Hi! I’m back for another post this week. I want to give a basic and simple break down about getting a Visa and ARC in Korea. I can only tell you what I had to do as an American, but if you want to learn more from other people’s point of view, i suggest you check out some of the other Ewha Ambassador’s posts on their experiences.

So, your at the stage where you have been accepted into Ewha and now you need to figure out what to do to get your student visa and ARC (alien registration card). First, I had to make a list of the things that I needed before I went to the Korean Consulate in New York in order to apply for my visa. I remember needing my passport, my certificate of acceptance/admission, I filled out a form, and I needed a bank statement showing that I would be able to support my life in Korea as a student.

I went to the Consulate and submitted my documents. They sent me my passport through the mail with my new D-2 student Visa sticker in it. Once arriving in Korea, I needed to apply for my ARC at the Immigration office.

Thankfully, Ewha makes it easy to apply for the ARC card right here at school. Although this will be explained at your orientation, I will briefly explain the steps that will happen and what you need to do to extend your visa.

At school, you fill out a form for your ARC and attach a proper photo to it. This photo is different from a passport photo, so make sure the photographer knows that the use of the photo is for a Visa. Then you submit your passport with this application and it is sent to the immigration office. You can later pick up your passport and new ARC card at the Global Service Center.

Unfortunately, a student visa lasts only for 4 years. So, as an undergraduate student, you will have to extend your visa at least once throughout your time at Ewha. To do this, you need to make an appointment at the Seoul immigration office (because we our Ewha students we can go to the one in Mokdong). This appointment must be made at hikorea.go.kr. Make sure to bring your passport, transcript, ARC, and proof of residence (this can be either your contract for an apartment, or there is a form you can fill out that will specify your living situation). The same documents are needed if you need to extend your student visa past the initial four years. In this situation, you need to also include a study plan signed by your professor and the person in charge of visa support at the Global Service Center as well as a bank statement with at least 4,200,000 Korean Won.

Here are the important links to refer to when applying for a student visa for Ewha:

HiKorea website: https://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/main_en.pt

Visa(Office of International Affairs Homepage): http://isa.ewha.ac.kr/oisa/1432/subview.do

Alien Registration(Ewha International Affairs Homepage): http://isa.ewha.ac.kr/oisa/1433/subview.do

I will explain what to do when you move, and some of the various living options here in Korea as a student. I will also later talk about working with a student visa. Hope this post was helpful!

Hi everyone! This week’s topic is one that I struggled with when first matriculating into university, as most students do. This week I will be explaining a little bit about registering for courses and some of the required courses needed at Ewha in order to graduate. I will be explaining the requirements from an international student’s point of view or someone who applied in the 외국인전용 category. So, if you have Korean citizenship or are an exchange student, requirements and courses available to you may be different.

Like other universities, you need a certain amount of total credits in order to graduate. For example, the Global Korean Studies major (my major) requires 129 total credits in order to graduate. Among these 129 credits, there are requirements to fill. You need to fill basic course, core and major course, and general elective course credits. This sounds confusing right? It definitely should because it is so difficult to understand unless you see a list in front of you of all the things you need. Let me break it down for you using my department and major as an example.

I am in the Division of International Studies at Ewha, also known as DIS. In DIS is my major, Global Korean studies (GKS). So, I have courses that are required as a student at Ewha, as a student of DIS, and then my basic major and other major courses that focus only in GKS.

So as a student at Ewha, I am required to take College English and 우리말과글쓰기. It is important to know that no matter what major, no matter if you are fluent in either Korean or English, you are required to take these two courses. Many students come to Ewha thinking they do not have to take any classes in Korean but there is this requirement in order to graduate. You must take 우리말과글쓰기. You also have to take 고전읽기 but this can be substituted with other classes such as Korean level 4 and other Korean studies based courses. Students at Ewha also have to cover 5 elective classes are from five different departments. This is all mentioned in the handbook that is linked in my previous post. All students at Ewha also attend a first year seminar class that takes place once a week.

Moving on, as a DIS student I have to take classes like Research Writing and Intro classes for Business as well as Politics. These courses are generally completed in the first two years of study. As a GKS major, I have to fulfill basic courses as well like General Introduction to Korea. There is also a set number of major credits that must be filled for each major and these can be chosen among your major’s courses.

The rest of the credits are what I like to call free credits! You are free to take whatever courses you want, I personally have taken a lot of American literature courses or culture courses.

I hope this helps to get an idea of what registering at Ewha is like and some of the important things to know when registering! Please remember that you will end up taking at least one class in Korean when at Ewha. Although these classes are usually made so that international students can have an easier course, it is important to know ahead of time so this does not come as a shock to you.

See you in my next post!

Hi! As you can see from the title, this week I will be talking about something known as Happy Hour and some of the Korean Culture Experiences the Global Service Center (GSC) at Ewha have to offer.

When an international student first starts Ewha, whether they are a graduate or undergraduate student, each student is paired with a Korean student mentor. These mentors are of a higher grade than the new students so they are able to assist and help the students transition into life at Ewha as well as in Korea. For example, my mentor helped to show me around Ewha and the important facilities that I will be using on a daily basis. This was much more accurate than the initial school tour given to all of the international students at once because she could explain to me in terms of my major (she was also in the Division of International Studies!). She also helped me with my first class registration because I had no idea what I was doing or what classes I needed to make sure I had a spot in. She also happened to be a good friend whom I still talk to years after she graduated.

So, like the mentor system, Happy Hour is designed for international students (their mentors are also included) to gather for lunch and mingle among each other. The international students get a great chance to meet other Korean students, as well as meet other international students. all while having lunch provided by the GSC! Happy hour is held once at the beginning of every semester usually somewhere in the ECC building.

Another great opportunity that GSC offers are the various cultural experiences that students can take part of, usually costing a small fee of five dollars or so (very affordable!). These activities range from making kimchi to exploring somewhere around Seoul. I love food and cooking and especially Korean food, so I took part in a cooking class with my mentor when I was a sophomore. We made Korean Braised Chicken and Seafood Scallion Pancakes. This was such a wonderful experience and became a really great memory with my mentor. It also made me realize how terrible she was at cooking!

Well, that’s all for this week’s post! I hope it was helpful and I will see you next week with a new topic!!

This week I will be explaining a few things about student life at Ewha and some of the facilities that Ewha has available for students!

Firstly, it is important to know about Chapel which all students attend in order to fulfill the Chapel requirement. Chapel is 30 minutes once a week and it is held at the Welch-Ryang Auditorium which is also known as 대강당. Every student is assigned a seat in order to check attendance. Chapel goes by pretty fast because it is usually a sermon with singing and then prayer. Sometimes there are special Chapels that are held where there are people who come to lecture, interview, or there is the interpretive dance Chapel. The interpretive dance Chapel is when Ewha’s dance majors perform and it is really special. Sometimes the traditional music majors also perform and it is so fun to watch. They perform on different subjects for example, they perform the history of the school for the entire student population. During Christmas or Graduation students on the Chapel singing team perform songs to celebrate Christmas or to bid farewell to graduating Ewha students.

Another important thing to know about Ewha student life is the Library! Ewha’s Library is HUGE! You can go study in the library or, of course, borrow books. Ewha also has an extensive online Library that offers many different databases and sources available for students. Other than also being able to use computers at the library, you can also borrow movies and watch movies in the library with your friends! I have done this before when my friend and I was bored during free time and it was really fun.

Arguably Ewha’s most well known building, ECC (Ewha Campus Complex) is probably a building that no matter what major your in, you will end up quite often. ECC has so many facilities for students! There is a gym, several cafes (including Starbucks, my favorite!!!), the Ewha store, a food court, Kyobo book store (very important!), a pharmacy, a print store, a lens and glasses store, Shinhan bank, a bakery, a Chinese Restaurant, a salad place, a sleeping facility (수면실), a study room (독서실), a prayer room, and so so much more. ECC has been an essential in my life at Ewha! There are also more restaurants and places to eat all over campus that I think I will make in a separate post!

See you in my next post!

Hi again! This week’s topic is Admission and Scholarships at Ewha and how to obtain both.

Your first step would be to go to this link and download the English version of the admissions guide. The guide is a detailed walk through on everything you need to know in order to apply for Ewha’s upcoming 2019 fall semester.

http://admission.ewha.ac.kr/enter/doc/international/guide.asp

The guide also includes details on admission procedure and the documents that are needed in the process. The guide mentions when you should apply for your student visa but I will also be explaining more in detail on that in the near future!

Another important thing to consider when applying to Ewha is what department and major you want to apply to. The guide states:

Please note that all courses in the Division of International Studies at Scranton College (International Studies, Korean Studies) are conducted in English. Except for the Division of International Studies, the proportion of English-taught courses can vary among majors and there may be more Korean-taught courses than English-taught courses.

This is very important to consider when applying because you want to apply to a major that has major classes in a language that you can understand. (I recommend the Global Korean Studies Major in the Division of International Studies….its my major!).

As far as scholarships, as international students we are not limited. There are generally two different types of scholarships: scholarships that you can get when you are first admitted into Ewha, and scholarships that you can get after you enter Ewha.

There are other scholarships that are available after entering Ewha that are both work (ISS V) and merit (ISS M) scholarships. These scholarships may vary and it is important to check on the requirements needed to apply each semester. This is the email to send any scholarship-related questions: isadmit@ewha.ac.kr

Well that’s it for this week’s post! I hope it was helpful on your journey to Ewha! The guide in the link above shows all things I mentioned in detail and is a very straightforward guide, but if you have any questions always feel free to ask me or email the school on your inquiries!

Hi! My name is Nikki and I am a senior in the Global Korean Studies major at Ewha Womans University. I have been in Korea for four years now and I absolutely love it! I also love Ewha and all of the wonderful things about it (that I will explain later on this blog). I am currently something called an Ewha’s Online Ambassador which means I will be posting about Ewha and certain specific things about the school from my point of view as a student. I will also post later about my major, Global Korean Studies, which started when I first matriculated.

I have been a part of the Ewha family for four years and it is bittersweet that I will be graduating this summer and moving on into the working world. I will never forget my adventure at Ewha and all of the wonderful things I learned here. I hope to share with anyone who is curious or willing to listen, all of the things that I wish I knew before coming to Ewha so that I could have a smoother transition into Ewha life.

Well, see you in my next post!