hankyoreh

Five benches at the high school that Seo Rin attends in California, US, commemorate students who have died by suicide. (provided by Seo Rin)

Editor’s note: A student at an international school in Songdo, Incheon, the daughter of South Korean Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon has a flashy resume: according to it, she’s authored a scholarly article, been published, founded a volunteer organization, formulated a development plan for a mobile phone application, and participated in an art exhibit. But on the flip side are allegations of plagiarism and ghostwriting, which can be traced back to an industry based on the intellectual exploitation of young people from developing nations, including Kenya.

Han’s daughter utilized a predatory journal, one that muddies research ethics, and has exchanged resume-padding opportunities with the daughters of her 49-year-old aunt, a US college admissions expert surnamed Jin.

The Hankyoreh visited San Jose and other cities neighboring California’s Silicon Valley, where Jin worked, from June 1 through Thursday. This area is where Jin’s daughters — who were in a credential-building club with Han’s daughter — went to high school, and where Asian students engage in fierce competition with each other to get into prestigious US universities.

Those who had experienced US college admissions were enraged by the opportunities the daughters of Han and Jin had obtained through shortcuts, saying that even if everyone begins the race at different starting lines, they still all should follow its basic rules.

Through its three-part series “A League of Their Own: Toward Becoming Elite,” the Hankyoreh aims to shed light on and critique the “global resume-padding industry” that South Korean elites mobilize in order to hand down their academic credentials — a degree from a prestigious US university — to their children.

“In loving memory of…”

The words appear on a stone bench at the high school attended by Seo Rin, 18, who lives in Fremont, California. Five benches are engraved with similar messages, all ending in the names of children who died by suicide while attending this school. There’s no way to know what the departed were going through, but the friends they left behind suspect academic stress was a major factor.

Students at this school typically take four or five AP courses during their time there. AP, which stands for Advanced Placement, gives students a chance to take university-level courses while still in high school. Demonstrating the ability to handle university coursework gives students a leg up in applying to prestigious universities.

AP courses are typically taken in the junior and senior years of high school. Since students can only take six or seven classes in a given year, that means as much as 40% of their total coursework is at the university level.

While only about 45% of Americans go to college, admission to the top tier of universities is highly competitive. That competition is even tougher for education-focused Asians because Ivy League universities maintain an unspoken admission cap of 10%-20% on people of Asian descent, including Koreans, Chinese and Indians.

Asians make up as many as 90% of the student bodies at high schools in San Jose, Fremont, Cupertino, and Santa Clara, all cities in the vicinity of Silicon Valley, where much of the world’s wealth is being amassed.

Seo clearly recalls the intense competition she faced as an incoming freshman in high school.

“Everyone’s a stranger when you start [the school year], right? My GPA wasn’t very good, and I was uncomfortable with how people would openly compare their grades. Sometimes my friends and I even cried about it,” she said.

Seo, who was born in the US and has done all her studies there, has observed people breaking the rules.

“I heard people claim they’d taken the SAT on someone else’s behalf, and someone even told me their admissions counselor flat out wrote their college essay for them. There are generally a couple of people like that at school.”

Even so, Seo had no desire to pad her application in an unethical way.

“Students who are well off can get various kinds of assistance, and it’s unfair that other students have to do it all on their own. Even so, doing it on your own can be a confidence boost,” she said.

“I’m not sure how you could grow if other people are doing everything for you. In the US, college isn’t everything. Even if you don’t go to a good school, I think it’s important to learn things the right way, a little at a time.”

Seven young Korean Americans in California who spoke with the Hankyoreh, either in person or over the phone, between June 1 and 9 said they were shocked to hear that the daughter of Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon had set up a credential-building club with a cousin attending an American high school and had published papers that may have been plagiarized or ghostwritten in predatory journals. Those Korean Americans said they knew that life isn’t fair, but didn’t realize how much cheating was going on.

One of those Korean Americans is a 31-year-old Han Su-min (pseudonym), who has dual citizenship. After completing middle school in Korea, he moved to the US for high school and was admitted to a well-known private university. Since completing his military service, he’s been working for an American tech firm.

Han Su-min said he was disturbed when he read articles detailing the allegations about application inflation by the justice minister’s daughter.

“Since most applicants to the top 10 universities in the US have similar SAT scores and GPAs, they use extracurricular activities to stand out. But if they plagiarized or had someone do the work for them, that’s a violation of trust,” the 31-year-old said.

“The US is a trust-based society where people trust what students say and universities don’t bother vetting every extracurricular activity.”

“It feels like the Korean university admissions culture has been transplanted [to the US]. That industry is taking shape. I think this is the first time I’ve seen someone pad their application as thoroughly [as the justice minister’s daughter],” he said.

Kim Hyeong-min (pseudonym), a 24-year-old who went to middle and high school in Korea, feels even more cheated. Kim considers himself fairly underprivileged compared to most Koreans who study in the US.

After graduating from high school in Korea, Kim began his studies at a community college and then transferred to a well-known state university. He was too focused on his high school GPA to accrue the kind of extracurricular experience needed when applying to US universities.

Even though tuition is relatively low at state universities, that was still out of his reach when he graduated from high school. Transferring midway through his studies was the best option for Kim, given his family’s limited finances.

Kim didn’t hesitate to take on part-time and full-time work related to his major both to cover tuition at community college and to garner experience for his major. He also did volunteer activities when time permitted.

Kim’s efforts impressed the state university, which approved his transfer, but he’s still troubled over his experience.

“I’ve been in the US for about three years now, and at first, I was wondering why everything was so unfair. Students from Gangnam can hire consultants to open the door to a given university,” Kim said.

“I’d like to go back to Korea, but I can’t because I have to pay off about 200 million won (US$158,000) [in student loans]. The starting salary at American tech firms is around 100 million won, so I should be able to pay it off quickly if I can find a job. But other students go back to Korea after spending about 400 million won on tuition and other expenses. I guess that’s because they have wealthy parents as well as connections in Korea.”

In the US, June is the month when high school students graduate and dream about their future. On June 3, students walked across the commencement stage and received their diplomas at the high school attended by the cousin of Han Dong-hoon’s daughter, who was reportedly part of the credential-building club.

More than 500 graduates received bouquets and blessings as they embarked on a new journey beneath a sky of brilliant blue. But the cousin, who was admitted to an Ivy League university, didn’t show up at the ceremony.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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