A Campus Is a Place You Can Visit Before You Apply

2024-04-27

There are hundreds of university campuses in South Korea. Seoul alone could keep you busy for weeks. Add Gyeonggi Province and the rest of the country, and a list of places to see becomes a long-term project.

I once thought about visiting them one by one. Even after limiting the idea to Seoul and Gyeonggi, it was clear how much ground that would mean covering.

Find a Campus of Your Own

Jo Myeong-hwa, who writes under the name B-Grade Travel and guides readers through university campuses, offers a way to see some of them from a book.

He originally planned to see every campus himself, then settled on visiting a much smaller share. A quick look at every school would have been possible. He wanted to learn what made each place worth a stop, so he began with distinctive schools.

What Jo Found on Campus

Jo did more than take photographs of the grounds. He contacted student ambassadors and interviewed them, looking for details about the life of the school that would be hard to get from a walk through the gates.

With so many campuses, each entry can only go so far. It still gives you a few details to look for if you go yourself.

Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong and the South

Jo groups the main entries by region, beginning with Seoul, then Gyeonggi and Chungcheong, before a final group in the south.

The Seoul section includes Seoul National, Yonsei, Korea, Sungkyunkwan, Hanyang and the University of Seoul. Sogang and Ewha do not appear in the selection.

A Section on Women’s Universities

The book also sets aside space for six women’s colleges and universities. Ewha Womans University, the best-known name many readers would expect here, is outside that selection.

The entries are grouped as follows:

  1. Seoul
    1. Sungkyunkwan University
    2. Korea University
    3. University of Seoul
    4. Seoul National University of Science and Technology
    5. Kyung Hee University
    6. Hanyang University
    7. Sejong University
    8. Konkuk University
    9. Soongsil University
    10. Seoul National University
    11. Yonsei University
  2. Women’s Colleges and Universities
    1. Kyung-In Women’s University
    2. Sookmyung Women’s University
    3. Sungshin Women’s University
    4. Duksung Women’s University
    5. Dongduk Women’s University
    6. Seoul Women’s University
  3. Gyeonggi
    1. Dankook University
    2. Kyonggi University
    3. Ajou University
    4. Gachon University (Seongnam and Incheon)
  4. Chungcheong
    1. Korea Nazarene University
    2. Chungnam National University
    3. Daejeon University
    4. Hannam University
    5. Semyung University
  5. Southern Region
    1. Pusan National University
    2. Dong-eui University (Gaya and Yangjeong)
    3. Busan University of Foreign Studies
    4. Pukyong National University (Daeyeon and Yongdang)
    5. Jeju National University
    6. Jeonbuk National University
  6. Specialised Institutions
    1. Korea Military Academy
    2. Korea National University of Arts
    3. Eulji University
    4. Korea University of Technology and Education
    5. Korea National University of Heritage
    6. KAIST
    7. POSTECH
    8. Korea Maritime & Ocean University

Departments That Give a Campus Character

Jo also points out distinctive departments, from programmes with a long history to newer ones he found promising.

This is a campus guide with only enough space to introduce the departments briefly. It can still give you somewhere to begin looking.

What Would You Notice if You Visited Before Applying?

It can help to walk around a campus before filling in an application. The visit may do little to change the paperwork, but it gives the place a shape you can picture when you think about going there.

Students have more ways to see a campus in advance than I did. If you have the chance to go, it can make a place feel less remote.

I went to high school outside Seoul and first saw one university on the day I went there for an exam. It would have been reassuring to know the grounds a little before I had to find my way through them under pressure.

Book Information

Find a Campus of Your Own: Read This Before You Apply (Korean title, translated)

Author
Jo Myeong-hwa (B-Grade Travel)
Publication date
10 October 2013
ISBN13
9791195076703
View the book on YES24

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