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)