I can’t believe it has been a full two weeks since I have ventured out in South Korea. I feel like so much has happened, but only a short time has passed! I want to dedicate this blog specifically for the academic side. But do not worry, I plan to release another blog containing my social aspect outside of academics to recap my second full week in South Korea. I feel that I have a lot to talk about in terms of registering for classes, so I want to dedicate this entire blog to allow prospective students to be fully aware of the process.
Prior to coming to South Korea, I have read past feedback forms and google doc sheets from students who previously attended Korea University through Marshal IEP. There was a section to talk about course registration, but it was as short as three sentences. Most said they were able to get the classes they needed, although they did note that it was competitive. Somehow, their experience they documented gave me the impression that it would be similar to USC’s course registration. While it is difficult to get certain courses with a specific time or class at USC, it is rare for students to not get any major requirement classes.
I want to start off by talking about the add/drop registration period. This was extremely stressful for me as I am currently enrolled in zero business class. I was only enrolled in 3 units, a non-business elective, while I needed 12 business units in order to graduate this spring semester. This meant that I must enroll in 4 business courses during the add/drop period which occurred on Week 2. Korea University also has another system called “Extra Permission Slips” for students who did not register successfully for the courses they wanted in the first registration period. This was a rather strange system. It was basically a google doc form sent out that tells students to submit the form with the class information they wanted. This was first come first serve, so it was extremely difficult. To make it worse, the “extra permission slips” are only accepted by the professor if they feel they can accommodate extra students. Obtaining permission slips was difficult as they only accept as few as one to three more students. I was able to enroll into one business class through this. However, I still needed three other business courses.
On the day of the add/drop period, an email was sent out 30 minutes prior to the registration. The email was sent to all students from the KUBS (Korea University Business School) Exchange Program. It explicitly stated that an overwhelming number of 800 students had applied for the permission slips, so most were unsuccessful in getting classes. From this email, I knew things were not going to be pretty. The add/drop was extremely annoying because even if someone drops their class, there is no way of knowing and you would have to keep adding the course to your bin every second. Even when someone did drop their class, they give an unreasonable time for you to add the course. For example, one course I tried to register for was open at 4:23am and another one at 6:28am. I basically did not sleep well that night at all. To make matters worse, I still was unsuccessful in enrolling in those courses because someone else got it first. To put it in perspective, I did not get to a course that had one slot available for 100+ business students competing for it.
I believe a lot of people complained, because shortly after KUBS sent out another email saying a second round of extra permission slip will be given, and for those who have less than 12 units to contact them. I had less than 12 units, so I contacted them to which they were able to enroll me into one business class. At this point, I am enrolled in 9 units of business elective. I need to be enrolled in one more business course, so I thought the second round of permission slip would do the trick. Wrong. I was so wrong.
The school sent another email taking back what they said. There will not be a second round of extra permission slip. At this point, I was disappointed but not surprised. This school’s course registration process has been nothing but complex and disappointing. Since this is impacting my graduation this spring semester, I emailed the school thinking they would help me. Again, wrong.
I was given four courses that they could add me into. Three of the courses available were not accepted for business units.at USC. And the other one conflicted with one non-business elective I am enrolled in. I asked them if I could drop the non-business course, so I could be enrolled in the only available business class that was accepted for credit. They told me students are not allowed to drop courses after the add/drop deadline. When I said I desperately needed to be enrolled into a transferable business elective to graduate, they told me I should have known that seniors were not encouraged to participate in an exchange program. USC Marshall IEP had never put a strong emphasis that seniors in their last semester should not study abroad. To make it worse, I originally applied to be on exchange for fall ‘22 semester but USC had made the decision to cancel it so I was extremely upset with KU’s email.
My whole process with KU’s class registration process makes me appreciate the advising team at USC so much more. I remember when I needed a class to graduate, the advisor helped me enroll in them. On the other hand, KU basically said it is my fault for studying abroad in my last semester because an ONLINE class was full. I think I could understand a bit more if it was an in-person class, but a university not accommodating one more space for a student in an online class made me extremely angry.
This blog on my course registration process seems very negative, but I feel that the google forms and experience from previous students only tried to show the positive side of studying abroad. I am extremely grateful to be in a country that is accepting of me, but there are definitely some downsides that people need to consider when trying to figure out if studying abroad is for them. Aside from the terrible KUBS team in terms of helping exchange students with their course registration, I still love my stay in South Korea so far. I have been meeting a lot of people, making extremely fun memories, exploring the rich culture and cities, and learning about the history of Korea. In the next blog, I will give a glimpse into my social life and what I have been up to!