Understanding the Importance of English Education in South Korea and Exploring the Reasons Why South Korean Students Come to a University in the Midwest

What factors influence Korean students who choose to attend UNK?  The 
researcher found several factors which influence South Korean students to come to UNK.  
First, more than half of the 30 Korean students came to UNK because of the cheap and 
affordable tuition.  Twenty-nine out of 30 Korean students have received tuition 
remission from UNK because these students came through associated agencies and 
partnership universities with UNK.  Furthermore, some of the 29 Korean students who 
attended the associated partnership universities with UNK were allowed to apply for the 
exchange programs, so their universities gave them an opportunity to receive transferable 
credit hours from UNK.  Therefore, the researcher found that the reasonable tuition and 
transferable credit hours significantly affected these Korean students to decide to come to 
UNK.   
Second, the location of UNK makes South Korean students decide to come to 
UNK.  In the Summary of Findings, 9 out of the 30 Korean students came to UNK 
because UNK is located in a rural area.  The 9 Korean students mentioned that the 
perception of a small city like Kearney was much more friendly and welcoming than big 
cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas because these students came from big 

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cities and experienced the unfriendly and unwelcoming environment in Korea.  
Furthermore, the 9 Korean students worried about visiting a Korean community and 
meeting Koreans and speaking Korean frequently if they lived in one of those cities in 
America.  Some of 30 Korean students indicated that the city of Kearney was much safer 
than big cities in the United States, so these students felt comfortable living in a small 
and rural area instead of an urban area in America.  Because of these disadvantages of 
living in a big city in America, the Korean interviewees decided to come to UNK.   
Third, UNK undergraduate international admission processes are relatively easy 
compared to other American colleges and universities.  Particularly, many American 
colleges and universities require high English proficiency scores and university entrance 
exams, such as the SAT or ACT, but UNK only requires international students to score at 
or above the 50
th
 percentile on the TOEFL or an equivalent English test if they want to be 
an undergraduate student.  Fourth, as previously stated, South Korean students do not 
want to stay in a place which has a large population of Koreans while they come to the 
United States.  In the Summary of Findings, 8 out of 30 Korean students decided to come 
to UNK because they thought that the town of Kearney did not have many Korean 
students or residents.  As a result, the South Korean population influenced the Korean 
interviewees to decide to come to UNK. 
Fifth, 6 out of 30 Korean students found that the state of Nebraska normally uses 
Standard English, so they decided to choose UNK because they wanted to learn standard 
American English.  Sixth, 4 out of 30 Korean students mentioned that UNK offered the 

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following majors which they are interested in: aviation, physical education, agro-business, 
and musical performance.  Hence, they came to UNK to study the above majors.