I thought it would be hard for students to go from place to place on foot. However, the on-campus shuttle which operates for over 12 hours a day, from 08.00 AM to 09.00 PM, really helps us get around the school and we can get from one side of the school to the other within minutes.

SNU has sufficient facilities and high-quality research, but by far the fast Internet access has become the most important thing while studying here. It has been a huge help to me whenever I needed to download ¡°gigabytes¡± of data from a certain institute or organization for research purposes. SNU also provides plentiful access to international journals and I could download as many papers as my heart desired.

SNU has grown remarkably in the past six decades. Numerous research results have been published in famous international journals (such as Nature and Science) and these achievements have given SNU a boost in becoming a world-class research university. THES-QS has ranked SNU 51st among global universities and 16th in the Asia Pacific region. In fact, some of the colleges of SNU are ranked among the top 100 in the world. The area of the SNU Gwanak campus is around 192 km2 and has 300 buildings for education and research. Meanwhile, the University is still striving to update its facilities and expand by building new campuses in addition to the Gwanak campus, such as a Bio Information Technology Port at Cheongnam (by 2017), Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology (by 2008) and Greenbio Research Complex (by 2010).

Most of the professors who teach at SNU are the best in their field. For the graduate courses, the professors are usually quite willing to teach in English if there is even a single foreign student in the class. SNU has expanded its horizons to become a land of opportunity for foreign graduate students who are not able to speak Korean fluently. However, if you want to learn Hangeul, there are many places and opportunities for you to learn,-- one of which is ISF (International Student Fellowship) which will arrange a weekly meeting to study Hangeul, costing only 20,000 won per semester! I certainly found it useful and know that many others will too.

Many outsiders think that the Korean people are very exclusive and introverted. While living here, I have found that to not be entirely correct. Many local graduate students at SNU have the ability to speak, discuss and even crack jokes in English. At times, all we as foreigners need to do is try to say ¡°annyonghasaeyo¡± for the first time, and mingle with other local students and the rest comes along like a breeze. Sometimes, they will try to practice their English ability and you can try to learn Korean from them. It¡¯s a mutual relationship and I have found that local students, who have now become my friends, are generally quite helpful whenever I have a problem with registration, the Internet or Korean websites.

Since its foundation, SNU has been the academic pinnacle in Korea. But resting on its laurels is definitely not SNU¡¯s style and the globalized flow of people and ideas has opened up boundless new possibilities. Recently, SNU has been focusing on internationalizing its members and curricula, and now has over 2,000 international students, with the acceptance rate of international applicants being around 20%. Of all the courses, 460 courses are conducted in English so there is no need to worry about not being able to speak Korean fluently.

Culture assimilation has become one of the most important aspects in foreign student socialization. SNU arranged many events, such as the food festival which is held annually in May, as well as the sport festival, end of semester parties, and many other events organized specifically for foreign students at SNU. These events play a part in soothing our homesickness and lonely hearts as we are able to meet other foreign students and often share information and similar feelings.

So, come one come all! Let¡¯s study at SNU. Feel the ¡°Korean wave¡± in the world-class research university, Seoul National University!