So today I will be comparing the differences between Yonsei
University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM).
Similar to UHM, students at Yonsei register for classes
online. I mentioned in an earlier post that English-taught business classes are
especially competitive to register for (only 5 seats reserved for exchange
students!!). If you don’t get the classes you want during the registration
period, try to email the professor(s) and/or go to the first week of classes.
Some people drop classes and many professors will allow more than 5 exchange
students, so you can register for them during the next registration period. You
may want to carefully read the syllabus and email the professor beforehand,
regardless of whether you are able to register or not. I’ve heard that some
professors may teach in English, but the homework is done in Korean, or vice
versa.
Many classes in the US have multiple “midterms”. For
example, I may take 5 courses and each course has 2-4 midterm exams spread
throughout the semester. So sometimes I end up having a midterm exam almost
every other week. However, in Korea, there is one week set aside specifically
for midterms (no classes!). The downside to this is that each exam is worth a
huge chunk of your grade. At UHM each exam was typically worth 15-30% of my
grade, but here, each of my exams fall between 30-40% of my overall grade. In
my opinion, exams are a little more difficult here because each exam covers
more information. However, people in other classes have said that their exams
were easier because some professors take into consideration the difficulty that
native Koreans have with taking an English course.
Instead of regular homework assignments, the rest of my
grades are usually determined by participation, papers, or presentations. All of my teachers check attendance and
attendance/participation is usually worth around 10%. There are also a lot more
group projects and papers here at Yonsei and I think it has something to do
with Korea’s collective culture. Professors really want us to work together and
will usually try to mix native Korean students and international students into
each group. I also noticed that some professors would pick the group leaders
rather than letting the group decide. Korea also has a vertical structure
hierarchy, so the group leader is usually either the eldest person or the
person who has been at Yonsei the longest.
UHM uses an online system called Laulima, in which students
can check their grades, send/receive messages, download Powerpoints that
professors post, etc. Yonsei has something similar called YSCEC (http://yscec.yonsei.ac.kr/en/). Check
this site out before the first day of class because some professors may go over
some material that’s posted there.
Most of my teachers studied in America at some point, so
their English is understandable. With the exception of a few words, their
pronunciation is pretty good. However, most of them have a hard time giving
explanations of more difficult concepts. I strongly recommend that you try to
read before class so you can understand their examples during the lecture.
I hope this was informative! Just remember that most of what
I said was based on my own personal experiences. Each professor is different,
so they may not follow the same format. I have friends with professors who still
held classes during midterms week and some who decided to have their midterm
either the week before or the week after the scheduled midterms week.
