I’m a high school sophomore that wants to major in computer science. I have plans to become at least semi-fluent in Korean by the time I reach senior year, and I can mostly understand Korean and hold basic conversations. By the time I graduate, I will have taken 12 or so APs; my extracurriculars would mostly be board positions in clubs, state science fair, and one rather important program that allows me to send satellites into space with my team after making them. I’m also doing an internship this summer, and I may or may not plan to research at a lab in the future. My GPA is a 4.0 UW; unknown if I will be able to maintain this and all 5’s on my AP exams. I am confident I can score above a 1500 on the SAT and in a similar range on the ACT. However, many of my Korean friends have told me how hellish it is to try and get into SNU while it is ridiculously easy for internationals to get in. I wonder what the answer would be from an unbiased perspective and if I would be able to also get the “full ride” there? What are the admissions officers at SNU looking for?
I think it’s much harder for a Korean citizen to get in than for a foreign student, from what I am told. It’s almost unfair, since the acceptance rate for Korean students is 0.50%. Not 5 percent, ten times less than that. But still very hard to get in for foreigners, IIRC you had to get something like a 1550 on your SAT to qualify.
I wouldn’t worry too much about tuition, the tuition is something like only $6K a year, which I think is the same for foreigners? Not sure.
Minimum TOPIK level is 3 but I would highly suggest it being closer to 5 than to 3. Speaking from a bit of experience, if you look like a Korean, you won’t get the same sympathies as if you were non-Korean looking when it comes to communication. Koreans are mostly very friendly people, but I think you could possibly be stuck in that uncomfortable zone if you can’t speak Korean fluently. Personally, if I were in your shoes, I would probably take a gap year or 6 month gap to stay there first before diving right into a top school, if your language capabilities wasn’t up to snuff.