This is the fourth in a series of articles on the methods Korean students use to gain admission to universities in the United States. ㅡED.

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

An 18-year-old girl, who is identified only by the initial C, is waiting for pass-or-fail notices from nine universities in the United States. The student has already gained early admission from Michigan State University, but she wants to study at a better-known university such as MIT or Princeton University.

C, who just graduated from one of the foreign language high schools in Seoul, believes admission to prestigious universities in the U.S. will guarantee a rosy future.

However, looking back at her past three years of high school, preparing applications for U.S. colleges has been more demanding in time and money, compared with her friends who advanced to domestic universities this March.

The American universities select students based not only on test scores but their essays, extracurricular activities, volunteer services and recommendations from their teachers and other references.

Her school is one of the elite prep schools here and known for offering the best programs for those seeking to study at prestigious overseas universities, sending almost 100 students abroad annually.

Many people might think students there don't need to attend private cram schools or hagwon, but it is untrue.

To gain better scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and improve their grade point average (GPA), she attended hagwon. These institutes normally charge a minimum of 800,000 won per month, but "star" SAT lecturers request as much as 10 million as revealed by the recent SAT cheating cases.

In addition, she relied on private education for an Advanced Placement (AP) program.

"In a college application form, there are usually nine brackets in which we can write the level of AP subjects we gained, and many students at my school were trying to make all the nine brackets filled with level 5s (the highest score)," she said.

The AP program has 37 subjects, including Japanese language, Chinese language, world history, chemistry, biology, microeconomics and statistics.

She also went to hagwon and achieved a score of four or higher on nine AP tests.

Private cram schools often charge upwards of $80 per hour for every subject, but rates also depend on the reputation of the lecturers.

Asked by The Korea Times about the tuition of AP classes, ESC Academy Institute, which was warned over its extraordinarily expensive fees, said they only reveal the tuition ranges to those who visit the hagwon in person.

C applied to 10 colleges, so she had to write numerous essays as colleges generally require one or more.

"The questions are along the lines of 'Introduce yourself' and 'Who do you respect most?"' she said.
Also, she participated in a variety of school clubs for her extra-curricular activities. She said some students pay renowned companies or organizations money for internship programs, instead of earning money.

The school also grouped students for volunteer service, which requires a lot of money for overseas trips, to places such as Africa.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr