[IN KU] Major Crises

By Lee Hye Soo (hhsl_0814@korea.ac.kr)

January 31 may have been one of the most anticipated days for most sophomore-to-be students. This is the very day when students find out which major they have been allocated to. For some, it will be a joyful day when they can officially start studying the major of their choice. For others, it will be a day when their life unfortunately takes a derivative turn. 

Korea University (KU) is currently under the system of “Departments” in which students who had been primarily assigned to a college consisting of multiple majors wait until their second year to receive their major. For the first year, these students are identified by their department and before their second year starts, students are required to choose the majors within the department in the order they wish to apply.

Each division has its own standards of how to allocate students to majors. However, most departments look at the Grade Point Average (GPA) of each student and look at whether the student had taken the basic required first-year courses: Academic English I, II and Thinking and Writing I, II.

This current system in which KU is under can be certainly advantageous. It gives the chance for students to try out diverse subjects before they actually choose their major. Lee Eun Jeung (’09, Biotechnology Science) said, “By the ‘Department’ system, students are given the time to look around and have the opportunity to see what they would like to study.”

However, the main problem with the system in KU is within the process. The whole procedure of allocating majors to students is carried out by the Academic Affairs Departments. However, the setback is that the process itself is not disclosed to the students. Therefore, the whole procedure is vague and students wonder how and why they received their major. Han Soo Jung (’12, Sociology) said, “I think that there is a need to reveal some information and other parts of the process because there is too much inaccurate information going around.”

When asked the reason for why the process was kept from the public, the Academic Affairs Departments said, “We do not reveal the information as there could be a problem of ‘elitism’ between the majors.” To elaborate, the school was worried that if they revealed the process and other information such as the cut-off GPA for each major, then this might send out the false message that one major is better than the other. In other words, a student of a higher-ranked major might be considered more superior to a student of a lower-ranked major.

Although the school’s stance is understandable, some students could end up confused due to the lack of information when making an important decision. For instance, there were rumors going around within the College of Liberal Arts about the cut-off score for each major. Students say that last year the lowest GPA that got accepted into Psychology was 4.1. Having heard these kinds of rumors, many students with grades lower than 4.1 might hesitate to apply to that major.

Fortunately, the Department did state that if a student had an objection to the result, then they would reveal the information to the student to explain the procedure. However, some students felt that there is a difference between saying that something is better than the other and that something is more popular than the other. Rhee Hak Seung (’12, Public Administration) said, “Just because students prefer one major over the other does not make that major a better one. Rather it is a case of ‘trend’ and what students at that time prefer to study.”

All in all, deciding one’s major is an important choice in a student’s life. Students spend four to five years studying their major and based on their studies, they decide which direction to head in the future. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the school and students to review the situation.

http://www.thegranitetower.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=446