Can you review my story and future plan?

Applying to College
1

Before the body, I’m sorry for my poor English proficiency.

I’m a south korean, male, 21. I finished my mandatory duty a few month ago. So I has been idle now.
There was a college I attended, But recently I dropped out of this school for some reason. I really didn’t like that school, so I only finished one semester of freshman before being drafted.

Lately, I get a new dream: studying in the US and eventually emigrating to US. However, as you know, US college is expensive and it’s hard to afford; my family isn’t wealthy. Moreover, I don’t have anything to apply: SAT/ACT score, mediocre GPA (my mental problem and korean secondary education is oriented final college exam), mediocre English ability (perhaps influential to write essay) and decisively I don’t have any good EC and strong relationship to get a recommendation letter.

Thus entering as a freshman in the US college is impossible for me. so I decide to set plan like this:

  1. Taking korean college exam to attend korean university.
  2. Growing myself as far as I can. (Getting a perfect GPA from tough/core course and recommendation letter, Writing strong Essay, Building many good EC)
  3. Applying to university as a transfer applicant.

Of course, I know that universities whose need-blind policy for international student are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT.
I also know that those schools are very very competitive. Transfer application as an asian-international is even more competitive.

But I personally think that chance for me to upcoming decision is literally zero. My plan seems rare and unlikely, but not zero, I guess.

If my plan would fail, I’d consider to enter PhD program in the US with funding. My goal is to be a researcher on economy or cs. So even if I’d get failure, I believe I can endure it.

Thanks for reading, I would get appreciated if you leave your comment below. Have a good day!

2

i wonder how they let you do military duty with mental problems…your best bet is doing undergrad in korea now and then doing master in the US

3

Check on https://educationusa.state.gov/ for an advising center for your country to get info on applying to US colleges.

4

Thanks for your help!

5

You need to understand that there are students in your country who work diligently for a decade to create the type of academic, extracurricular, profile and English skills needed to have a shot at a US college. You cannot just wake up one day with no SAT/ACT, a mediocre GPA, subpar English skills, no ECs, no teacher recommendations (per your other thread) and expect to have a realistic chance for admission to the very top US colleges when competing against this very strong pool of applicants. In addition as a student needing substantial aid from an over-represented country your odds are even smaller. I wish you the best but suggest you look for options to continue your education in your home country.

6

Judging by your English proficiency, especially in your other thread, I think that you’re really, really, really going to struggle to get into any US college, let alone get into an uber-selective college. I’m not reprimanding you; I understand how difficult English is for native Korean speakers - I’m not sure I could learn Korean - but how can you expect to succeed in college and read complex academic texts that even some native English speakers struggle to fully understand if you can’t always conjugate verbs correctly and miss out some indefinite articles? I think your best bet is to do undergrad in South Korea while working really hard on your English and then come to a US university for a masters if you still want to.

7

Thanks for your advice! I’d consider to think realistic. Maybe I was really over-confident. (And why I wrote those uber-selective college was only those top 4 schools I exemplified impose need-blind policy for international student)
To make excuse, I haven’t written English so much (Korean English education is focusing on only reading). I suppose that’s why my English writing sucks.

So I want to ask you, I’ve been taking some edX courses. Is it going to help for me? Or, Is there any good way to improve my English writing skill well? And what did I miss out?

8

What can your family afford to pay? Start with that. If your family cannot afford to pay anything, your best option is to complete your education in Korea and look for a post-graduate program in the US or elsewhere after you finish. Depending on the subject that you study, your post-graduate work may be fully funded.

If your family can pay the cost, you could enroll in an intensive English program in the US, Canada, Australia, or the UK in order to get your skills up to the level required for university-level studies in an English-language university. The EducationUSA office can help you find that kind of program. Many intensive English programs offer direct admission to a university that is affiliated with that program. You might not even need to pass the TOEFL, if you can complete the English program. I used to teach in that kind of program and several of my students were Koreans who had finished their military obligations.

edX can be a good way to practice English. For listening practice, my advanced ESL students like watching TED talks. There are talks on many different subjects, the English transcription is available, and some also have translated transcripts so you can verify that you did understand the content. Audiobooks are good too - especially if it is a story that interests you! You can listen, then read, then listen again. Reading a lot will help your writing skills.

Lastly, be very careful about telling people that you want to emigrate to the US. If you do apply for a student visa, and the visa officer thinks that you want to live permanently in the US, you will not get a visa.

9

Thank you so much! I should keep in mind this, especially your mention on getting visa.