Ever since I’ve started considering SNU, I’ve been looking for a former or current SNU exchange student share his experience somewhere online. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t find any. Lucky for me, a current exchange student at SNU offered to answer all of my questions and gave me permission to post the answers on this blog. I haven’t seen almost any other exchange student in SNU post their experience anywhere so this was a great oppertunity for me to hear the inside view I wanted. Here’s my interview with Sean:
How did you decide to go to SNU and when/why did you learn Korean?
“I’ve been learning Korean since the summer of ’07, when I enrolled at the language school at Sogang during my summer vacation. Now I’m a senior at UT-Austin and I’m in the middle of a semester as an exchange student at SNU. My choice was between SNU and Hanyang (UT’s two Korean sister schools) and because SNU is much better for making the kind of contacts I wanted than Hanyang – though I have some friends at Hanyang – I chose SNU. The fact that one of my best friends goes here made the decision all the easier.”
Did you stay in on-campus housing? How was your apartment? How about cafeteria food (if you did eat there)?
“Yeah I’m in a dorm. The dorms are dirt-cheap, at 430,000원/semester. By comparison – though this is not an apples-to-apples comparison – a 원룸 (literally one room with a stove, mini-fridge, and small bathroom) will cost about 700,000원/month in the campus area (or less if you are willing to front a hefty deposit of about $5-10,000). Currently, a huge complex of new dorms is under construction, scheduled for completion in the second semester of next year. So in case you are put on the dorm waiting-list or something (I know several exchange students were due to lack of space in the old, currently-used dorms) you should definitely be able to live in a dorm starting in 제 2학기, if you so desire.
My dorm is not an apartment but rather a two-person room with 2 beds, 2 desks, and 2 wardrobes. There is a shared bathroom/shower room at the end of every hallway. It is acceptable and about the caliber of my freshman-year dorm at UT. The newer dorm buildings are supposed to be somewhat nicer.
Cafeteria food is normally pretty good, and you can check the menu online. Because there are ~15 cafeterias to choose from campus-wide, you should be able to find food you like at every meal. One great thing about Korean school cafeterias is that, though they aren’t all-you-can-eat lines (with a few exceptions – one place at SNU is like this), you can bring your clean plate back to the serving line – and actually cut to the front of the serving line – and ask for more meat, rice, 반찬, etc.”
How is the school load? Any suggestions about how many classes to take? Do you feel like you have time to do lots of things outside of classes?
“Well, the school load – just as in the States – is highly variable on the grade you want to make. Many students here study little during the semester then cram before the midterm and final exams (벼락치기). However, these students often end up with unsatisfactory grades and therefore end up having to drop the class after the first midterm, or else do 재수강 (retaking a class and completely replacing your old grade – something impossible to do at most American schools). To me, this seems like a pretty big waste of time, but many Koreans will sign up for 16-20 credit-hours every semester then come through with satisfactory grades in only half these classes by the end of the term. Though this practice is probably somewhat less common at SNU than, say, 한양, it is definitely somewhat prevalent.
Taking 영어 강의 is a route to an easy “A” for us native speakers and therefore I would recommend easing into life here by taking a least a few 영어 강의 the first few semesters. Similarly, I would take a limited number of credit-hours (12-14) the first 1-2 semesters. Anyway, it is much easier and probably more fun to make friends with club-mates rather than classmates (this is an aspect that is somewhat different from in the U.S.). I would highly recommend joining a 동아리 (club) that is related to your career interest. This is truly an 일석이조 method; you can make great campus friends, get plenty of networking done (both among classmates and club alumni), and build your skills at both Korean and the club’s area of specialty.
Oh BTW teaching professionalism is definitely lower than in the States. Quality is decent but a lack of acceptance/awareness of the Platonic instructional methods among teachers and (just as important) students here is extremely frustrating to me.”
Any general suggestions or things you wished you had known earlier?
“General suggestions – be outgoing and speak Korean as much as possible. If someone addresses you in English, respond in Korean. Your knowledge of Korean (even if not “perfect”) is a great asset, along with being a white guy. Many Koreans love having foreigner friends but it’s taxing for them to speak English and make tons of unknown social errors in the process (this is where the Korean mindset is different from the Western one, imo). The great thing is, speaking Korean is seen as such a huge adjustment/concession on your part that – partly due to being a white American as well – Koreans will completely ignore or even consider as charming most of the social errors that YOU make.
In sum, speaking Korean will impress Korean students enough to pique the curiosity of many. You can take advantage of this by making friends and contacts (you can just say to someone you’re talking with – “hey, wanna eat together sometime this week?” or “hey, i’ve gotta go but let’s exchange numbers”) that will inevitably lead to discovery of new and interesting stuff.
Hmm one thing I wish I’d done was read more books about Korean history, economics, and business back in the States. The main reason I didn’t (well, I read a few but not enough) was that I thought that time would be better-devoted to studying Korean and practicing Korean with 유학생 or 교환학생 friends in the U.S. This may have been true but I still wish I had been able to soak up more meta-knowledge so that I would have more mental models about how Korea and Korean society/government work on a LARGE scale before coming and experiencing so much of it on a smaller scale.”
How much do you think a normal student spends outside of tuition (housing, food, books, etc.) in one semester?
“In terms of non-tuition spending, this is HIGHLY variable – depends totally on your lifestyle. Some students I know have 3 meals/day at the cheapest school cafeteria, take public transportation everywhere, live in the dorms, and never go on any trips. To do a quick calculation, this lifestyle would cost:
2000 원/meal*3 meals/day*7 days/week*15 weeks/semester = 630,000원/semester. Transport budget of 3 round-trips per week – no need to leave the expansive campus every day = 6*1300원 for subway+bus transfer = 7800원/week*15 weeks/semester = 117,000원/semester. A dorm, as I said before, is 435,000원/semester though there is a 100,000원 deposit. Textbooks are cheaper than in the States; my accounting textbook was 30,000원 here, brand new. Many professors will even give out books for free during class or simply have a dirt-cheap copy-shop course packet. So budget 100,000원/semester for books. Add in 30,000원 for supplies, 30,000원 for club dues, and 2,000원/day for snacks or coffee (=210,000원/semester) and you come to a “barebones” budget of 63만원+11.7만원+43.5만원+10만원+3만원+3만원+21만원 = 155.2만원 or about $1300/semester at current exchange rates.
Of course, as I said this is “barebones” and don’t expect to live this way if you are dating, like to eat out, drink, take taxis, explore the city or travel a lot, enjoy sushi, etc. However it is a perspective on how many lower-income Korean students are able to afford university life without access to student loans like those available in the U.S. Now, though this barebones budget may represent many students, it is by no means the “normal” student and you will find yourself adding to it according to your own tastes. But I find it a good baseline for someone living in the dorms.”
In the future, I will continue to post my experiences as I go through registration, attend classes, etc assuming I get accepted. Hopefully my experience will be useful to anyone else considering studying at SNU. I’d just like to thank Sean again for this wonderful opportunity!
This is awesome. Thx to both of u.
I can’t really add anything specific about 서울대 (although I’d be glad to help out anybody wondering about 서울여대, 아주대, or 고대), but the advice seems pretty spot-on for most Korean universities.
If you can’t get a room in the door but don’t want to commit to the lease on a 원룸 (and expect to find your lease very difficult to break if you don’t stay the full term), look into 고시원 or 고시텔, of which there are likely to be gads of near school. They are essentially privately run dormatories, and can run as little as 150,000 won a month for a VERY basic (possibly windowless) room to something more like 300,000 for a nicer single. It’ll be one to four people per small room, usually furnished with bed, desk, and wardrobe, and usually having communal bathrooms, showers, kitchen, and lounge area. Some provide students with free rice and kimchi.
Another alternative is 하숙집, which will usually run between 4-600,000 won per month for a furnished private room, shared bathroom, and two meals a day. Particularly if you eat on a very regular schedule and like Korean food, this is actually a very economical way to live, and usually pretty comfortable. There may be restrictions on visitors in either kind of housing, particularly in the evening hours.
A few more things to ask about the dorms before you apply: a) is there a curfew? b) are the dorms integrated or are international students housed separately? Curfews can be annoying (and expensive, if you end up spending the night someplace like a 여관 or 찜질방), and being in a segregated dorm is a mixed bag. Usually international dorms are much nicer and less restrictive than regular Korean dorms, but you will miss chances to make social ties.
Here’s a second to joining a 동아리. It will take up all your free time, but it’s hands-down the best way to make Korean friends.
Second again to speak as much Korean as you can ~ not only will it make some Koreans more comfortable and enlarge the range of friends you can make, it will also improve your Korean and weed out people more interested in practicing their English than really engaging with you as a person. There’s a big gap in the quality of friends I made after I learned enough Korean to be functional in the language, and it’s definitely allowed me to meet and learn from people I wouldn’t have been able to know otherwise. Even if your friends all speak lovely English (and at SNU a fair number will) make the effort to say what you can in Korean, and only use English when you have to.
Definitely take a few hundred extra dollars to travel around Korea if you can afford it. This is an amazing country and has some wonderful things to do and see that extend well beyond the boundaries of Seoul. Travel with your Korean friends to their hometowns, go on trips with your 동아리, see if your professors will sketch out a trip to somewhere related to your studies. There’s also a number of excellent tours in English, particularly by the Royal Asiatic Society, whose bi-weekly lectures on Korean studies are also well worth attending.
Thanks for contributing your tips! I really appreciate it!
Sean’s information is 100% true. And in fact some Korean students (perhaps not at SNU) will take as many as 24 credits and still not study all that much except for so-called “study weeks.”
Just a heads up, at most schools or perhaps all, you need a minimum TOPIK 4 ability in Korean to attend classes with Korean students. At your current rate I’m sure you won’t have a problem doing that, but with just that qualification I’ve heard from students that it’s tough listening to lectures and understanding everything that’s going on and doing the homework properly. So be careful. Also the school will give you a placement test and most likely all you have to do is get placed in level 5 and you should be good to go. In fact at SCH levels 5 and 6 were optional.
But man when I go to KU in 2011 I’m gonna try to get my own place. I have a friend there right now who got a deal paying 400-something thousand a month in the campus area. The dorms are fun to live in but some are internationals only, have crazy tight rules, etc. The rules are pretty much the same across the nation but some dorm buildings might be more lax than others. It’s up to luck. I just got a job that’ll pretty much ensure I’ve got enough money for my year at KU.
It’s good you’re doing a bunch of research on this ahead of time. You’re also going there with more language ability than I had. The only advantage I had, in my opinion, is that when I could actually have a conversation I had already studied in Korea once before so I knew what to expect.
Ah, just thinking about it makes me jealous. lol
Yeah, choosing where to live is definitely a hard decision for me. I’ve never lived in freshman-type dorms so I might need to look off campus.
The good thing is that SNU offers a lot of classes in English, so theoretically I wouldn’t even need to take a class in Korean. I want to take at least one regular class in Korean so I have that opportunity.
My own personal advice for taking a class in Korean is to take something low level on a topic with which you are already VERY familiar with in English, but does NOT use a lot of jargon. For example, even though I studied anthropology and area studies, I would probably not take classes in those areas because they’d still have a substantial amount of vocab that would be foreign to me (and I graduated from the 6th and final level at 고대, with a few years now of working in Korean-speaking offices) because it’s specific to the field. However, I could probably squeak by in an English lit or American history class. Why? Because I’d already know the content, and could concentrate on using my language skills instead. This makes it a game of matching my knowledge to new words and grammar, rather than trying to match new words and grammar to new information and content.
Yeah, that’s pretty sound advice
@mstrum
Still, living in the dorms can be a valuable way to experience campus life and meet people. Just check what kind of restrictions and conditions there are before you agree. That said, 하숙집 and 고시원 also provide a good, supportive atmosphere. Shop around.
Gomushin I didn’t think about that. And how coincidental that I’ll be taking anthropology classes when I’m at KU. The lucky advantage I get is that I have to spend a couple semesters doing prep work so I can understand the lectures before heading out to Korea. I’ve got 3 more semesters before I go.
By the way, what can you tell me about KU? I’ve got 3 semesters of experience at 2 different Korean universities and I’m currently doing prep studies for TOPIK 5, with expectations to either pass or come close to passing TOPIK 6 before I attend (it’s required in my program to do that well first). I don’t need advice on classes since I’ll only be taking anthropology classes in Korean.
Sounds like you’re in the Flagship program?
KU has a very lovely campus (I’d say the nicest in Seoul), and I found most of the people there to be really great. There’s quite a few professors who I found really helpful (although sadly I don’t really know any in anth) who went out of their way to help my friends and I with our study interests. The housing situation in the area is so-so, but liveable. Bus access is better than subway. Man, so much to tell! Anything in particular you’re interested in knowing? I didn’t attend anything other than their 어학당 so I can’t really help out with class information . . .
Yep, Flagship indeed! How’d you know about it?
I don’t need information on classes since I’ll be in a different situation than most any foreigner there. Any info on housing and the general campus area is good since I’ve never been up to that part of Seoul. I like to know my area before heading out; did it both times I went to Korea before so I knew what to expect. I can’t really think of anything else I’d want to know. I’ve got plenty of experience in Korea already.
Thanks!
The general campus area has most of the basic things you need, but is slightly out of the downtown area. There’s the usual number of 한숙집, 고시원, 고시텔, and 원룹 for housin options. I haven’t seen the international dorms, but I hear they’re rather nice (at least their lobby is!) CJ house is essentially a very lovely 고시원. I borrowed the money to put down 보중금 on a studio, and lived very happily near 보문 station, which is one subway stop away from the back end of campus. Most of the time you’ll probably use 안암역 rather than 고대역, since there’s more out the back gate than the front. Food isn’t fabulous, but it is cheap, and 참살이길 has lots of little restaurants and drinking establishments. Be warned, 고대 students like to drink. A lot. But it’s a cheaper area than being in 신촌 or 홍대 for example.
I know about Flagship because I was asked to apply twice ~ once while I was in grad school, but I didn’t feel that my Korean was quite up to speed then. While I was at 고대 the KU prof. in charge of the program there met me at the 어학당 and told me I should apply, but I didn’t want to return to the states since I had an offer for a research position/internship in Korea.
Ah cool. Yeah I’m saving up money with a 원룸 or something similar in mind. A place where I’m living on my own. I’m tired of dealing with the Korean dorm curfews and other rules and restrictions, though I was lucky to have the curfew overridden by my manager roommate in my first semester.
KU students like alcohol? I’m glad you said that! It’s probably not a good thing, but if I wasn’t studying at SCH I was probably out drinking with a bunch of Korean friends. I’m sure I’ll fit right in.
Yeah I heard the MA program is crazy rigorous. My friend is in it and he said they read something like 50 pages of political works every week. I’m not sure what his job duties were before it but he went back to it for the internship AND after graduation and he’s usually giving defenses and debating North Korean politics, often in Korean. But you know honestly your Korean doesn’t have to be as good as you think to get in; that’s the purpose of the program: to improve your ability. I got into the BA program with an apparent OPI 1+ speaking grade. By the time the fall semester started I’m sure I upped it to at LEAST 2- since I had my interview before the spring semester started, and I talked in Korean more than ever before this spring. There are 2 or 3 students in my cohort who have a tough time speaking, probably in the 1 or 1- range.
But at least you found other work instead. You may keep it in mind for the future though if you want to boost up your Korean. Like I said my friend left his job while studying in Hawaii and went back in place of the internship during the KU period.
고대 students are famous for their drinking ability, and their faithfulness to 전통술.
Oh, I’m certain that if I were to apply for the program my Korean would certainly qualify me. I may well have been able to get in back when I was doing my MA and first encouraged to apply ~ especially since I gather there was a push to get non-heritage students involved. In the end though, despite the potential to increase my Korean, I didn’t find that it fit very well with my projected career path, particularly when I already had a fellowship for another program. At any rate, I’m getting lots of practice here in my current job, where I not only have to speak Korean, but also am involved in one of the major KS journals. When I decide to go back, it’ll be for a PhD.