<p>Schools like Minjok Academy and Daewon have 15-hour school days. The Minjok Academy's average SAT score was 2203 while Exeter's is 2106. Plus, they do club activities, sports, music etc. The teachers are excellent. A former lawyer from Wall Street?
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/asia/27seoul.html?pagewanted=1%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/asia/27seoul.html?pagewanted=1</a></p>
<p>SpapePotter, thanks for posting the article. I haven’t finished reading it yet, but there’s something about the top US boarding schools that I guess these Korean schools don’t have: extremely diverse student bodies. The internationalism at the HADES contributes to the life-changing educational experience of going to boarding school.</p>
<p>yes, that is true. I believe that American schools give much more wholistic schooling experiences compared to these schools. I’m just saying that one COULD have a good chance of getting into an Ivy League from Korea.</p>
<p>Alright mates, before you start assuming things, let me lay this down for you…
I did a summer program at Phillips Academy Andover - and met 2 students from one of those schools mentioned, as well as many Koreans that knew about them but their attend local prep schools.</p>
<p>From what I am told, I can tell you that these students are very academically motivated and disciplined to a level most adults never reach. However, I am also told that many students in these Korean schools are given/told what to do and what to get involved in so they can attend a brand name university in America. They do almost everything for college, not for finding themselves. Their motives are not finding their passion or promise but more so wanting to go to Ivy League School because its Ivy League, not because it is a fit for them or help them find who they really are.</p>
<p>They may have better test scores, but the skills you learn at a prestigious american boarding school are far more valuable than that of schools that ONLY focus on getting kids into the ivy league.</p>
<p>Yes. As a Chinese(I believe we have a lot in common with Koreans), it’s very easy to find some academically amazing kids who won gold in international physics/chemistry/math competitions. But they’re just NOT motivated and they’ve NO idea why they’re doing this and what they will do.
And that’s why I want to apply.
I go to an academically dynamic school which sends several kids to the Ivies and 20 to top 20 American Univs and top 15 LACs. But I’m sure that American BS are more diverse, offer more EC oppotunities and don’t simply “judge” you by standardized test scores. </p>
<p>I guess there’re more “interesting” kids at American BS. </p>
<p>(you can check how Korean and Chinese schools admit kids. I’m sure they all make admission solely by ranking the applicants’ test scores(one time opportunity).
(and do those Ivy kids get aid? I know that those Korean families sacrifice a lot to pay full-tuition for prep schools and American colleges. FP and FA are a lot different in this economy, esp as int’l students. Though aid is not merit-based, int’l FA pool is much more competitive than FP’s)</p>
<p>andoverwarrior6 and gonnastop are right.
I know people who go there as well, but as andoverwarrior said already, they don’t have that much freedom. Sure they might be more academically rigorous, but… so what? The students are basically cookie cutter Ivy applicants.</p>
<p>So that’s why koreans are so smart…
If this is a top school, the “bad” schools are probably equivalent to Exeter and Andover.</p>
<p>They’re not smart. </p>
<p>At least most “intelligent” people here are like robots. They have tons of prep books and spend 10 hours a day doing test prep.
They deserve the gold or whatever they get.
(so I use hard-working)</p>
<p>I think that while, yes, the korean and other east-asian schools achieve high test scores and good matriculation stats, the style of learning is much more memorization of facts and doing thousands of math problems than sitting around a table really discussing a historical event or a books theme’s in depth. Also - with such long school days, so much homework and additional cram schools, I bet most of the kids don’t have much of a chance to do sports or even just hang out with their friends.</p>
<p>Just a different kind of school in a different culture. Most of the students are coming from similar background - rarely legacy, URM or athelete, so the playing field is level. Everyone has to do their best. The top few are incredibly capable students. I bet among the students that end up at Ivies they are not worse off than many valedictorians from many US high schools. One thing they surely have missed is as much fun as many US students have while in high school.</p>
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<p>This is an asinine assumption.</p>
<p>I’ve studied philosophy and literature at my premiere LAC with alumni of Minjook and Daewon. They’re generally excellent writers who have a keen eye to the structure and presentation of arguments. Moreover, they’re generally willing to make meaningful contributions to class discussion, to ask legitimate questions, and to not hesitate when doing so despite difficulties with the English language that they may have.</p>
<p>Generally, they are genuinely intellectually curious, and motivated to learn and succeed.</p>
<p>They aren’t disrespectful or dull like some of the alumni from this nation’s elite boarding schools, who sit around blank-expressioned and blank-minded, with their faces glued to the screens of their laptops, who offer superficial and irrelevant analyses of texts, and take up space in the classroom.</p>
<p>(n.b., Plenty of schools, even those with underprivileged student bodies, have SAT averages higher than Exeter.)</p>
<p>Sorry about that.
I’m talking about kids in China, at least people are like that at my school. (sorry assign, haha another “at least”!)
I agree with Benley. Everyone, every single one of us comes from my city, NO international student(there is one or two, but they’ve lived here for 13 years or so), NO athletes, NO URM(we don’t have this in China), NO Internet connection in classrooms, NO electronic gadgets allowed, NO DATING and NO DATING!</p>
<p>And here’s one thing:
We just treat “teachers” in a different way. I’ve always been a hard-to-deal-with kid at school, as I often ask hard questions to the teachers and sometimes embarrass them, or point out their mistakes directly. This is almost forbidden here. We have this…ummm like students need to stand up and say “good morning, teacher” at the beginning of the class(it’s nationwide). So I’d say, we do respect the teachers in a different way. (the situation’s getting better now—more freedom to talk and interact)</p>
<p>Different schools in different cultures. </p>
<p>And kwu, you shouldn’t say I’m wrong based on one or two Korean students. Most of those students who got into top colleges in America are very motivated. This is also true at my school. Most of my “interesting” friends ended up in top colleges in the US. (haha and that’s why I admire the AOs. They really made smart decisions!)</p>
<p>I am Korean, so my mom wanted me to go to Korean schools like that… but I decided to apply to American boarding schools (like HADES…I’m applying to Hochkiss, Middlesex, St.Paul’s, Deerfield, Choate, and Andover), since I want some more fun, freedom, and less pressure…
many of my Korean friends are under TOO MUCH academic pressure (they always talk to me about how they stayed up until 5…blahblahblah), and I want ‘fun’ HS life that I can actually ‘enjoy’.
I also believe that American BSs like HADES are academically challenging enough.
Another thing that you have to consider is that in Korean HS, you can’t really play any sports…literally, ANY sports (I know that they have PE classes and stuff, but what I mean is like competitive team sports… I really want to be a cheerleader and join the crew team, play field hockey…etc).</p>
<p>So what I mean is, just high SAT score doesn’t mean that Korean schools are better.</p>
<p>Just looked up Minjok academy with Google and found info on Wikipedia. Says school has about 470 students. Or 150-160 per class. I believe Andover and Exeter each have over 300 in their graduating classes. Minjok should try to double their class size and preserve their SAT averages. Wikipedia shows Minjok SAT scores as 654CR/786M/697W - 2137 total. Most recent Exeter numbers I could find were 694CR/712M/695W - 2101 total. Minjok scores are more than a little skewed by the Math section. I’m sure if Exeter or Andover selected their students solely by their Math test scores they could achieve a similarly skewed student population. Personally, I wouldn’t send my son to a school for 15-hour school days to gain an average 36 points on his total SAT score.</p>
<p>exeter thats a pretty ignorant statement to make. the culture in korea is way different than in america, maybe you should take a look at what their education system is like over there instead of looking up SAT scores.</p>
<p>15 hour school days? Wow, those kids are not going to be burnt out at all…</p>
<p>again your views are comming from an american perspective.</p>
<p>Yeah those are gonna be little robots by the time they graduate</p>
<p>My son has many good friends from South Korea at Exeter. Apparently one of the troubling issues that has come up in conversation several times is the extremely high teen suicide rate in South Korea – 17 per 100,000 among young South Koreans according to WHO report. Too high a price to pay for the Ivy admissions quest. Of course that is just an American perspective.</p>
<p>I attended a top 10 (non-Ivy) school. Two of my best friends were 1st generation American’s, one with a Japanese background, and the other South Korean. One from the midwest, one from NY. One was a physics major, the other an English Lit major. They were both heavily driven by their families to get into a top college. However, once they got in, they were totally lost. They quickly found that their parents’ dreams were not their dreams. Both ended up dropping out in their second year of college. The pain and struggle they went through before ultimately making the decision to drop out was so very difficult to see. Getting into an Ivy league school can’t be the end game.</p>