money your program costs, no one know what scholarships you are elegible for, no one knows how you can transfer to a university in korea.

these are the types of questions you should direct to YOUR SCHOOL or the KOREAN UNIVERSITY!!!

i thought that this was obvious, but these types of questions have come up SO MUCH that i thought i better put this on the top post and hope that no one asks.

there's no problem with asking about someone's experience in korea, the type of classes they took, etc.
but don't ask questions like "my school doesn't offer study abroad in korea, how can i go there?". I DON'T KNOW! ASK YOUR SCHOOL FOR ADVICE.

thank you. (edited jan 3 '09)

since there's so many ppl that are interested in doing study abroad in korea, i thought it might just be easier to make a topic for it.
that way ppl that have done the programs can write up their views, and ppl that have questions about the program can READ them through, then make a decision and/or ask questions about things that weren't addressed in other posters points about the program...

hmm...i visited a friend that did a program like that but she went to ehwa. the place seemed pretty clean and nice...but i'm not so sure about the classes...

so the general idea is SNU has bad international student services whilst Yonsei has better int. services?

I'm considering going to SNU for exchange in 2007. I'm not native korean.. i plan to study my ass off and pass that proficiency test! I should be taking Korean language classes when i'm there though so.. guess not a lot of my classes will actually be lectured in korean. Anywho.. you mentioned dorms are bad quality? MAN.. i'm gonna go check them out this winter then..

my experience with yonsei's summer program

i went through younsei's summer session (DIEE) in 2003 & 2004.

in 2003, the ppl in the dorm were terrible. 90%+ of the kids there were korean-americans, and many of them were visibly NOT happy about having non-koreans in their midst.
i got ppl saying stuff like "what are YOU doing here?" as if i had no right to go to korea to learn korean.

most the korean-americans hung out together and actively excluded anyone that was not korean-american or 1/2 korean.

many...most of them had sh*tty korean, and would try to make up for it by mumbling and swearing a lot in korean.

the teachers were nice and the security guards also were nice.
actually, i had more fun with the koreans (locals) than korean-americans.

in 2004 when i went, it was much better (but still not great).
the summer session is really about "korean-american bonding time". and because of that, i ACTIVELY encourage NON-KOREANS to apply for the summer session.

of course both times i went i met nice korean-americans, but a lot of them are just rude to non-koreans (this includes non-korean asian-americans).

anyways, this 2nd time i went, there were more non-koreans and some of us were able to hang out.

in terms of classes:
mon, tues, thurs & fri you have class. wed is a no-class day...for some random reason...
the korean language class is 3 hrs long. the 1st hr is like reading, 2nd is grammar, 3rd is speaking (something like that) with a 10 min break between each hour. and it's everyday (except wed of course).

you don't *have* to take a korean class, they have a number of other classes avaliable, all taught in english. though, be warned that some teachers of the other non-korean lang classes don't have the best english (so i heard) so, you'll have to put a bit more effort into learning.

if you're going to take a korean class, they give you a placement exam.
they tell you that the exam places you lower than what you might have expected. but, you can always move up or down as you please.

the exam starts out with some simple stuff then gets harder and harder.
in my case, there were grammar patterns that i knew, but i didn't know the vocab around the grammar so i couldn't understand what was going on.
there's also a speaking portion.
basically the lady is going to ask you stuff like "what's your name?" "where are you from?" "what time did you wake up this morning?" etc.
honestly, i didn't know the answers so some questions even in english cuz i just straight up forgot.

if you are a complete beginner, they have a beginner class.
it sounds like the class starts off in english, but then the teachers just switch mostly to korean...and some ppl felt that they didn't really learn anything.

some korean-americans might have good/OK speaking skills, but can't write worth sh*t.
if that's you, and you're put in a lower class, don't get an attitude about it.
it's no fun to be in a class with ppl who don't want to be there.
it's not my fault that you didn't want to take saturday korean lang classes as a kid, so don't get an attitude with non-koreans who know more about korean grammar than you.
along with that, if you are a non-korean taking korean, the korean teachers expect you to know the grammar better than korean-american students...and sometimes explicitly tell the class that.

so if that's you, non-korean person, try to work on your speaking skills!

there's a buddy program in the summer and during the regular year.
i never did it, but it could be a good way to meet local koreans, and many local koreans are eagar to show non-koreans (and korean-americans) around and introduce them to korean culture.

i'll write more later...i'm getting tired.

That sounds just horrible to me.

^ it's not too bad.
like i said, i'll write more later haha~

hmm sounds kinda interesting actually...i was thinking of joining the yonsei program...thanks for the info.

i want to study abroad at maybe yonsei [have friends there] but i'm not sure when the best time would be to go ...

so if you want to study abroad. how long would you stay? a month, a year? just wondering. and expenses. do you have your own money to pay for living expenses? sounds really interesting to me. i'd reallyl like to go.

native koreans ask why twinkies are in there country too.
twinkies actually think they'll be fully accepted in korea. their accents are hilarious too

i want to study in yonsei for the whole year. my home university requires that i take 18 units per semester if i study at yonsei. im a business major. ill be there for my sophomore year if i can go. please tell me the name and course number of yonsei classes that are equivalent to the following UC classes so I know what classes i can take at yonsei that can be counted toward my UC college breadth requirements:
STAT 48 - Statistics for business
PSYC 11 - Psychological Methods: Statistical Procedures
ANTH 175B - Anthropological Research: Specialized Techniques
ECON 111 - Research Methods in Business and Economics
PSYC 12 - Psychological Methods: Research Procedures
SOC 4 - Methods of Sociological Inquiry -- Formerly SOC 110A (Prerequisite SOC 1)
BSAD 10 - Intro. to Business
BSAD 20A - Principles of Accounting I
BSAD 20B - Principles of Accounting II
HIST 10 - WORLD HISTORY:PREHISTORY TO 1500
HIST 20 - WORLD HISTORY: TWENTIETH CENTURY

I need to take these classes at yonsei if i don't want to be one year behind when i get back to america the year after.

Thank you, anyone who can help me.

this is interesting. i want to study art abroad in korea. but i dont know the langauge. thats the problem for me.

Me and my friends were planning on going for the exchange program at Yonsei University but after reading some of the comments, I'm not too sure about going to that university for the program anymore.

Has anyone gone to Korea University to take the summer korean language course by any chance? Anything about experiences, the quality of the teaching and course would be really appreciated =)

Instead of being lazy, I suggest you get yourself on their webpage and/or start emailing the undergraduate office to help you. What makes you think everyone else's time isn't as precious as yours?



I went on the summer program for Yonsein in the summer of 2003 (KLI) and had an awesome time. Two of my friends were non Korean-American and they both said they had great times. One is half-Korean, half white. My other friend is 1/4 Korean, and 3/4 African-American. Neither of them had much of a problem, but that might have been because they hung out with me and my roommate (we are both fluent in Korean and English). I think the people you meet and hang out with correlates directly with your experience. Honestly, the four of us pretty much did our own thing the entire time we were there. We never really hung out very much with the kids from our program.

One thing that I would recommend trying out if you get the chance are dance classes at Nana Dance Academy. We met a lot of Korean celebrities there. It's located in Shin-chon, very convenient location from Yonsei. (To be precise, it's on the second floor of the movie theater near Ewha area... near the huge McDonald's.) It's also a good place to meet other people. When I was there, there were two other girls from the U.S. and our dance teacher was so awesome. Lee So Eun (the singer) was also in our class, and she speaks decent English.

^ was the black/korean girl a soompi member by any chance?

yonsei continued

the dorm that most summer students stay in is the International House 국제학사.

it has about 4 floors, but i think the 4th floor is closed to students or somethinglike that...
if you're going to apply for the 2006 summer program, get your dorm $$ in early. cuz there are ppl that have to stay in off campus housing and commute.
and did i mention that you have to find the housing yourself?

for the most part the rooms/dorm is pretty nice.

the basement has a laundry room (washers/dryers). it's a first come first serve type of thing. while i didn't have any of my clothing stolen, i did have ppl decide to take my clothes out of the dryer so that they could use it

there's also a basement lounge with 2 tvs, couches, tables, microwave, karaoke, sink, and 2 vending machines.

the dorm set-up is split between a girls and boys side.
guys are not allowed to go to the girls side and vice versa (family members are the exception).
if you are caught sneaking in a person of the opposite sex to your dorm side you WILL be kicked outta the dorm.
no joking, they have video cameras to watch your every move, and while the security guards are old, they are not stupid.

someone tried to put a wig on a guy or something and bring him in...kicked out.
some guy tried to cover a girl in a big shirt and sneak her in..kicked out.

and they do post your name on a bulletin board with the reason why you were kicked out.

that's not to say that guys and girls can't meet in the dorm, the 1st floor and basement are common areas.

but where the rooms are, that's a no-no.

speaking of the rooms, they are basically the same as the rooms in the states.
2 beds for 2 ppl. a wardrobe, a desk and some shelves on the walls.
there is a heater and a/c.
and there's a cable for internet, but you have to get that all set up.

the bathrooms are ok.

if you didn't know, in korea you're not supposed to flush your toilet paper down the toilet.
instead you ball it up and throw it into a little trash bin next to the toilet.

yes, i was freaked out by it also.
if you are uncomfortable with that (like me) then what i suggest is that you strategically use the tp and flush often.
if you pull off 1/2 a roll to wipe your azz and throw it all in the toilet, it's gonna clog up a korean toilet.
the toilets can handle tp, just not a massive ammount (hence flush often).

and while ppl don't want to hear about it, your sh*t...aka ddong is probably going to clog up the toilet at some point.
some suggestions:
-just clog up the toilet like you don't care (enough ppl do this).
-ration the poo. only let out so much at a time, and flush often.
-poo in a plastic bag and throw the bag in the garbage.
-don't poo for however long u are in the program.
-poo in the woods.

diahreaa(sp) of course, will always easily go down.

girls, when you are you know *cough*....

...and you obviously don't want to toss that in the trash can, you don't have to.
like i said, strategic use and flush often.

this is all thrown out the door if you use a squat toilet though...cuz you just can't put tp in there...

lucky for you, there are no squat toilets in the dorms.

the showers....hmm....

there's basically a plastic curtain that you slide open to get to the shower part of the bathroom.
there's a little area where you can put your towel or clothes or whatever...but if a lotta ppl are using the shower there's not much room to put anything.
except for the wet floor...

there are individual shower stalls that are divided by frosted glass (meaning that you shouldn't press your azz up against the glass lest someone gets a glance) and you can see the person next to you.
can't see them clearly enough to see their nono areas...but yeah...
there's no shower door, but again, that plastic curtain.
so...you'll have to find the best way to close it off.

there's like, 1 drain for the whole shower, so...girls expecially beware of your hair.

mmm....more to come later.

Yeah, I still keep in touch with her. We live in approximate distance to each other so we see each other pretty often. At least once a year. And our colleges are huggeeeee rivals when it comes to footballs, so we try to make each other's games.



One other thing I found inconvenient in Korea was the lack of tampons. I don't know if this has been fixed since 2003, but it was like hell trying to find tampons.

Good idea about emailing them, thank you. Is this what you did to find your classes?
Do you have any other suggestions about the application process?

lol....
i dun wear tampons so...


personally, i just took whatever i wanted. but that's why i went during the summer.
you should probably talk with a counselor/someone in the study abroad office and they can tell you if the credits transfer or not.
every university is different in that area.

thats offensive.....

and the truth ^_~

I'd like to say the truth about you buddy but I'll refrain

after seeing pictures of you on your xanga..i could do the same to you as well.

dutsukyampu I'm giving you one and only one verbal warning about the use of the word "twinkies."

hmm i wonder when it's better to go, in the winter or summer? well it doesnt really matter to me. but i was just asking.

lol even before this i would have rather gone to Yonsei anyways ^^

the summers in korea are freaking HOT...like omg...it's hot...
the summer clothes are cute, but maybe cuz i haven't seen krn winter i would recommend going in the winter.

i have some questions >.<

1. are there going to be a tourist when i get off the airplane?
2. how much do the dorm cost?
3. is it easy to find part-time jobs around/near the campus? do they require us to know fluent korean or a specific age to have the job?
4. can we share the dorm with our sister?
5. do they allow high school [not graduate yet] students to enroll?
6. if we want to join the buddy program, do we have to pay for the membership?
7. do they require us to be in the dorm at a specific time?
8. if we want to join the dance classes at Nana Dance Academy, do we have to pay for the fees? if so, then how much?
9. if we are non-korean and dont know any korean and want to attend to Yonsei in the summer, is that a bad choice? im not korean but i really wants to go....
10. if we need help, is there anyone who understand fluent Engish to help us? (like the teachers)
11. will CD players/cellphones/laptops from USA work in korea?
12. about how many US dollars should we bring to Korea to use during the 3 months of summer school?

may i have the website??? thanks!!! i'll ask more questions if i think of some in the future... thank you!

Yonsei International Division


along with littlemixedgirl.....myself and chrissejin have also done either the summer or full year at yonsei.

i went from 2000-2001, it was fun. met tons of people from around the world and have a great time.

wow~ thanks for the info*...
I definately want to study at Yonsei one summer =D

why when i clicked on the website it took forever to load and once it loaded a few parts of the webpage, the web automatically go to msn page?

I want to study abroad in Korea but I hate dorming even now I have an apartment by myself instead of a dorm. My dad told me to go study abroad in Hong Kong instead

1. ?? i don't really understand what you mean here....
2. the dorm is like $500-$600 i think. they tell you when u apply.
3. you MUST have a work visa to work in korea. do NOT listen to what korean-americans tell you about getting illegal tutoring jobs. while a lotta ppl do it, some ppl DO get caught and if you're caught you get DEPORTED.
4. if your sister is going on the program with you, you could request to share a room with her. But non-students are NOT allowed to spend the night in the dorm.
5. you have to be a university student to do the program.
6. you don't have to pay to be in the buddy program.
7. the KLI preogram has a curfew of 12am, the DIEE program has no curfew.
8. i dunno anything about any nana dance place...
9. of course you can go during the summer, but ppl that are not korean-AMERICAN will probably feel excluded.
10. all the teachers/DIEE staff can speak english.
11. cd players, laptops will work. if you want to use a cellphone, it's best that you buy a 'card phone'.
12. i used the money from my financial aid (about $1,000USD). some ppl bring more, korean-americans mostly leech off their relatives...

just wondering. i go to a community college right now and if i wanted to go to korea after i finish everything, do i still count as a university student?

also, what are the requirements to get accepted? i went to the website and found out and everything but since you've been there before, i was wondering how the system works and if it's actually hard to get in...
like do they look at your GPA or something? or does it depend on what school you go to? i was going to try for either yonsei or goryo(korea university).

i think you have to be connected to a university to study there...
if not then you'll have to pay all the fees outta pocket.

i think you need like a 2.5~3.0 GPA to be accepted.
it's pretty easy to get in...you need like 2 reccomendation letters and fill out their form...something like that.

yeah...

Thanks for this thread.

My bestfriend wants to go to Korea for a semester or year and she wants me to go with her. Err...But I want to go to Thailand. >_< I'm still thinking about it.

But I'll tell her about this thread.

Thanks alot.

wow sounds like a nightmare ~_~ I've always wanted to go to Korea because my friends who have gone, came back with good things to say.

Koreans are extremely nationalistic though o_o my parents don't like my bf because he's Chinese

like i said, it's like a whole different experience for korean-americans vs. non-korean-americans.

if your friends were korean-american, then they were probably hanging out with other korean-americans... (which is what i found annoying, not that ppl have a requirement to hang out with non-koreans, but don't invite all krns in your krn class to go drinking and say nothing to the non-krns... )

the ppl of korea tho, they seemed pretty chill to me.
but...i dunno maybe i meet atypical ppl?

I took classes at nana's in 03 went I went to Yonsei it's about 100,000 won (less than $90 US) for a month

^ FELICIA!!!!!!

I went this summer and I had the best time ever! One of the best summers I ever had and the classes are very easy! Also, I've become really good friends with the people I met there... see some almost every week!




I saw the signs about not flushing toilet paper, but I think the Korean translation implied something else... so I ignored it.




Tampons are everywhere now... but their pads are so light! I went through like seven packs during each period. =/

i made some good friends there.
but omg, when i went in 2003....
the girls from my university wouldn't even say 'hi' to me when passing me on the street.

there's a lotta friggin stuck up chicks that go during the summer and it can be hard to find nice ones

my friend is into tampons too.
she was trying to buy her fav kind before heading to korea.

i dun use them so...
+ i brought my own stuff

hmm~ about the excluding thing... I didn't really see the "Korean-American Korean-American" thing this summer. The non-Koreans tended to bond more, but we all always hung out. There was this hapa that people didn't really like and would get in fights with... and he would tell everyone, "they don't like me because I'm a half-blooded." However, it was just his personality that everyone thought was annoying and didn't like...

^ the exclusion wasn't always explicit.
i mean, you said that non-koreans tended to hang together.
that's how it was last summer when i was there.

many korean-americans just didn't make an effort to talk to non-koreans in the way that they'd try to make friendly with korean-americans.

like, ppl'd be like "oh...we met on the field trip so...we're close" or something like that.

it seems (i hope) that the program gets better and better for non-koreans each yr.

mmmph very informative thread I too have been thinking about going to korea to study aboard...you know i have noticed that korean-americans are somewhat different from korean from korea. All the koreans i have meant were from S.Korea and they were some of the nicest people that I have ever meant...then this one guy that I meant was korean american he was such a wannabe...he even said in his facebook profile that was a.....and that he didn't know how to be asian he was an a$$ nonetheless but by all means does this mean all korean americans are like him.

I attend Sam Houston State down in Texas...we have a study aboard program in Korea it's from Soonchunhyang Univerity it's an 1 hr outside Seoul I believe. My school currently has 10 students there now and they love it so much that many of them are applying for another semester. I meant the two exchange students from Soonchunhyang their awesome I love them...they want me to go back with them and I think that I may go!

The benefits of this program we have is awesome...I pay tution at my university, I can get remibursed up to $800 bucks for my plane ticket, and all the classes taken there will transfer, best part is that you get about $125 bucks per week for 15 hrs to help students with their english.

http://www-english.sch.ac.kr/colleges/inte...nalprogram.html

there's the link if anyone wants to check it out!

yea sorry about some of the things some of y'all went though hopefully won't go through too much of that at soonchunhyang.

was there any chinese american who went to korea to study abroad? cause im planning to go there next year, and i want to know their experience there.

^ there were chinese-americans there when i was there...

i don't think i met too many tho...the chinese ppl that i talked with were like...ppl born/raised in china/hong kong, who were going to university in the US and decided to go into the study abroad program o_O

there were some vietnamese-american girls that i talked with.

basically it seems like, if you look asian, then koreans will generally think you're korean or maybe korean-american...so that means that they'll talk to u in korean.
and dressing 'scandalous' is like...a no-no, except at night...

i think they are expected to behave more like koreans.

but then, i've heard that there are some krns that have issues with china; but i think the chances of meeting such ppl is slim.

^thanks! btw since you study abroad at korea, what did you bring and what you recommend to bring?

during what year (summer of soph, junior, senior) do majority of the students usually go study abroad?

wow. thanx for the info..
seems like i have to seriously re-consider my plans at the end of the year..
now, this is my situation at the moment...
1. i should be graduating in dec'06
2. i still want to study for 1-2 more years after finishing my bachelor degree
3. one of the goals in my life is to study in korea
4. my parents think that chinese is becoming one of the most important language on earth, therefore they would be 100x happier if i study chinese instead of korean.. actually, i have no obejections for the idea of studying chinese AS LONG AS my parents still allow me to study korean..
5. my eldest sis' friends, all in various companies human resource department, said that studying only korean in korea, or studying only chinese in china would mean very little to the employer, so they suggest to me to join a graduate program instead.
6. are the graduate programs in korean universities taught in korean or english? if it's in english i might as well continue my studies here in australia
7. my parents suggested me to study chinese in china for a year before studying korean in korea for 1 year
8. is it wise for me to study post-grad in korea? which uni should i go to? how long would it take to finish the post grad program in general?
9. i wont survive living in korea with my knowledge of korean currently, so i still need to join the korean language program before starting the post-grad studies anyway
10. WHAT SHOULD I DO??!!!

please help me!!!