Should a Korean student with no study abroad experience consider applying to overseas universities?
Hi, I’m a 17-year-old high school student in Korea.
For a long time, I’ve felt like I don’t fully fit into the lifestyle and environment here. It’s not that Korea is a bad country at all — I just feel like it doesn’t match me personally. Since middle school, I’ve dreamed about studying and living abroad someday.
As I go through high school, though, the idea of spending another 4 years in Korea for university feels almost suffocating to me. Because I’ve wanted to leave since I was younger, the thought of postponing that dream until my mid-20s feels frustrating.
Recently, I started looking into overseas universities. My grades are all A’s, but because the Korean education system is very different from the US/Canadian admissions system, I don’t really have AP classes or major extracurriculars. Most of what I have are a few personal research/project experiences that I worked on independently.
I’m interested in engineering as a career path, but personally I’m also very interested in film/video production and design.
For English, I practice by talking with foreign friends through DMs and having daily conversations in English with ChatGPT. I can communicate fairly naturally in conversation, but I still struggle with difficult vocabulary and reading more advanced texts.
Do you think someone like me realistically has a chance at overseas universities? And even if I do, would it still make more sense to stay in Korea?
(If I stay in Korea, I’ll probably aim for one of the top 10 universities here.)