<p>Hi, I'm a Canadian citizen (of Asian origin) living in California, and I've been accepted to UC Berkeley, Waterloo, and U Toronto (latter two in Canada), and Yonsei Underwood College (yonsei's considered the Yale of korea, and its underwood college is taught completely in English with some ivy graduate teachers) and perhaps Seoul National University (considered the Harvard of Korea.. haven't heard from them yet but due to my foreign citizen status, i'm expected to get in..because SNU's trying to recruit a lot of foreigners these days for diversity).</p>
<p>The problem: I want to go to graduate school in the US to get a Ph.D and become a clinical neuropsychologist, but as we all know US grad school admissions are very competitive and a friend told me that going to undergrad in the US or even Canada will raise my chances for admission, as opposed to coming from Korea. Is this true?
How much of a role does your undergrad school(or the country you're applying from) play in admissions?</p>
<p>With my international status, I'll have to pay full tuition (approx. 50k) for Berkeley, but in Waterloo and UToronto i'll pay only about 10k or less, and for both Korean universities, there's a chance that I'll get full scholarhips (because of some alumni/organization connections)..otherwise, Yonsei will cost about 20k and SNU will cost 5000. </p>
<p>I know Berkeley and UT are major and well-renowned research centers, so the psychology research experience i'll get from there owuld be good, but i feel like i'll end up blending in with the crowd because they are both such big places.</p>
<p>50K a year for undergraduate is A LOT to have to pay in loans. I don’t think Berkley is worth the expense because the prestige of your undergrad does not guarantee you admission to top graduate schools or high paying jobs or even a job period. I don’t know much about the other schools but I do know that U of Toronto is well regarded and at 10K a year, a great price for undergrad. Also, I do know that international and residency status do play a part in graduate admissions. There are simply less spaces at American schools for international students, however I do think that if you’ve attended undergrad in the US that would give you a major upper hand (but don’t quote me on this). I don’t know if attending school in Canada vs Korea would be better or worst…</p>
<p>Go to UofT. Don’t worry about blending in/standing out. Just do well, get involved with research EARLY! And you’ll be fine. There are tons of psych research opportunities here, tons of courses in psych and neuroscience, and here’s the important part: you will be paying a lot less but the profs you will have - the ones that will write you reference letters - will likely be well connected with many places in US, through being grad students there, or post-docs, or conferences and collaborations. This is very, very, important when it comes to getting in US schools. They trust their own, or close to their own.</p>
<p>(I’m graduating from U of Toronto with BSc in Neuro and going to US for grad school.)</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies, they were definitely helpful.</p>
<p>Btw, safetypin00, could you tell me more about the experience at UT? I know that it admits a lot of first-year students but drops almost half of them, leaving only the most qualified students (thus making graduation hard). In fact, I was quite surprised when I saw so many people I knew (who hardly studied or didn’t seem the studious type, mind my prejudice) admitted to a prestigious place like UT. It was then that I was told that most of them get dropped anyways. How hard, exactly, would you say the studies are there? Are spots for research positions competitive as well? Lastly, if you’ve already been admitted to some US grad schools, do you know which one you’ll be going to? Thanks.</p>
<p>UT Austin is state school and state school have obligation to admit majority of students within the state of Texas. Berkeley is same way but within the state of California, there are numerous in state university to break down qualified student to UCLA, UCSD, and etc…</p>
<p>I was suprised to find out UT Austin is #12 and I knew Berkeley psychology department is high ranked. For grad school admission, I can’t say where you go to undergraduate school don’t matter much but it really depend on yout GPA/GRE score and research experience/recommendation letters will determine your admission to better grad school. I know you rather go to Berkeley since it’s probably 30%+ asian population there and lots of other korean students to blend in… just cost issue. I think going to either UT Austin or U Toronto will give you an edge getting into top ranked psychology department.</p>
<p>CSmajor5: it seems there was a confusion about which school i was referring to when i said UT… i know most Americans know it as University of Texas, but I was actually referring to University of Toronto… my apologies! But definitely thanks for your opinion… it seems to prove once again that college is what you make out of it</p>
<p>Nice to see another korean on CC forum ^-^. Although I am not psychology major so I don’t think I can be much of help but I know that the requirements for international student to get admission to US graduate school are more strict than US students (require higher GRE score/GPA for admission).</p>
<p>Berkeley and Stanford were my dream grad school and still is for electrical engineer program. I applied there for grad school but got turned down this year. To tell you the truth, to get into those graduate school… probably will require having every aspect of your stats to be the cream of the crop from the university you went to (top 5% GPA/GRE, extensive research experience with least a publication + great recommendation letters).</p>
<p>In my opinion, I think you will have higher chance of getting into top psychology department in US by going to Berkeley. Although university of Toronto is second best after McGill, it ain’t no Berkeley. If I were you, I wouldn’t miss out an opportunity to go to Berkeley. </p>
<p>Also I am curious about the requirement to get into Yonsei, Seoul, and KAIST for US student. Is the requirement to get into those school from US same as regular US university? Can you tell me the average stats require to go there from US?</p>
<p>hi gtgblows, thanks for ur response
yeah, about yonsei and seoul, I never even THOUGHT about going there and it was really my parents who told me to apply (ugh, so asian i know. my dad was like “it’s SKY” and “if you live in korea as a SKY graduate you’ll live the rest of ur life as an elite!!”). But I guess i’m somewhat glad i listened to them for once because now I have more to choose from instead of being hopelessly limited in choice, since it turned out I got rejected from some private colleges here (i bet my fin aid need as an international had a huge impact).</p>
<p>I am actually very lucky to have met the specific requirements for yonsei and seoul’s foreign students category. They wanted influence of students who had received almost if not all of their education abroad so that the in-country students could learn more and experience etc. I’m a foreign citizen and so are both my parents (Canadians), which not a very large number of applicants would have, and I am fluent in both Korean and English, which is I guess what they want. In other words, I probably got in more easily than regular students would merely because of my status as a foreign citizen. So that raises questions of how I would actually fare with the nation’s most studious students as well. The appliation process for US students to these universities is pretty much the same as any us college: transcript, sat/ap scores, extracurricular activities, 2-5 essays of varying length, etc. For yonsei, I also had an interview over the phone. As I have mentioned before, Yonsei’s underwood college is completely taught in English, whereas in Seoul I would go to classes lectured in Korean. However, Seoul did say that foreigners have the option of taking the exams in English. </p>
<p>If what us grad schools want of applicants from Korea are those kinds of high scores and extraordinary research experience, I doubt I’ll be able to make it… </p>
<p>So… does your post mean that you are an applicant from Korea? Is McGill really that highly regarded in the states as to surpass UToronto? (i was thinking of applying to mcgill as well, but it turned out i had not taken one of their prerequisite course requirements…). As much as Berkeley appeals to me in terms of prestige, the price tag does seem overwhelming, especially considering that my family’s low-income… although my mom recently started a marketing business and have high hopes for that. My parents are interested in Berkeley too, and they’re still considering it as an option, but right now, the college with the lowest tuition price seems to be the first on their list.</p>
