Our fifth day in Seoul was spent at Yonsei University, the second-best private university in Korea according to the Times Higher Education Rankings. It was established in 1885, during the Joseon Dynasty.
We were fortunate enough to begin our morning with a private tour of the campus thanks to Dr. Yun’s personal connections. Throughout our tour, we learned about the history of the university’s name. The first half of the name, “Yon,” was derived from Yohni College. The latter half of the name, “sei,” was derived from the Severance Union Medical College. Hence, these two predecessor institutions collectively contributed to the name and values of what is modernly known as Yonsei University.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the tour was the observable differences between Korean and American university norms. For example, entrance to Korean universities like Yonsei are based on prior academic standing in high school and a centralized exam. The exam is such a large factor in admissions that regular traffic patterns are disturbed to accommodate the magnitude of students taking it on the one designated day each year. While one may argue the SAT is a reasonable comparison of Korean and American admissions exams, the emphasis on the exam in Korea for acceptances is much greater.
Another notable difference was the lack of emphasis on age. In Korea, gap years are more common, so colleges and employers tend to value when a person started college in evaluating their qualifications. This contrasts with the more American tendency to compare a candidate’s experience with their age. Furthermore, the cultural differences I observed throughout private tour of Yonsei greatly broadened my perspective of higher education.
Following our tour, we also had the opportunity to speak with senior engineering students and tour some bioengineering labs. Unlike the University of Pittsburgh, students in engineering begin to study in their specific discipline as soon as they enroll. However, I was intrigued by the fact that the university is working towards integrating a more general foundation during freshman year. It’s reassuring to know the curriculum established at Pitt is comparable to the goals of a highly-ranked private university abroad.
While later walking around the lab, we gained perspectives of both student and commercial research. The student lab was especially fascinating because we witnessed experiments on live mice up close. During high school, I conducted research in a physics laser lab at a local university and have yet to join a lab at Pitt. Thus, it was fascinating as a unique chance to see how labs in a different discipline of engineering operate.
Overall, our time at Yonsei yielded a fresh perspective of how universities aboard and engineers in other fields operate.