KGSP Graduate Scholarships, Yonsei University

One of the best universities in Korea, Yonsei University, just announced the opening of Korean Government Scholarship Program (KGSP) for grad school

Admission Schedule


(Regular) Graduate School
1.Spring semester (March) – Apply in October
2. Fall semester (September) – Apply in April
Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS)
1. Application period: March 2nd ~ May 31st
2. Document Screening & Interview: March 2nd~ June 8th
3. Final Result Notification: After June 11th


Eligibility

Graduate School

Master’s Degree Program:

    A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university (or expected to receive a bachelor’s degree before the beginning of the term the applicant is applying to).

    Educational attainment equivalent to a bachelor’s degree recognized by law.

Ph.D. Degree Program:

    A master’s degree from an accredited college or university (or expected to receive a master’s degree before the beginning of the term the applicant is applying to).

    Educational attainment equivalent to master’s degree recognized by law.

Master/Ph.D. Combined Program

As described in Master’s Degree Program (1) & (2)

Graduate School of International Studies

Master’s program: Graduates of a bachelor’s degree program at a recognized college or university in Korea or abroad.

Ph.D. program: Graduates of a master’s degree program at a recognized college or university in Korea or abroad.

*Master’s program applicants are not required to have any specific undergraduate degree nor are there any specific prerequisites.

Requirements

Graduate School

1. Completed application form (print out the submitted online application)

2. Two letters of recommendation written by two professors from a previously attended university. (No standard form provided)

3. 3 One copy of an official undergraduate degree certificate (or proof of expected graduation) and an official transcript: required for both master’s and Ph.D. applicants

4. One copy of an official master’s degree certificate (or proof of expected graduation) and an official transcript: PhD applicants only

5. Study Plan (No standard form provided)

6. One score report from either an official Korean Language proficiency test or English Language proficiency test (TOEFL, TEPS, IELTS)

7. A copy of applicant’s passport

Graduate School of International Studies

All documents should be in English. (If the original documents are not in English, then, notarized translations must also be submitted.)

Master’s Program

1. Completed application form

2. Official Transcripts of All Undergraduate Work (in a sealed and signed envelope).

3. One Photocopy of Bachelor’s Degree (or a certificate of expected graduation that states the anticipated date of graduation from your undergraduate institution)

4. TOEFL or IELTS or TOEIC score (the original document) if high school and undergraduate education was not in English.

5. Two Letters of Recommendation from Professors or Supervisors (in sealed and signed envelopes)

6. Copy of applicant’s Passport (non-expired)

7. Two passport-sized photo (plain background)

8. Statement of Purpose

Doctoral Program (in addition to all the documents listed above)

1. Official Transcripts of All Graduate Work (sealed and signed envelope)

2. One Photocopy of Master’s Degree

3. A Research Proposal

4. A Writing Sample (term papers or Master’s thesis of at least 40 pages)

Contacts

Office of International Affairs

Manager : Mr. Kevin Son(2123-6492, isss@yonsei.ac.kr)

Website : http://oia.yonsei.ac.kr

Graduate School

Admission Officer : Mr. Song Jae Myeong

Tel number : 2123-3223, 3228

Fax number : 2123-86

Website : http://graduate.yonsei.ac.kr/en

Email address : songjm@yonsei.ac.kr

Graduate School of International Studies

Admissions officer : Mr. Chung, Yong Hwa

Tel number : 2123-3293

Fax number : 2123-8653

Website : www.gsis.yonsei.ac.kr

Email address : gsis@yonsei.ac.kr

For Academic Programs check

Yonsei University

Address: 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea

Website: http://www.yonsei.kr

For more information on scholarships, please read: 

www.gks.go.kr English version: Inbound -> Korean Government Scholarship Program -> Announcement

Yonsei University: The First and the Best when it comes to tuition

Yonsei Universty's has been claiming to be the first and the best. Indeed the university is the first and the best when it comes to school fees. A recent news ranked Yonsei as the most expensive university in Korea.

Tuition for universities here has surpassed 9 million won ($8,117) per year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Friday. Yonsei University became the first higher learning institute to break this barrier among Korean universities charging an annual average of 9.07 million won per student.

The ministry said four-year universities here have continued to raise tuition fees over the years, imposing a heavier financial burden on parents and students seeking higher education.

University tuition across the country increased 1.29 percent this year from 2009, averaging 6.85 million won per year.

Yonsei was followed by Chugye University for Arts, which charges 8.95 million won on average.

Ewha Womans University ranked third at 8.82 million won, followed by Eulji University at 8.75 million won, Sangmyung University in Cheonan at 8.71 million won and Hongik University in Chochiwon, 8.7 million won.

Korea has 23 state and 153 private universities. Among them, 67 are located in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.

In 2009, Korea saw a total of 27 universities charge more than 8 million won, but this year the number increased to 35.

Hongik University in Chochiwon had the highest tuition rate for studying humanities, Yonsei University for social studies, Hallym University for education studies, Korea University for engineering, Sungkyunkwan University for medicine, and Hansei University for fine arts and physical education.

More details are available on the Web site (www.academyinfo.go.kr).

The ministry has introduced a school loan program, "study-now-pay-later," to help students facing financial difficulties receive long-term state education loans. Students pay them back after graduating and finding a job.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/117_65138.html

Local universities offering green finance courses

The Lee Myung-bak administration has been pushing “green growth” policies since last year, and one area of focus has been finance.


“Green finance,” a new buzzword, refers to financial activities that support sustainable energy technologies and mitigate environmental degradation. The local market has seen the recent introduction of a large number of financial products related to such goals.

To develop green finance, the Financial Services Commission has decided to nurture young, talented minds interested in the industry. The FSC announced yesterday it would extend financial support to two universities - the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Korea University - to operate green finance courses.

“We [the FSC] will financially support the newly chosen schools for their R&D expenses and scholarships,” said an official from the FSC.

“Each school will complete preparations for the launch of MBA programs specializing in green finance by the end of 2010.”

The FSC held a meeting of its Financial Hub Korea committee to discuss financial support for MBA programs specializing in green finance, the agency said yesterday.

An assessment board consisting of 13 members including professionals working in the finance industry and experts from academic circles evaluated a total of four schools - Korea University, Chung-Ang University, Kaist and Hanyang University - that applied for the green finance MBA programs.

The two selected schools, Kaist and Korea University, will receive financial support worth 500 million won ($440,500) and 400 million won, respectively.

The country has seen growing interest in green growth fund products, especially with a Korean consortium’s successful bid to build nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates in December.

Investors in a green growth fund operated by NH-CA Asset Management saw a rate of return as high as 7.24 percent in December.

That was in contrast to the previous three months between September and November, when the fund’s returns had remained in the negative range.

link: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2918198

Postech becomes all-English campus

POHANG, North Gyeongsang - Starting this spring semester, Pohang University of Science and Technology, or Postech, is operating as an English-language campus in which all classes, seminars, meetings, written notices, executive documents and theses will be in English.

So far, the response from the faculty and students has been positive, although some express concern over a potentially difficult transition.

Upon this journalist’s visit to Postech on Wednesday, the main building in Pohang, North Gyeongsang, had notices both in English and in Korean plastered along its walls.

“Our English-language operations start from here,” said an employee at the school’s promotional office. One notice about steps to prevent the A(H1N1) flu included Korean text with an English translation written right below it. “In honesty, there is a lot of stress [among professors and students] about English. Maybe it is time for people like me to leave this school,” the employee said.

Postech started this new English campus system on March 1 as a part of its effort to globalize. During the matriculation ceremony this year, all speeches, including the president’s opening talk and the freshman oath, were in English. School officials said that while most parents didn’t understand much of what was said, they believed this was the right way to go to become a top global school.

Last month, the school announced that it will invest a total of 50 billion won ($44.2 million) for three years to scout 10 Nobel Prize and Fields Medal laureates to lecture there.

“As we have brought in many distinguished scholars from overseas, we have the strength to compete with other universities on a global scale,” said Baik Sung-gi, Postech’s president.

The university’s upcoming teachers’ conference with 247 professors will be conducted in English. The school will also include a foreign professor on its globalization committee.

Many at Postech agree that the transition will take some time.

“I think students understand around 70 percent of the English-language classes,” said Kim Yong-seok, 44, an industrial and management engineering professor at Postech. “Compared to students in the U.S., who ask questions [during lectures] quite aggressively, Korean students hesitate to ask any questions and this should change.”

Although many students this year say that the change is for the good, some express concern about their English ability. “My listening and writing skills in English are not great. I plan to improve my English, though,” said Goh Dong-gun, 21, a sophomore in the industry and management engineering department.

“It is frustrating that I can’t understand English well but I’m adjusting slowly,” said Jung Hye-yun, 19, a freshman in the computer science and engineering department.

link: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2917763

University 101: Korea National University of Cultural Heritage

Not many people know Korea National University of Cultural Heritage or NUCH. Even Koreans themselves are not aware of the school's existence. Maybe because most Koreans right now are taking Engineering, Sciences and Business courses. The university's thrust is on the preservation of Korea's cultural heritage. According to the students, the institution is dedicated to cultivate specialists who can scientifically and professionally manage the invaluable Korean cultural properties inherited from ancient Korea.

The school is quite big compared to the number of students.

Academic System: 4-year Bachelor Degree in History of Traditional Culture

Academic Program: 6 courses (Cultural Properties Management, Traditional Landscape Architecture, Traditional Architecture, Traditional Arts and Crafts, Cultural Site and Conservation Science)

I think the school has good facilities and training to its students. I was able to make friends from the school who are very promising. I hope other countries would also invest in keeping its cultural heritage alive and known to the world.

University 101: Yonsei University 연세대학교

I visited Yonsei University (연세대학교) many times for many reasons but I think I don't have to stipulate it here.lol With the help of my friend, I was able to enter the university's world class library. I'm pretty much sure that anyone who enters the library would be amazed with the sophisticated designs of study areas, computer rooms etc plus the high-end facilities (seat reservation machine whatever you call it haha, library guides, digital newspapers, TV areas for educational purposes and more). Of course the top floor,7th floor, which houses a coffee shop and a mini garden was really cool. You can also see Namsan Tower, Yeoido and the skyscrappers of the Seoul metropolis. The school's catch line is The First and The Best.

Yonsei University is a Christian private university, considered to be one of the so-called SKY in Korea. An acronym for Korea's "top three" universities, S being Seoul National University, K being Korea University and Y as Yonsei University. Since it was established in 1885, it is one of the oldest universities in South Korea. Currently, Yonsei has 2 campuses, Seoul campus (in Sinchon) and Wonju. The school is currently building another "campus," not sure if it's considered a campus because it's called Yonsei Songdo Global Academic Complex which is in Incheon. The university's Severance Hospital is very famous for it's highly-skilled doctors, staffs and high-tech facilities.

An interesting information from the Wikipedia says that Yonsei University has rivalry with Korea University. A proof to this is the famous annual sports matches between the two universities since 1925, which is called Yon Ko Jeon, 연고전. The matches are soccer, baseball, basketball, rugby, and ice hockey. Two schools are very alive during the season ^^

How to go?- Line no.2 Sinchon Station then you can ride the shuttle bus for free ^^

Important links: http://www.yonsei.ac.kr/eng/ (Yonsei English portal)

http://cmsdv.yonsei.ac.kr/grade/sub03/sub0301/sub03_01.asp (Graduate School admissions)

http://gsis.yonsei.ac.kr/ (Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies)

http://uic.yonsei.ac.kr/ (Yonsei Underwood International College for undergraduates)

http://www.yskli.com/index.asp (Korean Language Institute)

University 101: Seoul National University

Well, who would not know "the" Seoul National University (Seoul-dae-SNU)? Founded on August 22, 1946, the school is considered as the primary academic institution in Korea. SNU is admired by Koreans as it screens the "best" of the best students in Korea. If you tell a Korean that you are studying in SNU, they would definitely praise you. This is in connection to the prestige of the school's image.

Comprising 16 colleges and 6 professional schools the student population is around 30,000. There are 2 campuses, Gwanak (main) and Yeongeon (medicine). Since I am not taking medicine, I'm in the main campus ^^ haha.

Originally, the only campus was in Yeongeon but according to my Korean language teacher, during the time of Pres. Park Chung Hee there were many demonstrations conducted by Seoul-dae (서울대) students. Even during a 10 minute break, students would run to the Blue House 청와대 (Korea's White Palace) and rally in front of the building. So the government decided to transfer the campus to Gwanak, which is an hour subway ride from the Yeongeon campus ^^v The Gwanak campus, according to my friends and some sources, was used to be a golf course owned by a Korean multinational company 재벌, not sure what it was. The campus is literally in the middle of the mountain. We ride a shuttle bus to go to different buildings or else you would have to do mountain climbing together with the ajumas and ajoshis ^^ lol

The school is very proud of its achievments such as ranking 5th in the world in terms of the number of alumni currently holding CEO positions in Fortune 500 enterprises, 47th in the world and 7th in Asia by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2009, of course no. 1 in Korea and ranked 24th in the world in publications in an analysis of data from the Science Citation Index. It's also housing world-class professors such as nobel prize awardees and Korea's own top experts.

Important links:http://www.useoul.edu/ (English portal)

http://oia.snu.ac.kr/ (Office of International Affairs)

http://gsis.snu.ac.kr (Graduate School of International Studies)

http://lei.snu.ac.kr/english (Language Education Institute)

Special Topics: October in Seoul

These are some of the activities I had for the month of October in Seoul.

King Sejong statue in Kwanghwamun. This was unveiled to mark the 563rd anniversary of the creation of the Hangeul alphabet. For me I think the idea of putting up the statue is pretty much like that of Washington DC's Lincoln Memorial. Anyway, under the structure is a big underground hall full of high tech exhibits of Hanggeul's history etc. I think this is a must see site in Seoul not to mention the "fake" flower garden and the fountain aka water exhbition, a roiling spray of 300 water jets firing up to 200 meters in the air beside the statue of Korea’s greatest naval leader, Admiral Yi Sun-shin.

View between Line 2 Dangsan and Hapjeong Stations: This is one of the best spots in Seoul. You can see the Parliament Building, some of Yeoido's skyscrappers, flyovers, some islands in the middle of Han river.

Hongdae- Hongdae is night spot but I met my friend there in the afternoon to go to a piercing shop. After that we just stroll around, eat wafflle and sticker sajin ^^

Alden's House overnight: We had our 2nd overnight in Alden's house. We watched Final Destination at COEX then went to a CASINO but we didn't play. Although Gary did. lol. Then went Alden's house for the main event, food and overnight! ^^

Olympic Park: It was an unintended visit. I was supposed to go to another place but I was taken by my feet to Ol Park. I asked an ajosshi at the information booth but he did not know anything about the event and told me to ask other people. I was like..what? so what kind of information do you have in this "information" booth? lol There was an international sculpture competition for university students, as you can see I have pictures of different titillating sculptures for you to enjoy. lol. I also like the sunset.

City Hall area: the area's near Kwanghwamun. Just look at the picture. I always see this place every week since I have a class near the area. There are many concerts, exhibits, different international events being held here. They also change the design probably every month which is quite impressive but I just wonder how much they spend for it.
SNU small activities: SNU is not just for people who wanna study. We also have fun here. fun? haha. I was going to the library when I saw a rally. A group of students maybe around 20 students gathered in front of the administration building and had a very organized, scripted rally. They were fighting against the privitization of the university. I personally agree with the students. They made a big prototype of the sort of privitization bill which was inside a big ice cube. They broke it in front of everyone. It was quite creative and symbolic. Other activities were my friends took part of were 3:3 basketball and swimming competitions.

Special Topics:November in Seoul National University

There are many activities inside the school every month. Since the school is also composed of a diverse population, oh well in a Korean standard, there are also many student clubs that conduct many acvtivities like performances, sales (normally with matching makkoli, a Korean liquor aside from soju), talks etc. Here are some of the activities I think notable^^

University Election: the posters are quite intriguing since it's like a national election with a spin of creativity through an "entertainment industry type" of poses of the candidates. These posters are seen all-over the campus. The Miting de Avance was very poor though. The students seem to be not interested in knowing what the candidates wanna say plus the weather was quite cold at that time so the candidates were also freezing. kkk

Club/Class posters- I would have to admit that the posters of SNU's student clubs are very interesting. Only that everything's written in Korean which barred me from understadning everything due to my limited Korean. ^^; there are many winter vacation activities related posters all over the campus starting November. This is in preparation to the upcoming winter season. There are also some activities related to Philippines. These are volunteering/outreach programs, study English or travel. There's also a poster here regarding the ski/boarding camp on January, which I will be joining ^^

Pepero vs Garaetok Day-everyone may know that Nov 11 is Pepero Day but the Korean government officially announced this day as Garaetok Day 2-3 years ago. If you tried to roam around the campus it was like a competition of this two elements. Based on my observation, Pepero's definitely winning since most students especially the couples were into it. Many of my friends even bought boxes of peperos and gave it to their girlfriends. Even the stores inside the campus took the opportunity of selling it. On the other hand the Garaetok was given for free in some cafeterias and a student club, SNU Student Ambassadors held an activity promoting the day as Garaetok Day. There was even a TV coverage for the activity. Although it was more of taking videos on foreigners (by foreigners I mean caucasian looking or anything but not southeast asian definitely) eating the rice cake.So do you think Garaetok would totally replace Pepero with this kind of mentality?

FC Mitchers Odeng and Hopang booth-I tried to support my friends by selling odeng and hopang to students in front of the student center. ^^ 2 of my friends in the dorm are members of the said club. As far as I know it's the official soccer club under the College of Human Ecology. My friends Econ and Seong Ho were the ones selling.

Performances

1. Theater (엄마 어디가? Mother where are you going?) This one was really good. It was not an ordinary theater performance, it was more of criticizing the society for "supressing" the women's rights. A scene not so common in Korea, probably only in SNU. The students were also good.

2. HIS or Hoofers in SNU. I watched this because of my friend since they're part of the club. I had so much fun watching it. It's the official streetdance club in SNU so breakdancing and all sorts of streetdancing genres were performed. Another dance group, Morphine, which is a Jazz dance club also peformed. My friend also performed.

3. SNU Jazz Festival- my friend invited me to watch his performance in a Jazz concert. I didn't know he was that good. ^^ They had 2 performances this month and was glad I managed to watch both despite my hectic schedule.