Korean Obsession Over College and the Fall of Cho's Family
Picture of Cho Kuk, the former Minister of Justice. Photo: Choe Sang-Hun / The New York Times
Alongside the tough power transition from President Moon to President-elect Yoon, Korean society is experiencing a side-effect of its obsession with college. Cho Kuk, the former Minister of Justice, expressed great distress when his daughter’s medical school admission was canceled following the Korean Supreme Court’s decision that his daughter’s seven most important extracurricular activities were falsehoods.
Now that her medical school admission has been canceled, her medical license is also highly likely to be revoked. Cho Min, Cho Kuk’s daughter, also got her Bachelor’s degree canceled by Korea University after the university made an announcement following her medical school’s decision. This academic scandal has been attracting people’s attention due to the fact that Korea University is one of the SKY universities, which is the Korean counterpart of the American Ivy League. SKY universities stand for Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University, and these colleges are often regarded as the ultimate goal of hundreds of thousands of Korean students and parents, with their unchallenged academic reputations.
Naturally, students and parents spend astronomical amounts of time and resources in order to get an acceptance letter from one of these three universities. This obsession with SKY universities has worsened Korean people’s anger toward the Cho family.
Picture of Korea University, one of SKY universities. Photo: Naver Blog
Another factor that stirred public anger toward the Cho family is that this academic scandal of Cho Min started before Cho Kuk’s appointment as the Minister of Justice and persisted throughout his term. After his appointment, people demanded him to resign as he was being accused of committing the most unlawful actions as the person who should be in charge of protecting the Korean justice system.
The Cho family scandal highlights the hyper-competitive nature of Korean college admission and how both parents and students obsess over top colleges. This obsession paired with the notorious Korean college entrance exam and admission process yields deteriorative academic culture and thus endangers students’ mental health and growth. According to these statistics, suicide accounts for nearly half of Korean teen deaths and over 50 percent for people in their 20s. Many suggest that this is largely due to the insurmountable amount of academic burden created by the prestige-obsessed academic culture of Korea.
Unlike the SAT, Korean students are only allowed to take the college entrance exam, Suneung, once a year in November. The culture surrounding the exam is surprising to see for people outside of Korea, such as police officers driving students to the exam center to prevent them from being late for the exam, and students going to private tutoring centers for exam preparation starting at midnight every day. While Korea is often praised for its high level of education as well as for its educational quality, its prestige-centered academic atmosphere should be remodeled for future generations.