#insider-insight-from-SNU
a disclaimer
If you know me, that's great; if you don't, I'd like to conserve the small amount of anonymity I gain through not mentioning my name here. The things I mention here are strictly from my opinion, my experiences. It's just another point of view, and I'd like the readers to keep that in mind.
a brief introduction to college
The place where I disembarked from the long and tiring application process is called Seoul National University.
To the Koreans, it's a school that's been undisputedly holding the absolute top of the hierarchy in Korea. People prepare their kids from kindergarten in hopes to raise their chances of enrolling and there's this notion that you've already succeeded in life once you get in.
To the rest of the world, myself included, it's just a school located in a small country, discreetly ranking in the top 35 universities in the world.
the topic
There's a taboo subject in the world of college applications: the university rankings. It's something a lot of the 'givers of advices' avoid like the plague. They'll give you a nice smile and mention something about how universities are all the same no matter where you enroll.
They're not wrong. But that's not the whole picture.
The brutal fact always remains: if you can get in, will you not? If you can get into Harvard or MIT, will you not?
the reality
As there are two sides of a coin, there are two sides to this aspect of college. Good universities will present you better opportunities, whether it is in terms of scholarships, professors, or facilities. Yes, there are many exceptions to this, but in general, it's a fact.
Let's take my situation for an example.
The tuition of my school is around 3500$ per semester, which is nothing compared to most universities around the world, and of this, I pay nothing -- I received a full scholarship based on my financial situation.
In terms of professors, all of them are AT LEAST graduates from MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and etc, each of whom are celebrated personnels in their respective field.
While the campus isn't the biggest one in the world, especially compared to countries with overflowing real estate, Seoul National University takes up an entire mountain smack in the middle of the city. In comparison, the campus size is 1.5 times the largest theme park in Korea.
The library has fully decked out rows of personal TV's for viewing almost every available blu-ray movies.
Furthermore, students are allowed to freely use 3D printers, CNC/laser machines, and etc for their personal projects or for the many competitions funded by big companies every year.
But there's also a flip side.
The school is a terribly depressing place. The competition is as fierce as it can be and the comparative grading system where only the top 20% receive A's doesn't help. There's no time for creativity or personal input as you'd have to just pour hours upon hours to just memorizing and solving practice problems to score a single point higher than the rest.
There's this thing with human psychology. If you go from being first your whole life to suddenly scoring last place on exams, unspeakable things happen to your mental state. And all of this happens when the average student in your previous high school might receive straight A's in his or her college.
Let's take another college for instance: College A. This college is nowhere near the top rankings in the world: it's not because it chooses not to be. That's just not their focus. Due to its small size, professors are able share an intimate relationship with their students. The faculty are able to care for them and guide them through life. Students can actually ask questions in the middle of lectures. What's more is that they have professors that come from nearby prestigious universities to teach. And they give a lot of scholarships, too.
My close friend attends such a college, and I've been accepted there, too. Recently, after taking a semester off, I've been wondering if I made the correct choice of pursuing a brand-name college and ending up in my current situation of just scraping by. People tell me that I would have thrived at the other place and possibly have been presented with so much more opportunities at the smaller university -- and I think that too.
But ultimately, it was a choice.
It was my decision to come here, and I plan to stick it out.
how to get in
To have a say in all this, however, requires you to prepare A LOT.
Life isn't so fair as to provide everyone with the same playing field. Neither do others play fair.
There are high schools that almost guarantee entry into the Ivy league upon graduation. Most US universities have a higher quota for US citizens. Most colleges like seeing some sort of national or international competition award, not available in certain countries. Most rich people bring in countless private tutors for their children, and some even have their entire college application crafted by another professor.
When I was hired as a private tutor, which is another perk of going to a brand-name college, I almost felt as if I was betraying the rest of my kind: the hard-working students from unprivileged circumstances. The student I was teaching was literally being fed with all the shortcuts and tips I painstakingly gathered and fought for.
So how do you overcome this ridge?
It's honestly simple. Just Google. I'm not even remotely kidding. Everything is up on the internet. EVERYTHING. Like this article, there are tons of tips and advices you can glean from other people online. Also, find them out yourselves. If you have the will, there's always a way.
For the extra ambitious people, here's a checklist:
THE GPA AND AP RATIO
Your GPA is usually a cutline. If you want your application to be relevant, the higher the better.
I know there's this thing where you can take easy classes and get a near perfect GPA. This has worked out for some people I know. It really depends on knowing where you want to apply.
Here's the thing: taking too many AP's and tanking your grades is bad.
The best, and most obvious scenario, is to take as much AP classes while being able to maintain a high GPA. Logos doesn't offer many AP classes and this is actually to your advantage, depending on how you utilize this fact. If you were in a school that offered AP for all classes, then the most competitive case would be taking ALL your classes in AP. However, since Logos doesn't -- and this is written in the school profile -- colleges will only care that you took most of them, not all.
I chose not to take AP Literature and AP World History because I knew that one, I'll be applying as an engineering major, and two, I didn't want to risk having unnecessary workload on top of all my other AP classes. I liked studying, not dying while doing so.
But once again, it depends on what school you apply to. If you're not applying to like the top 100~200 schools in the world, they don't frankly care if you took AP classes or not. Bluntly put, disregarding what they say on their sites, if their acceptance rate is over 80% then as long as you're not a criminal or the last in class, you'll get in...
Also, it really depends on whether you'll apply to the States or not. ONLY SCHOOLS IN THE US WILL GRANT YOU COLLEGE CREDITS FOR YOUR AP CLASSES.
Generally, however, take the AP classes if you're confident, because... it's basically a chance for you to learn college material in advance, and it'll be so much helpful for your college GPA WHICH ACTUALLY MATTERS. I mean, if you know the material in advance in college, easy grade, is it not? And do take the AP classes relevant to your major. It'll be very worth it, even if it hurts your grade a bit.
SAT
A 1540+ will allow you to be relevant for all colleges. They don't frankly care if you got one more question right afterwards. However, getting a perfect 1600, which is actually only like 4 questions different from a 1540, will put you at a competitive position.
Generally, the rule of thumb for SAT and every other test in the world goes: the more practice tests you take, the higher your score.
My college friend, who I'm sure is more talented than me, holed up in a library and took 60 full practice tests and scored 2380. Take your 60 practice tests, then come whining that the test was too hard.
Extracurricular
Everything is a comparison game. You're going to be applying at the same time as everyone around the world is. What can you bring to the table that sets you apart?
The easiest way is to win at some renowned competition but that's not really in your realm of control.
What you can do is to find a field of interest and DO SOMETHING. You don't have to be the best at it, nor do you have to even complete it. You have to show that you've at least attempted.
You like programming? Then learn a few languages, code a few programs, intern a few times. How? Google it.
Didn't get into student council? Start a club. No club? Start a web community. Pioneer SOMETHING no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time.
For the ambitious: you must do something at least city-wide.
Essay
This is still my biggest regret in high school.
I cannot emphasize how important this one thing is. You may not have all your extracurriculars, but if you write a fantastic essay, you might get in. It's shows you how skewed the application is towards your essay.
I learned this the hard way. I was arrogant. I wrote my essays for US colleges 3 days before the deadline. I had no idea what I was doing. If I had, I may have ended up somewhere else. I had the extracurriculars, and I had the grades. But, I wrote an incorrect essay.
Frankly speaking, grades and extracurriculars will nudge you through the door of most colleges, but if you are ambitious- if you think you are qualified- your essay is literally the only thing that will set you apart.
I remember reading about a guy who built a nuclear reactor in his garage. He applied for MIT, but didn't get in. If your goal is to apply for colleges like MIT or Harvard, you must be an excellent writer. You must be able to express yourself in your essay, and try to craft a story that portrays you. Then, it's all up to the admissions officers to literally cherry pick students based on the personalities that they've shown on their essays.
Don't be generic either.
Never write about the time that you've volunteered and felt good and wanted to save the world.
Nor about all the ambitions you have for the future.
Don't write a proposal that looks like a legal document.
Find a way to express your passion in a way where each of your sentence is concise, meaningful, and tell the admissions panel something about you in your own way.
I think I wrote, scrapped, and rewrote my final essay for Seoul National University about 20 times after I realized what I had done wrong for the US applications.
admissions to SNU
Despite what the site says, not many of the classes are in English. Even if they are, the professors will still speak Korean. So, knowing fluent Korean is a must and I wish someone told me that before I applied.
If you aren't Korean, then DON'T APPLY THROUGH THE NORMAL ADMISSIONS ROUTE. Apply through the KGSP program, which will run you through a year of language crash course, after which you start as a freshman, with, of course, the professors fully expecting you to speak college-level Korean. Have fun and be prepared to rant.
If you are a Korean AND you've lived overseas for 12 years, then you're in luck. If you have the grades and extracurriculars that will at least get you waitlisted on an Ivy college, then you have a chance! But if you do, apply for the Ivy first. Literally, the only reason you'll come here is because you didn't get the scholarship you wanted. One of my friends turned down Cambridge, Oxford, and Imperial while another turned down UPenn and John Hopkins, only because of $$ and they be regretting hard. There was another two friends who got accepted to NUS as well, and only came here to experience the culture. After a semester, they both transferred to NUS because it was difficult to adjust to the different education system. They're doing fine over there now.
If you do want to experience Korea, then apply as an exchange student! This school is almost desperate for foreign presence within the campus.
Message me somehow if you have any questions.