u/Muted-Drive-1557

i don't even know how to start this 😔

i've applied for GKS twice now and failed both times — tried both the embassy and university track and got rejected each time. i'm planning to give it one last shot next year but i genuinely don't know what's going wrong and it's driving me crazy.

my profile isn't weak on paper — decent GPA, internships, real work experience, changed my PS and SOP between attempts. the one thing i haven't been able to do is TOPIK because exam centers in my country are very limited and travel is expensive. could that really be the deciding factor?

to anyone who got selected or knows someone who did — can you look at this objectively and tell me what the common thread is in successful applications that people don't talk about enough? i don't want generic advice, i want real honest feedback from people who've been through it.

what would YOU focus on if you had one last attempt? any kind of insights will be helpful 🥺

( sorry for my rant but this has been eating me up honestly )

hiie guyss !!!

genuinely curious to hear from people who've been selected for GKS whether recently or in previous cycles 🥺

the official stuff is obvious — good GPA, strong SOP, etc. but what actually made the difference for YOU?

a few things i'd love to know:

— what do you think stood out in your profile?

— was there something unexpected that helped you?

— what would you tell someone applying this cycle to focus on?

— anything you wasted time stressing over that didn't even matter?

no pressure to write an essay lol 😭 — even a few lines from your experience would genuinely help so many people prepping right now. 💌

thank you in advance 🌷💫

hie everyone 🥺

i’m preparing my documents for GKS for apostille, and i'm a bit stressed about some minor inconsistencies in my parents’ documents. i wanted to ask if anyone has dealt with something similar and whether it caused issues during embassy/NIIED verification.

my birth certificate and passport have my parents’ names correctly.

however, my mother’s voter ID has her name written in surname-name format instead of name-surname.

my father’s voter ID has a small spelling difference in the surname (an extra “h” at the end).

was thinking of using my father’s passport (though it is expired) as supporting proof? 😭

will getting affidavit work?

would really appreciate guidance from anyone who experienced something similar 🫂💌 thank you in advance 💖

Hiee everyone!!!! 🥺💖

I’m planning to apply for the GKS-G scholarship again next cycle for Media & Communication, and I wanted to ask current or former GKS scholars (especially embassy track applicants) a few questions out of curiosity and to better understand how selected profiles differ.

1. What was your GPA/percentage when you applied?
2. What do you personally think made your application stand out from others?
3. Did you have TOPIK/Korean proficiency or prior research/work experience?
4. Was there anything unique in your SOP/study plan/portfolio that helped you secure a spot?
5. For humanities/social science/media applicants specifically — what do you think strengthened your profile the most?

I know GKS selection is holistic and not based on grades alone, so I’d really appreciate hearing honest experiences from selected candidates/alumni. I’m trying to understand how I can improve my own profile more strategically before applying again.

Thank you so much in advance! 💌

Hiie everyone !!!?

I’m from India and planning to apply again for GKS-G ( for the third time since this was my second time lol ) and I’m from a media & communication background. I’ll be honest, I’m kinda struggling to understand how people from non-STEM fields actually make it through 😭

So I really wanted to ask:

• Has anyone here gotten GKS-G with a media/communication (or similar) major?
• Did you apply through embassy or university track?
• Which university are you studying at right now?
• Did you have TOPIK or IELTS/TOEFL when you applied? If yes, what was your score at that time? I genuinely feel they take people with language certificates even if they mention it's optional. 🤧
• Any recommendations for good regional universities for media/comm? 🤲

Also, if you’ve gone through this process:

• what do you think made your application stand out?
• anything you did differently that helped?

I’ve made it pretty far in the process before but didn’t get final selection, ( last year I passed all the uni round but failed NIIED!!! this year I couldn't pass the uni round lmao ) so I’m trying to understand what I might be missing and how to improve for next year since I have plenty of time to improve my profile. Any kind of advice will be appreciated since I genuinely wanna know what I'm doing wrong atp 😭☝

Thank you 🥲🫂