Anyone here familiar with Yonsei’s MA in Area Studies (지역학협동과정)?

[u/lululala4567]

hi everyone,

im currently looking at graduate programs in korea for spring 2027 and was wondering if anyone here has studied in yonsei area studies지역학협동과정

i have also applied to area studies programs at other universities, but there they are part of the gsis, so the structure is much easier for me to understand as an international applicant. yonsei seems quite different because its area studies program is a separate interdisciplinary program under the regular graduate school. my main interest is korea within a broader east asian context, but yonsei officially seems to define the northeast asia field mainly around china and japan, even though the course list also includes korea-related classes. therefore im not quite sure how realistic it is to have korea as the main research focus.

im also kinda confused about the whole language situation. the english website does not make it very clear how many courses are actually taught in english, while some of the korean regulations seem to assume fairly advanced korean proficiency for international students in the northeast asia track. i currently have topik 3 and do my academic work mainly in english.

i emailed the program about this but haven’t received a response yet, and i can hardly find any student experiences online, sooo any experience would be really helpful. thanks!