How to Get Scholarship in South Korea

South Korea is one of the countries offering a lot of scholarships in every field. Please read below if you want to know to, How to Get Scholarship in South Korea!, with much attention, you will understand everything.

Let me explain to you that in Korea the easiest way to get admission and scholarship (both fee and living expenses) is, first of all, you should search for relevant professors of your choice and research interest. Then you should make a good CV according to the interest of those relevant professors and send him/her that CV along with a short email stating your introduction and show your interest that you want to do master/Ph.D. under his/her supervision. If a professor shows interest it means almost you have 99% chances that your admission is confirmed. To increase your chance of acceptance, you can include, cover letter and research proposal with the mail. In most cases, the university provides tuition fee scholarships while the professor provides monthly living expenses scholarships. It also means you have to struggle to get these two scholarships. If you get one then the other you have to pay for yourself and it is very expensive for the individual.

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

To find you answer of “How to Get Scholarship in South Korea” first you should do, is to try to find “Faculty” => Professors profiles on the university website.

1. Find the Korean universities and Korean research labs related to your discipline on the internet. This is also helpful for only Engineering and CS guys:

2. Read all your major professors’ profiles, research interests, and projects. (You can also find the research interests of professors by finding on Google their published research papers,

3. Make your CV research-oriented and also easily readable and good looking. (Also according to the professor you choose to apply. Relate your previous work plus final year project with that professor’s research work and show him/her your interest in his work). A sample can be seen here

Important!!! Note for Electronics plus Computer majors ( In Korea, professors like if you are good in programming languages and it is good if you have the distinction in programming skills and you can show them)

4. Send your email and with CV and motivation letter to as many professors as you can and keep in mind only interested professors may reply to you, so don’t be disappointed.

IMPORTANT: Always Open the Korean websites in google chrome as you can use the “Translate to English” option of chrome.

5. Try to get any English proficiency certificate such as IELTS / TOEFL or even TOEIC. It increases chances of scholarships.

6. Once the ball starts rolling (After getting a reply from professor OR you can also send a proposal in the first mail) Come up with a project plan (Research plan) that what you are going to research. Indulge yourself in writing new project proposals if required.

FEW MORE THINGS

In Korea, two kinds of scholarship

1. University scholarships-University scholarships are few and hard to get, but good than professor scholarship as in this case you will not be depended on money by the professor. But when you apply for this scholarship, if you contact the professor before in the way as mentioned above, then you have a better chance to get this scholarship. Although university scholarships mostly do not require professors recommendations if you are successful to get one before applying, then it is a good chance for you to get that scholarship

2. Professor scholarship– The question of How to Get a professor Scholarship or Professorship is similar to the topic of this post and this solely depends on the professor and the university does not give you money in this case. These are easy to get but hard to maintain sometimes, because sometimes if the professor is not happy with your performance, then he can give you financial problems.

How to Get Scholarship in South Korea Details:

When you are planning for a Ph.D. or Masters by research program, two kinds of funding opportunities can be availed. The first option is to apply for a scholarship program that covers everything including your flight ticket, settle-in allowance, books allowance, tuition fee and a monthly stipend which is mostly tax-free. Scholarships like this are very good but limited in number. Another option is Professorship which means getting funding support from a supervisor/professor, where you need to work on some specific research problem/project under the supervision of the professor. At the Ph.D. level getting support from a supervisor is the most common way to fund studies. Now, the important question is how to find a supervisor and ask him for supporting your studies.

How to Contact a Supervisor:

In this article, I will talk about the things to be considered while searching and contacting a supervisor. In a successful search for a professor, who is willing to supervise your research, you have to make a strong first impression because you may get only one chance for each professor. If you fail to impress or convince him about your abilities in the first contact, it’s probable that you can never do that again. The most common and formal way to contact a supervisor is through email. There are some common mistakes which if avoided would result in splendid communication regarding your motivation.

How to Find a Supervisor for Scholarship in South Korea:

To find a supervisor in your field for scholarship in South Korea you have to narrow down the search, you have to first know what your interest/ambition is. I know it is not easy to know the exact topic of research at such an early stage but you should know your area of research. One way is to search some latest survey papers related to your field, just skim through the content, do not expect yourself to understand everything at this point, look at the author profiles at the end of papers. After doing some literature review, you can see that a leading professor in your area of research would be most cited and by this, you can point to potential supervisors currently involved in your topic of interest. Another way is to further narrow down your search by universities; where you wish to pursue your degree then visit the university’s website and your program’s page. Here you will see a couple of professors doing similar research, you must see their latest publications to finalize potential supervisors. Be careful, do not email to more than one professor at the same department simultaneously, because if a professor finds you suitable he will arrange an interview with more than one or two other professors and usually you end up with the same professors you emailed, besides one who is interested in you and this raises a question about your commitment or seriousness because you cannot be ambitious about different research interests at the same time. Once you have selected a professor who can be a potential supervisor for your research.

Please follow the general guidelines below on how to contact him,

Know him well

Know your professor’s profile well, try to see his latest publications especially one which interests you and try to quote them in your email just the title of the paper. Write a formal, short but comprehensive email including information about your research interests, how you found him, and your background.

Avoid Casual language

Your email should be very formal without the use of any casual language and check twice for your abbreviation which you frequently use with your friends etc. For example, writing short for your as ‘ur’, thanks as ‘thnx’, ‘R U fine?’ and others.

The subject of Email

The subject of the email is very important as professors are very busy and would not spend time reading all emails in their inbox; subject line is to catch their attention. Write like ‘Interested in Research area _____ with your group’ or similar.

How to Make specific Query

The professors get hundreds of emails from students asking for funding to support their studies. The most important thing professors want to establish about you is the level of ‘seriousness’ and ‘motivation’. Some students write an email with generic content and send it to many professors and universities and this is a worse way to make contact with a professor. Try to be specific to your own case and refer to things that motivate you to join that particular group. Generic emails would never be read and replied to.

Do not ask about weather/health

As a stranger to the professor, it’s better not to ask how is he feeling and how the weather is. For initial contact, this kind of question/wish are not appreciated. To the point, the message is better as it saves time for the recipient.

Know the Culture

In some cultures you do not call elders by name or first name. For example in Korean culture, writing “Dear Professor” is better than “Dear _Name” as the social hierarchy is vertical. While in the west there is no harm in calling Professor’s name as the social hierarchy is horizontal. It looks a minor point but I am telling you it reflects a lot if you do it rightly. Do not flatter the recipient beg or plea as it is not considered a good thing.

Be precise

As mentioned earlier, the message should be precise and to the point. If you are referring to some of the professor’s papers, just mention the title of the paper/project. You do not need to go in details of your own work at this stage, just try to connect that with the research interests of the professor.

How you find him

Do tell him how you found him. Professors are always keen to know this, as it also indicates how serious were you to join his group and did not try a thousand email addresses in a go-to try your luck.

Attachments

Never forget to attach a CV/ motivation letter and ideas about your expected area of research. Do not attach all those award certificates and transcripts at this point in time.

Review Email

Check all the grammar, spelling, typos, and similar careless mistakes. These would not put a good impression on finishing of your work. Conclude your email well, ask him to talk more about your ambitions, and do let you know if need more information.

Conclusion

So in conclusion if you follow all the steps and have knowledge of all the available opportunities like scholarships and professorships in South Korea then you can focus on your application. I hope this article answer your question of ‘How to Get Scholarship in South Korea’!