The title in Korean actually translates to, "I'm worried about whether I should go to grad school or not," but I think the English title is a more accurate representation of my mental state right now. Currently in my Korean language class, we are learning that grammar point of talking about anxiety and concerns and I feel that it is eerily appropriate for my life right now.
In all honesty, it has been a very long week (or rather, past few weeks) for me. But I'm not going to get into the details of multiple midterm exams/essays/projects and extremely limited free time, although I could definitely go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about that stress. Instead, I wanted to blog a little bit about what I've been thinking about lately in regards to my future.
Last week I was thinking about the ideas I've been tossing around about what to do after graduating and I remembered my mom suggesting grad school in Korea. Of course I had always thought this was out of the question. "Grad school is expensive! What would I even go to grad school for? What good would going to grad school in Korea do for me?" are some things that I always thought about. But as I was reading more about teaching in Korea (and China, for that matter, as China is one of my post-graduation options) the more I thought that maybe it's not exactly what I would want to be doing right after leaving school. I mean yes, I would like having a job immediately after graduating so that I can pay off these ridiculous student loans, and it would be nice to not have to find an apartment on my own in Korea, but there are a number of aspects to full-time teaching there that are sort of off-putting. And in the end, teaching is not the job I hope to have in the end and so I would like to spend more time in Korea making connections and building up my resume to make me more competitive in the Korean job market (as it's very difficult for foreigners to get non-teaching jobs in Korea due to the market being very competitive already just amongst Koreans).
Because of all this, I decided to start looking up information about graduate school in Korea, just for fun. But I started to realize that grad school in Korea is MUCH cheaper than American grad school. For instance, at Seoul National University, the tuition for the program I would like to study in is just under $3000 US! Besides school fees being cheaper there, I realized that there are many scholarships specifically for foreign students that cover all the school fees. There are even a number of scholarships that cover all the school fees AND give a monthly living stipend of around $800 US. Apparently, more than 90% of international students who go to graduate school in Korea get scholarships to pay for their studies. So after realizing that it is actually affordable, I started to take this idea more seriously.
There are so many advantages to going to graduate school in Korea. First of all, the university life would give me more free time where I could get a part-time job, as well as give me opportunities to get internships that could possibly lead to a job later on! I have read before that getting internships in Korea is much easier if you already live there, especially as a student. On top of all that, I'd end up with a master's degree, which looks pretty good on my resume, even if I were to move back to the U.S. for some reason and look for a job there. Really the advantages to going this route after graduation are just so great. Of course, there are a few kinks I would have to work out. For instance, most grad school programs for topics I want to study aren't guaranteed to be taught in English, so I would have to get a very high level on the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean). That means much more rigorous language study on my part! There are programs taught in English, but they are international relations programs for the most part, which I am not sure I would be interested in. There is also the option of simply taking Korean courses there, which would be nice if my Korean ends up not being proficient enough, but I think a master's degree would be more beneficial in the long run.
So basically, that's what I'm thinking about now. I know there's still a year until I'm very close to graduation, but I think for things like this I should start thinking about it now, so that I'm not stressed out and rushed later on trying to figure out what to do after I graduate. I just think that for now I should work harder on practicing my Korean to become proficient. I should also focus on keeping my grades up, so that it would be possible for me to get into these grad school programs and get scholarships!
This was a very long, very boring post, I know. But I thought it'd be nice to write a little bit about this so I could work out my thoughts. My upcoming posts will be more focused on fashion & beauty! I'm compiling a post about my purchases in Korea, and I also recently bought some beauty items from Yesstyle.com (I've recently becoming obsessed with that website!) and I'll be reviewing them soon after I've used them more.
Thank you for reading, and have a great weekend!
-♥ Camille
