Congratulations @COgirl123 !!!
@HKimPOSSIBLE : how are things going? Is an orientation planned (online)? Have you been able to chat with other admitted students (both BSMD and honors non BSMD UChic?)
Belated congratulations! You really bounced a lot off your head and your heart to get here. I am certain you will succeed in all you undertake. Wishing you the very best!
Hi @HKimPOSSIBLE! I am also offering belated congratulations–so happy for you. I was also wondering how apartment hunting is going under stay-at-home conditions. Is it even possible? I know May/June are typically key months for leasing. I hope you, your brother and father are well.
Hello and thank you everyone for checking in! Orientation just opened up today, but their servers have been quite wonky just like the USC housing application, so it seems it will be a bit until I can complete the online orientation.
As for our apartment hunting, we’re not exactly sure how it will be - classes larger than 70 will be held online, so I may not even be on campus other than a few days.
For communicating with GPPA students, yes, I’ve been doing that for quite some time! It’s nice to get to know them and I’m sure we’ll be a valuable resource to each other throughout the process.
Ugh. Kinda getting confused here. USC housing app? Your going to UIC correct? Also family apartment hunting or you?
Anyway… Looking forward to hearing about your first day at school. Then you’ll know it’s for real. Lol. ??.
Oh I was referring to (before I withdrew from USC) navigating their housing application (it opened early and needed to fill it out early for first pick). But with thousands of students logging on at once, the website crashed for hours.
Apartment hunting, we will probably put on pause, as most of the classes seem to be online (at least the ones I’m taking). But my cousin (who applied to Med School) and lives in the same town, is thinking of getting an apartment for me, my brother, and my cousin. She may attend Med School in DT Chicago too.
@HKimPOSSIBLE : how is it going? How is UIC handling covid (testing, etc) and is your program impacted in any way? Were you able to find an apartment? I hope you and your family are safe and sound.
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We have treaties with Canada and Mexico, such as USMCA, so it makes sense they would have a special status. Have you considered also colleges in your country of citizenship?
After getting his green card, HKim was admitted to a BS/MD program (his qualifications were never in doubt, but his DACA status prevented him from being admitted to Us colleges. Attending college in Korea was never an option since he’d never attended a Korean school, only US schools.)
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Hi. It’s great that he got his status regularized and got into a program he wanted. But people come to the US never having attended a US school all the time, why should that not be possible for Korea or other countries?
That’s an interesting question indeed.
First, because you need to be fluent in the language in which the subjects are taught. Many students study English, often starting at age 9 or 10, and most never reach the level required to attend a US college. We’re talking beyond Ap level. Some reach a level whereby they can, at considerable expense, take a one-year course to get to the level required to attend college. (The level required for the “one year course” is roughly AP.)
English is MUCH easier than Korean (which is one of the hardest languages to learn, only beaten by Chinese and Arabic) and more commonly taught.
Then, you need to know the language but also have an idea of the culture, so that you can fend for yourself. You will make assumptions based on American culture and you’ll end up in a pickle, or unable to figure out what you need to do next, or in real trouble.
If it were easy to study in another language and culture, you’d have tons of American students attending French or German colleges (which are tuition-free).
Second, American universities want to recruit the best and brightest from the entire world, and generally want to have international students, because it’s a big part of US “soft power”. The “regular” students become accustomed to US values and when they return to their country will defend the US, buy US products they discovered while in college, and will rectify misrepresentations of the US abroad. The “best and brightest” are (generally) encouraged to stay and help US research, thus cementing the US status as a research powerhouse.
Other countries are in a competition with the US to get more students, in order to increase their own “soft power”: Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and now China. However, the US still has the leadership. Countries that aren’t significant world powers and/or are just trying to develop soft power aren’t competing with the US.
That’s why you have international students prepare for 5 to 8 years attend US colleges, whereas you don’t have American students prepare for 5 to 8 years prepare to attend colleges in Finland, Korea, or Chile.
Third, the process to get into a US college can be arcane for the most selective colleges, but it’s fairly easy and straightforward for most colleges. There are 3,700 colleges in the US, some admit literally anyone above the age of 18. As a result, there’s a college for anyone who wants to study.
In other countries, there’s a recruitment process that can start as early as age 14 or even age 10. If you show up at age 18, you simply can’t get in. (That’s the case in Korea, where the process is so lengthy and stressful that some students were hooked up to IVs in order to study more and prepare for the exams.)
In some countries, if you’ve not attended specific schools in the country for years, you can’t attend college there. In other countries, you can’t study if you’re a girl, or you have a religious test, or some places are restricted if you’re a certain religion or ethnic group. And of course, in some countries, there’s too much political instability or too much violence for students to attend college safely.
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I know the “soft power” argument, but it doesn’t seem to help Americans all that much. Anyway that’s at the level of policy, which we don’t set.
But for this student, it still seems a normal question. If he’s Korean, grew up with one or two Korean parents, maybe at least heard Korean in the home, it seems likely that he/she could find a spot at a Korean college. Maybe not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they would even have programs to bring such people back. After all, they want some “soft power” too.
It’s such an obvious idea, I don’t know why it’s not suggested more often.
Often times kids haven’t learned the language of the country they never lived in. And as myos said there can be other reasons that one can’t go back to ‘their’ country for college, one that they never lived in, beyond the language issue…including mandatory military service, barriers to college admission for those who didn’t attend secondary school in the country, political instability, etc.
Soft power is a HUGE deal. Basically, it’s global influence and it does help the US tremendously in every area you can think of, which is why China is trying to compete. (It’s a whole field though, but if you’re interested there should books and college courses about it.)
Hearing Korean in your home doesn’t mean you can study at a university in Korea. Growing up in the US, you attend US schools, speak English, have US values - you’re an American.
So, you may have a basic oral understanding of the language, you may be able to say a few things, you may even “speak well”, but you don’t necessarily read/write, and certainly not at the college level (think of all the learning you had to do to get your grade school English to college level English. Just hearing English at home doesn’t make you proficient enough to jump into a Freshman composition class, you need 12 years of English classes throughout primary and secondary school and even then most college freshmen don’t do very well.)
There are programs to bring Korean Americans back indeed, but usually just for a year, so they get to taste Korean culture and formally learn Korean. Because the college recruiting process is so extensive, especially for SKY, there aren’t any full-on degree programs for kids educated in the US system.
Most Korean parents know that once their kid has been in the US system, it’s impossible for them to get back to the Korean system.
If you’re interested in intercultural issues and differences between Korean and US schooling, Almost American Girl by Robin Ha is a good graphic novel about a Korean girl who DOES NOT want to go to the US but is uprooted by her mother when she marries a guy from Alabama.
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