“I would rather give up another year of my youth studying and trying again if I don’t make it ‘in-Seoul.'”
Kim Tae-yoo, is set to graduate high school in just a month, but he says he would rather endure another year of studying if he is not accepted to a Seoul university.
Koreans divide the country’s 335 colleges in two: those “in-Seoul,” and the rest.
“Going to university outside of Seoul has never been an option. Even if the schools in other provinces offer full-time scholarships, I would not enroll there. I never considered graduating from a school in other provinces or living there,” Kim said.
‘In-Seoul’ or nothing
Even before graduation, students flocked to private cram schools that help students prepare to retake the Suenung, the national exam that plays a key role in university admissions.
As a student at a prestigious private high school in Seoul, Kim said half of his classmates were preparing to study another year to improve their Suneung score, rather than accepting a place at a lower-ranked college.
Education Ministry data shows an average of 20 percent of high school graduates opt to study for at least another year. At major schools in Gangnam, an area famous for its focus on education, the proportion rose to 47.7 percent.
Why is a school in Seoul that much more sought after?
the society is very conservative in general, so prestige counts for a lot… going to a prestigious school means meeting other prestigious people, from prestigious families, etc…
I skimmed the article, and I think this might be the key bit:
Kwak Young-shin, a researcher at Semyung Graduate School of Journalism, who has studied the prejudice against students from provincial colleges, said that the university someone goes to is seen as a fast and simple way of defining who a person is.
“Having a degree from a prominent university is considered a direct signal that the person is adequate for a certain level of ability and diligence in Korea," Kwak said.
He gave Koreans’ recent obsession with MBTI as an example of their tendency to want to categorize and identify someone quickly.
As universities are ranked using Suneung test scores, which they see as a comparatively objective barometer, people form a set image around an individual depending on the name of a school, he said.
It’s sort of the same difference as going to Harvard or Yale vs. a state school. But times one hundred. The actual education will be on a similar level, but one has a prestige that will take you much further.
Prestige and having more job opportunities by getting you on top of the pile when you have it listed on your cv.
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If anyone is interested, here is a documentary about the centralisation of Korea which is related to this article.
Edit: link formatting
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Yeah, messed up the formatting. I’ve edited the original comment. Thanks.
No problem. Thanks for the link!
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