admission
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Interview with KAIST MBA: 5 Reasons to Study in Korea for Your MBA
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) published online an interview with Mija Yoon, the director of the Admission & Placement Center at KAIST College of Business (KAIST MBA) in Seoul, Korea, on July 18, 2014.
In the interview, Director Yoon listed the benefits of studying MBA programs at Korean universities, as well as working in Korea.
For the article, please visit the link below:
GMAT, July 18, 2014
“5 Reasons to Study in Korea for Your MBA”
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2014/07/18/5-reasons-to-study-in-korea-for-your-mba
2014.07.21 View 8708 -
President Sung-Mo 'Steve' Kang Welcomed the Class of 2017
KAIST held its 2013 Opening Convocation on Monday, March 4, 2013, on its campus in Daejeon, South Korea, with 717 newly arrived freshmen and their parents, family, and friends.
In his welcoming speech, President Sung-Mo “Steve” Kang congratulated the students on their admission to KAIST after a rigorous selection process. President Kang advised the freshmen to follow four principles for successful college lives: development of good character and integrity, acquisition of diverse knowledge and experiences, global awareness, and establishment of fellowship and friendship. For a full transcript of the speech, download the PDF file below.
2013.03.13 View 6138 -
University Alums go out directly in search of Creative Future Talents
KAIST decided to involve 140 alums in the interview process for the class enrolled in 2012.
The alums participating in the interview process will be focusing on the finding of creative science and technology talent and the characteristics of becoming a leader in the math and science fields. Those alums participating in the interview process are from all walks of life including representatives of industries, universities professors, researchers, and public servants.
The reason for the inclusion of the alums in the admissions process is to stress the togetherness of KAIST family and take another step to becoming a world class university.
2011.06.24 View 8164 -
KAIST Opens "Bridge Program" for Prospective Freshmen from General High Schools
KAIST opened an academic study program to get the 150 prospective freshmen from general high schools ready for undergraduate course work at the tech university, university authorities said on Thursday (Sept. 3).
The "Bridge Program" is designed to offer online courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry to help students without sufficient knowledge in those subjects.
For the 2010 academic year, KAIST"s admission officers have chosen 150 prospective freshmen among a total of 651 students who had been recommended by their school principals. It is the first time that KAIST has alloted a certain number of freshman slots to applicants from general high schools.
The system was designed to prevent elite high school graduates from taking a disproportionately large share of admissions.
As a result, 91 high schools which never before had its student enter KAIST will have at least one enrolled in the university in the next academic year.
Among the selected 150 students, 132 applied for mathematics course, 125 for physics and 116 for chemistry.
2009.09.07 View 9563
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Five Prominent Figures Appointed as KAIST Admission Officers
KAIST appointed five celebrated figures including Seung Park, former Bank of Korea governor, as admission officers on May 15, university authorities said on Thursday (May 14).
The four others are Moon-Soul Chung, founder and former CEO of Mirae Corp., who is well known as the first-generation venture entrepreneur in Korea; In-ho Lee, former Korean ambassador to Russia; Myung-ja Kim, former minister of environment; and former KAIST President Chang-sun Hong who was a National Assemblyman.
Their appointment is designed to guarantee transparency and fairness in a new undergraduate admission system. KAIST has decided to select. 150 freshmen from among 1,000 students recommended by the principals of as many general high schools across the country. The five special admission officers will participate in interviewing the recommended students. The new screening system which is introduced to broaden the field of applicants to graduates from schools other than science high schools will be implemented from the next school year.
The newly appointed admission officers will have orientation sessions on May 28-29 and then visit high schools nationwide to interview the recommended students in June and July.
KAIST set off a new trend in the admission process when President Nam-Pyo Suh announced in March that 150 students, or about 16 percent of the freshmen enrollment, would be recruited from regular high schools solely on the basis of their principals" recommendation and interview results in March.
Award-winning records at math or science competitions will not be put into account in admissions to prevent after-school tutoring aimed at winning such contests. Unveiling the new admission plan, President Suh said, "We expect the principals to recommend students with special talents or potential rather than high grades."
Established under a special law in 1971, KAIST is given full liberty to recruit freshmen students in whatever method it deems right, without being required to use the scholastic ability test scores of applicants as the basic criteria.
The socially respected admission officers will single out 300 from among the 1,000 recommended students for further review. Out of the 300, the final 150 students will be chosen through in-depth interviews by KAIST professors.
"Through years of receiving principal"s recommendations and judging the academic records of the recommended students at KAIST, we can accumulate a database on high schools nationwide. If a student from a certain high school turns out to be no good, we might not pick any more student from that school," Suh said.
Over 80 percent of students admitted to KAIST this year were graduates of elite institutions, mostly science high schools. Only 20 percent came from regular high schools. Ten percent of the 150 additional openings for regular high school graduates will be alloted to students from rural areas and another 10 percent to low-income households.
"A certain high school was not able to send even a single student to KAIST for the last 10 years. I"m sure there are talented students in that school. If we give the school a chance, it wil help improve the education environment in this country," Suh said.
2009.05.22 View 11585
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KAIST to Admit 150 Students Based on Recommendations
KAIST will select 150 students from regular high schools, excluding those from special purpose schools, on the basis of their principals" recommendations and interview results beginning in the next school year in an effort to diversify admissions, President Nam-Pyo Suh said on Thursday (March 5).
Award-winning records at math or science competitions will not be put into account in admissions to prevent after-school tutoring aimed at winning such contests.
President Suh unveiled the new admission plan at a news conference in Seoul. "We expect the principals to recommend students with special talents or potential rather than high grades," Suh said. Established under a special law in 1971, KAIST is given full liberty to recruit freshmen students in whatever method it deems right, without being required to use the scholastic ability test scores of applicants as the basic criteria.
KAIST plans to initially select 1,000 students across the country based on recommendations. Admission officers will single out 300 for further review. Out of the 300, the final 150 students will be chosen through in-depth interviews.
"Years of receiving principal recommendations would accumulate a database on high schools nationwide. If a student recommended by a principal turns out to be no good, we might not pick more students from that school," President Suh said.
Over 80 percent of students admitted to KAIST this year were graduates of elite institutions, mostly science high schools. Only 20 percent came from regular high schools. The 150 additional openings next year will be allotted to only those attending ordinary high school.
Ten percent of the 150 openings will be assigned to students from rural areas and another 10 percent will go to students from low-income households.
"One high school was not able to send even a single student to KAIST for the last 10 years. I"m sure there are talented students in that school. If we give the school a chance, the education system will be upgraded," President Suh said.
KAIST-affiliated Korea Science Academy, a Busan-based high school for gifted students, will also adopt similar admission policy of recruiting students solely on the basis on recommendation and interview results from 2011.
2009.03.10 View 11176 -
The US Science Magazine Published KAIST News on Nov. 30
An educational innovation of our university arouses world"s interest.
The world science magazine, the U.S Science reports deeply President Suh Nampyo" KAIST reform, fund, tenure review, tuition, admission and faculty recruit in News Focus, internet version on 30 November. There is full text of the news below.http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5855/1371
News FocusHIGHER EDUCATION:MIT Engineer Shakes Korean Academia to Its CoreDennis Normile
Radical measures from the new president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology are roiling a tradition-bound system
Worldly. To gain stature beyond Korea, KAIST has lured students from Vietnam, China, and Rwanda, among other countries.
CREDIT: D. NORMILE/SCIENCE
DAEJEON, SOUTH KOREA--When the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on 19 November that an entrepreneur had donated $2.5 million to the university with promises of more to follow, it marked the latest in a string of coups for the new president, Suh Nam Pyo. A mechanical engineer on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Suh has raised an unprecedented amount--$12.5 million--in a country where donations to universities are rare. He"s challenging other traditions as well. For example, KAIST"s latest tenure review turned down several candidates, a shocking move by Korean standards.Suh says he is aiming to make KAIST "as good as the best [universities], including MIT." Many faculty members agree that Suh"s "overall philosophy and vision are correct," says KAIST systems biologist Lee Sang Yup. But there are concerns about how Suh will implement that vision at the 36-year-old university.
The KAIST community has reason to be cautious. In 2004, the university hired Nobel physics laureate Robert Laughlin as president--the first foreigner to lead a Korean university--with a mandate to transform KAIST into a world-class institution. Laughlin, on leave from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, proposed privatizing KAIST and charging tuition, focusing on commercialization, and tripling undergraduate enrollment (Science, 25 February 2005, p. 1181; 20 January 2006, p. 321). But when Laughlin"s plans failed to materialize, "the faculty was disappointed," says KAIST molecular biologist Chung Jongkyeong. In 2006, the board of trustees decided to seek a new president.
The board turned to Suh. Born in Gyeongju, South Korea, in 1936, Suh moved to the United States with his family as a teenager and earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As an MIT professor, Suh has won plaudits for his engineering design theories, earned more than 50 patents, and helped start several companies. In the early 1980s, he was assistant director for engineering at the U.S. National Science Foundation, and he headed MIT"s Department of Mechanical Engineering from 1991 until 2001.
Since arriving at KAIST in July 2006, Suh has opened undergraduate education to non-Korean students for the first time by insisting that many courses be taught in English. Suh decided that students who maintain "B" or better grades would continue to pay no tuition, whereas those with a "C" or below must pay about $16,000 per year starting in February. "We want students to take responsibility for their actions," Suh says.
Agent of change. KAIST"s faculty supports Suh Nam Pyo"s reforms, so far.
CREDIT: KAIST
A new admissions process may also have broad impact. Previously, KAIST, like most of Korea"s top universities, selected the top scorers in a written exam. Most high school students spend their free time prepping for these tests in cram schools. But Suh says that scores "are a one-dimensional measure" that fails to identify leaders. So candidates for KAIST"s next incoming class were invited to campus this fall for interviews, to give presentations, and to engage in discussions while being observed by faculty members, who made selections based on scores and personal impressions. "We"re looking for future Einsteins and future Bill Gateses," says Suh.An even more radical step was putting teeth into tenure reviews. Traditionally, faculty members in Korea gain tenure after logging enough years. Suh insisted that KAIST professors up for tenure gather endorsements from experts in their field around the world. In September, 11 of 33 applicants were denied tenure and were given a year to find new jobs.
The tenure review "is the beginning of an educational revolution," says KAIST chemist Ryoo Ryong. But he and others worry about the fate of those denied tenure. Suh understands their predicament but is standing firm. The professors who didn"t make tenure "are very good people, but in terms of the standard we set, they"re not as good as we expect our professors to be." He is asking other universities to consider giving these professors a chance.
At the same time, Suh is looking to inject fresh blood--including foreigners--into the 418-strong faculty with a plan to add 300 professors over the next 4 to 5 years. (To expand the school, Suh is striving to win government approval for a doubling of KAIST"s base governmental support of $108 million.) His first catch is Mary Kathryn Thompson, who completed her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at MIT last year. "It"s an exciting time to be here," says Thompson, who just started studying Korean when she arrived last August.
Although they support Suh"s initiatives, some faculty members chafe at his blunt public comments implying that Korea"s professors take life too easy. "I cannot agree," says Choi Yang-Kyu, an electrical engineer. "Most professors here are working very hard." Biomolecular engineer Kim Hak-Sung adds: "President Suh should have sticks and carrots, not just sticks."
Carrots don"t come cheap. "I"m spending most of my time trying to raise money," Suh says. Part of that effort is wooing private donors. "Giving to universities is not prevalent in Asia, but it is something I"m trying to nurture in Korea," he says. That"s a precedent all of Korea"s universities might want to embrace.
2007.11.30 View 14861