<p>Seven days until we find out our status! ;)
How do you guys feel?</p>
<p>Well, since Im Korean, I have to serve in the army for two years. Most Korean males finish their services either during college or after graduation, but to be quite honest, I just want to have it over with ASAP and get on with my college life.</p>
<p>So I was thinking... yeah... well why not just go back to Korea right after high school graduation, serve in the army for 24 months, and come back just in time for the 2009 or 2010 fall semester. I've talked with my parents, and they were very positive about it, but the real question is that even though I assume 2nd year of deferral is possible because it says so on the website, I dont know about the 3rd year.</p>
<p>If I go back to Korea after graduation in early June, it takes quite a while to apply and hear back from the army until you actually begin your service.
I've seen people who took them as long as four or five months, which will not work for me since then if I come back after my service, the fall semester would have already started :( It would really suck and I would have to waste another year, but oh well...</p>
<p>So... just in case, is 3rd year deferral possible if the army decides to get mean on me and procrastinate?</p>
<p>so let's say you get in ED. You apply for service immediately. In your 4-5 month lead time, that means you would find out in may or june. You then defer for 2 years, go back to korea, and serve for 2 years, returning in may or june of 2009. You unwind for the summer, and start in the fall of 2009.</p>
<p>Hey, I'm american and serving in the IDF. Columbia agreed to defer a third year because I said that it was MANDITORY. I'm not sure how your service works but if that is the case then they won't have a problem with it. My friend also got deferal for three years. </p>
<p>The only catch is that you have to apply for the deferal per year and not all at once which worried me but turned out ok.</p>
<p>Oh this is great to hear! thank you neighborhoodk.
I currently live in Indiana, so when I graduate in june and go back to Korea, I can only start my military service app process then, which can take as long as 4 months...</p>
<p>I really dunno what I'll be doing if I do get a 3 year deferral tho, with all those extra 8~10 months before school starts. Not to mention that I would have to start college with freshmen who are way younger than me :p</p>
<p>If it's true they offer such long deferments it really throws the CC/GS divide in question. What constitutes a "mandatory" leave of absence from one's education. Obviously military service, but what about taking care of one's sick parents on several lousy incomes or something? Currently, I believe taking 2-3 years off for that mandates GS rather than CC...</p>
<p>i've always wondered about this--i assume you are a Korean citizen who is just in the US for HS? couldn't you theoretically just say "goodbye korea" and never return or serve in the army? could they extradite you to serve in the army?</p>
<p>Not easy as it sounds. If you are a Korean citizen, your visa and passport will be expired in a few years, until you become an illegal alien.
For those with permanent residence cards, I assume you can skip your military service if you decide to never come back to Korea - otherwise, they get ya at the airport.
In my case, I'm a dual citizen, so technically I can skip my military service, although I would lose my Korean citizenship that way. When I need to visit Korea, I would have to enter under my U.S. passport... but I decided to go anyway because at some point in my life, I want to work and live in Korea once I finish my education here.....</p>