The Korean Fad: Getting into Top US Universities
The New York Times has an article on the seemingly latest fad in Korean academia: to win admissions to the most prestigious universities in the United States. One of the students at the prestigious Daweon Foreign Language High School, who graduated from Harvard, puts it this way: “Going to U.S. universities has become like a huge fad in Korean society, and the Ivy League names — Harvard, Yale, Princeton — have really struck a nerve.” An American Ambassador says, “Preparing to get to the best American universities has become something of a national obsession in Korea.”
The goals of the high school are some that may need to be emulated by those magnet programs in the USA: an extremely strong focus on studying hard.
Though the grueling study is a bit extreme — previously, one of these preparatory schools installed cameras in the dormitories so that students would not fall asleep during late-night study sessions. After all, while academics is one major goal for the students, another goal is to become a responsible citizen.
Beyond the hardcore studying comes the need to learn a third language (in addition to Korean and English) plus taking Advanced Placement courses. The school also runs for 10 months a year instead of the standard American 9.
Romance, too, is scolded upon. It’s perceived as wasting time. In the lunchroom, girls and boys sit separately.
What does that translate to in US colleges? Harvard has seen 213 new applications for its 2009 freshman class (up from 66 in ‘03). The Daewon school (and its closest competitor) have 34 graduates in Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. There were 133 graduates in total in this year’s class.
The culture in South Korea is a bit different. While our academic year in the US starts in August or September, South Korea’s starts in March. Graduation is held in February. (You can imagine the stress of college applications during such an odd schedule, but they work it out.)
A Princeton student from the Korean culture shares her story about the emphasis on top grades: “Ms. Kim developed fierce study habits early, watching her mother scold her older sister for receiving any score less than 100 on tests. Even a 98 or a 99 brought a tongue-lashing.”
The hard work doesn’t stop on weekends either. Classes in English and meet on weekends with the aim to raise SAT scores for Ivy League consideration. One student is taking 9 Advanced Placement exams next month in all different areas of study.
The test score averages are also high. The article says: “[The school's] average combined SAT score was 2203 out of 2400. By comparison, the average combined score at Phillips Exeter, the New Hampshire boarding school, is 2085. Sixty-seven Daewon graduates had perfect 800 math scores.”
And so continues the life of a South Korean student:
“She rises at 6 a.m. and heads for her school bus at 6:50. Arriving at Daewon, she grabs a broom to help classmates clean her classroom. Between 8 and noon, she hears Korean instructors teach supply and demand in economics, Korean soils in geography and classical poets in Korean literature.
At lunch she joins other raucous students, all, like her, wearing blue blazers, in a chow line serving beans and rice, fried dumpling and pickled turnip, which she eats with girlfriends. Boys, who sit elsewhere, wolf their food and race to a dirt lot for a 10-minute pickup soccer game before afternoon classes.
Kim Hyun-kyung joins other girls at a hallway sink to brush her teeth before reporting to French literature, French culture and English grammar classes, taught by Korean instructors. At 3:20, her English language classes begin. This day, they include English literature, taught by Mani Tadayon, a polyglot graduate of the University of California at Berkeley who was born in Iran, and government and politics, taught by Hugh Quigley, a former Wall Street lawyer.
Evening study hall begins at 7:45. She piles up textbooks on an adjoining desk, where they glare at her like a to-do list. Classmates sling backpacks over seats, prop a window open and start cramming. Three hours later, the floor is littered with empty juice cartons and water bottles. One girl has nodded out, head on desk. At 10:50 a tone sounds, and Ms. Kim heads for a bus that will wend its way through Seoul’s towering high-rise canyons to her home, south of the Han River.
“I feel proud that I’ve endured another day,” she said.”
June 13th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Yeah, this is what happens when stupid people prone to cultishness get their hands on metrics (grades) that lead to prestige (going to Ivies). This sort of thinking has existed forever in the US among all ethnicities and incomes, too.
The real issue is that all of us hate learning. We want something out of it, and something out of it immediately that is tangible. As long as we have that attitude – an attitude fostered by modern capitalism and nationalism and personal pride – we’ll abuse our kids into perpetuity.
January 21st, 2009 at 1:32 am
Firstly, I live in Korea and have visited both Daewon and Minjok
Its really really annoying when these kind of articles and the new york times portrays hardworking students as complete nerds. This article hasn’t even touched over the good parts of such a rigorous schedule. And that no romance thing where the kids are forced to sit separate and how romance is “scolded upon It’s perceived as wasting time. In the lunchroom, girls and boys sit separately.”is so exaggerated its DAMN annoying.
And korean parents don’t “abuse” their kids into studying. Pressure is on but its for the student’s own sake and putting high expectations on the student is normal.I think its really good that the kids are trying to get into good colleges and schools like Harvard.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:41 pm
There’s no such thing as romance phobia at Daewon. I spent three years there so I know better
May 29th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
well, there is a bit of exaggeration,
but, normally it is true.
I assume that all the people who wrote the comments down are students at those schools.
But, with a clear outside perspective, I truly agree that korean schools are just “obssessed”with Ivy League.
Can anyone who live in Korea deny it?
I mean, I am american educated korean, and have been in both Korea and U.s.
But, there is a big difference between two countries.
American education teach you how to think, while korean education just put the “right” infos that you need.
you guys are NERDS! and have to relax!
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I’ll have to second the comment by ‘est.’
American education teaches how to succeed by maximizing one’s individuality, personality, and creativity, while Korean education teaches success through cramming, rigorous memorization and studies.
The Korean education system does not foster the young student’s talents or individualities but instead forces the students to live on a controlled, rigid schedule for extensive amount of time.
They are robotizing their students.