It is a widely accepted yet stereotypical view that Koreans are… “nerds.” As a matter of fact, it is not uncommon to see Asian characters being usually portrayed as the math or science geek in class who furthermore often has difficulty socializing with the other “cool kids.”
In films such as "Mean Girls", there is always at least one Asian guy who is portrayed as a nerd or a geek.
Well, seems like this article has got some pretty interesting information for us to take a look at. Turns out that based on a research done by Samuel S. Shin as his doctoral dissertation, forty-four percent of Koreans drop out from of top American universities, all of which aspiring Korean students usually designate as their “dream schools”–Harvard, Dartmouth, Duke and UC Berkeley, just a name a few. He also mentions how this rate is much higher than those of American, Chinese and Indian students, a comparison that is made all the more surprising when one considers that India and China have populations more than 20 times that of Korea.
According to the article, Kim stated in his thesis that this relatively high dropout rate among Korean students seems to stem from the fact that most of them cannot adjust to college life in the United States. He says that because Korean students are so accustomed to a study-centered way of life, they have trouble becoming a part of the more “social” aspects of the student body, such as performing community service and participating in other extracurricular activities.
“I saw many Korean students in America isolated from the local community due to their study-concentrated way of life,” Kim said in an interview with The Korea Daily, a Korean-language newspaper published in the U.S. “They should abandon what they were familiar with in Korea to succeed in America.”
As a student living in Korea but not attending a public Korean school, I have often thought about this issue before. It is indeed true that students need to spend more of their time doing other meaningful activities besides studying, such as participating in certain team sports or volunteering at the local hospital. However, I do feel slightly offended by Kim’s statement that Korean students should “abandon what they were familiar in Korea to succeed in America.” Kim should realize that after all, studying is a part of Korean culture. Society is designed so that studying is the main way to succeed. Unlike my friends and I who take the time to play sports, go on international trips to debate with students about global issues and perform community service, Korean students cannot make such choices. They have no choice, because their lives into the colleges they want depend solely on their grades and test scores. Imagine how busy and study-concentrated your life would be if you only had one good shot at entering college!
As a Korean-American with three degrees from Ivy League universities (college, doctorate, and professional), I can assure you that Mr. Kim’s claims are completely bogus. In my experience, the undergraduate retention rates at top schools like Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton are typically in the 95-99% range (If you don’t believe me, check any of the college guides at your local bookstore). The Korean-Americans that I knew more often than not excelled in college and graduated with honors. Many went onto top graduate and professional schools and successful careers. In fact, among the 30 or so Korean or Korean-American undergraduates in my Harvard College class, I do not recall a single one who dropped out.
Mr. Kim’s dissertation is not publicly available for scrutiny but there are already some glaring inconsistencies. For example, how do you reconcile the 95+% retention rates that we know exist at Ivy League schools and the astonishingly high 34% general dropout rate for Americans (and 44% for Koreans or Korean-Americans) Mr. Kim cites in his dissertation? One explanation is that Mr. Kim is very likely not just looking at undergraduates but all degree programs. This might be legitimate, so long as he does not suppress that information, but he cannot use the graduate or professional school dropout data to make sweeping generalizations about undergraduates. Students enrolled in graduate degree programs drop out at higher rates, often for reasons that have nothing to do with academics. Another explanation is that Mr. Kim is using certain state schools, which are known to have very high dropout rates, to make conclusions about Ivy League schools. For example, U.C. Davis and U.C. Berkeley, schools known for a very high percentage of Korean and Korean-American student populations, had 1658 dropouts (general population, not just Koreans) between the two of them. At the same time, all of the eight Ivy League schools combined plus Stanford, Duke, Georgetown, and Amherst, had only 1087 dropouts. Mr. Kim’s dissertation is first and foremost a study of U.C. Davis, a decent school but certainly not a top school, and yet he falsely implies that his data apply to the most elite U.S. universities. I find it rather astonishing that he was able to defend this dissertation successfully. I will not speculate on his motives, but can only say that he has done a serious disservice to his fellow Korean-Americans and Koreans, and to the public at large.
By: JOohn on December 14, 2008
at 8:28 pm
A colleague and I have been searching for weeks for a copy of Kim’s dissertation without any luck. I even wrote the newspaper requesting more citations and references to no avail.
After studying drop out rates for years if this was even close to being accurate there would have been other sources to triangulate the data. I am in agreement with the “bogus” comment above.
By: Dr. J. on December 23, 2008
at 7:36 am
Regardless of the accuracy of the data, plus the knee-jerk defense of Korean pride, I invite you as Korean-Americans (as I am also one) to see the Ivy League/Tier One perspective from Seoul. I have seen far too many (and too many would be in excess of the average graduation rate) Koreans (not Korean-Americans), return to Korea, usually for army service…then never return to the States, or sometimes to a lower-level school.
This doesn’t, by the way, take into consideration the “saves”; where intervention by educators manages to get a lot of these kids to graduate, or Koreans who work with trusted and extremely discreet tutors to get them to pass. And how aware are you of hakwons that offer emergency essay-writing services that operate out of Seoul? Email the assignment plus 1,000,000won or more, and within 48 hours, you have a completed paper, properly footnoted and annotated if need be. I strongly doubt even your closest Korean friends would have told you if they were using these services.
These students may not be 44%, but they are enough that I personally know hakwon teachers that have been able to buy $100,000 cars doing homework for stateside clients. I have personally seen some dramatic failures, including one who dropped out of Columbia after only two months and entered Korea University through the “back door” (not taking the Korean SAT). The conclusion is correct – the vast majority of Korean students are not prepared to handle the rigors of studying at the Ivy League level alone – without tutors, hakwons, or their helicopter moms. They are not to blame – it is only by an enormous, extensive support system that many Koreans manage to gain admittance to Tier One schools…only to find that that acceptance letter was not an award of merit, but an invitation to extremely rigorous and independent study. Some manage to keep their heads. But enough do not to warrant significant and desperately needed changes on the Korean end, to better prepare these bright and hard-working students to survive on their own, and to think for themselves.
By: Teacher in Korea on January 19, 2010
at 6:47 pm
It means your ” Mentally Focused” person. Person who has high self esteemed. Not a loser.
By: kpeninsula on March 3, 2011
at 5:33 am
44 percent??? Not sure if this is accurate.
By: kpeninsula on March 3, 2011
at 5:34 am