A growing number of South Korean students are going to English speaking countries as teenagers in hopes of gaining entry into American universities.
Many students study abroad during college, but Jin Yong Choi started at age 14. For the South Korean native, living overseas on his own for several years was the best way to get into the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A growing number of South Korean students like Choi are going to an English-speaking country as teenagers to escape from the grueling, test-oriented Korean schools in hopes of gaining entry into American universities.
Choi, a 22-year-old economics major, studied at a private high school in Canada. His parents, who remained in South Korea because of their jobs, sent money and rented a furnished apartment for him to live alone.
“The main reason was to give me more international exposure,” Choi says. “The Korean education system doesn’t give much choice for students. But it was challenging; being independent at an early age isn’t always a good thing.”
American colleges and universities are starting to see more of these “early study abroad students,” as they’re called in South Korea. The trend began to take off after 2000 as the Korean middle class grew and the education system became more competitive. More than 20,000 such students left Korea in 2003 and 2004, according to a study from the Korean Educational Development Institute.
Unlike immigrants, the students’ moves are not intended to be permanent. They usually leave alone or with just one parent while the other, usually the father, stays behind to work and send money.
Many of those students are now college-age and attracting attention from universities and researchers. UIUC, where at least seven professors and doctoral students are studying the phenomenon, held the first conference in the United States on the issue this spring.
There are no clear numbers on early study abroad students in the United States, since most school officials are unaware of the trend. But their presence is changing the demographics of the international student population.
