There are a lot of classes offered in English in Yonsei, especially if you are a social science major like I am. I had five major classes left to fulfill, but I was able to fulfill them in Yonsei since I was seamlessly incorporated to the Yonsei’s Communication department. There are two distinct English instructed courses in Yonsei, major courses where both native and exchange students can enroll in and elective courses for exchange students only.
The course registration was kind of confusing at first, but the UCEAP (University of California Exchange Program) has an amazing branch office in Yonsei and they did a fantastic job of breaking things down for us UCEAP exchange students. The registration process is a mileage system. It is not the normal process where students are given a certain time to register and rush to be the fastest person to enroll. The mileage system gives you a certain number of points depending on your seniority standing. Then you bid a certain amount of points. After a couple of days, the results come out and if you don’t make it, you are automatically placed on the waiting list. You are given some time before to take a look into the catalogue and the catalogue is pretty thorough. For some courses, you are even able to look at how much previous students bid in past semesters and who got in. It is a good reference to see how much you should bid since it breaks down the average points placed by grade level.
If you are going to Yonsei University through UCEAP, I highly recommend you use the services of the UCEAP office as much as possible. The head lady, Joey, is super friendly and helpful. She is definitely a sympathetic person to the students. If an incident occurs in campus or in your UCEAP connected internship, she is will be very willing to act as an intermediary. Just make sure to read every email sent by the UCEAP office carefully since there are a lot of important instructions and directions to ensure the smoothest possible academic experience in Yonsei. You are not limited to asking just academic questions. The people in the UCEAP office in Yonsei are willing to answer or explain anything about Korea or its culture. Definitely a good resource to those who may be unfamiliar with the culture or it is their first time in Korea. They also offer some out of campus excursions, so make sure to sign up for those as soon as you can since they fill up quickly.
Most of my courses, especially my major classes, are structured pretty similarly to the classes back at my home university. A lot of the Korean professors have studied abroad, so they try to structure their curriculum like the ones in America. Most of the professors are friendly and respond pretty quickly to any inquiries. There are some, though, who are very strict and a bit biased in their grading. Just be on the lookout for those professors and get some information ahead of time from past exchange students. However, I believe that every university faces those kinds of problems, so do not get too worried.
One thing though, is to not slack off in attendance. Attendance is pretty strict in Yonsei, especially if you are under UCEAP. It depends on the professor, but normally they give you two excuse free absences but after that the consequences are pretty high. I know that some of you want to travel around Korea and have fun, but be mindful and courteous to the professors and the native students. Korea loves group projects (maybe because of the collective nature of its culture) and if you are in a group with native students, make sure to put some effort and be present during group chats or meetings. Even though to you it may just be a pass/no pass course or you are there to just have fun, to the native students it is important to get a good grade in the course. Grades are super important, especially since the job market is pretty tough in Korea. There are Yonsei students who are even upset if they get an A-, so be mindful if your class has a good number of native students. Don’t continue the bad rep exchange students get for slacking off in courses.
They key point of academics in Yonsei university is that it is not that much different in difficulty, especially if you come from an UC school. However, balance is key between studying and having fun during your exchange.