Journal 3 - Reflection about Korean university

When I was high school student, I dreamed the life in University. I expected an amazing life in University, thus I studied very hard to achieve my goal. Actually most high school students in Korea cannot live interesting high school lives because of preparing KSAT. I can say that Korean students study hardest in the world. Therefore, for them, university life means the freedom. I was one of the students who dreamed the same thing.

However I was really disappointed to the quality of education and other activities I involved in university. I thought that I could choose and take the classes which I like so that every class would be enjoyable. Moreover, there is professor not teacher who is almost experts in their field, thus I expected to know deeper knowledge which I couldn't study in high school. Actually, I thought that there would be something wonderful in University. However that was not true. In fact, university was the same with high school. Maybe that's because students had been suppressed by regulation they had to follow within the boundaries as minorities. It makes them enjoy their lives as possible as they can, so they don't mind their study at all when they are in lower grades. Of course there are students who continuously pound the book by themselves. Still, it is clear that academic achievement is not the main thing for university students.

It's really ironical that even though the situation is serious that much, Korea is one of the countries which is ranked in the upper status with regard to the ratio of students who enter university. To be honest, to live in Korea, it is necessary to graduate from university to be recognized as a moderate person. Moreover excessive academical cliquism is prevailed according to the graduates from the same college or university. As far as I know about the contents of university education, there's nothing special which should be recognized as higher education. It would be my humble thought. However we cannot refuse to accept that university education is no longer a privileged right. Though University students are spread across the country, they aren't really interested in studying. They just continued their study to get a decent job. Already university was changed to the place where prepare to get a job and estimated by the percentage of employment.

Definitely it is also important to build a relationship with seniors and juniors in one's university life. However we must not forget our responsibility as the one receiving higher education and leading the country in the future. In the research which evaluated the academic achievement of university students in the world, Korea was in lower rank. We were below the average. On the contrary, high school students were ranked in thrid place. That means the academic career of Korean students is ended right after they graduaged from high school. The reseult of this research shocked me, so I tried to write quite a long reflection about university students and education.

Hi!! Seyoung,

Your writing sounds that you are enjoying your university life! As you mentioned, high school life in Korea is horrible enough. If I could go back to high school, I would do what I like to do. Actually, I didn't study very hard in high school, so probably if I could, I would study harder not to regret. I think, in Korea, university is a kind of liberation out of the long restriction. One thing that I have experienced is when one is a university student, it will be a good kind of fertilizer of your life to experience as many things as you can.

Like your thought, I had a kind of university dream in high school. Actually I dreamt active life, enthusiastic people like sitcom. But I was really disappointed about university when I was freshman. So I took part in a kind of university press. However I wasn't satisfied. I think you could create your life actively like your dream even though I wasn't satisfied my university life. Because you have more time than me like senior.