Student review [#31313] for Electrical Engineering, Automatics and Robotics
at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology - KAIST

First of all, I would like to stress on the fact that your life as a graduate student in KAIST will significantly depend on the lab that you are assigned to. In a nutshell, imagine that you’re applying to a job, you won’t be a student anymore.. and that’s how your advisor will deal with you, you have working hours and a salary just like any regular working place. Therefore, I STRONGLY advise anyone applying to KAIST to first choose a good advisor.

Pros:
– Research motivation and collaboration opportunities:
Motivation from seeing/knowing students publishing in top-tier conferences + opportunities to collaborate with them (however, they might not be in the same lab as you are so try to choose a good lab first)
– Great facilities and rare equipment
– Monthly stipend and no tuition fees:
If you got a scholarship, then you won’t be asked to pay tuition fees + you will receive monthly stipend. On average this stipend will make give you a decent life in Korea. However, this stipend depends on your advisor, and he/she can increase/decrease the stipend based on your performance in the lab.
– Koreans:
I have heard so many undergrad students saying that korean students aren’t friendly with foreigners and that you can never be a friends with a korean. however, from my experience I see that koreans are very polite, respectful and nice, whether they’re lab mates or anyone you meet outside.
– Reputation:
KAIST graduates are elite in Korea, so you have good chance to work in any top company in Korea after graduation.
– Campus:
big and beautiful campus, surrounded by dozens of restaurants (all types, koreans and international)

Cons:
– Teachings and courses:
I almost learnt nothing since I came to KAIST. I have heard that undergrad studies are so hard in KAIST, and if you graduated you will have plenty of great job opportunities. But for me as a grad student, the courses we take are almost useless and easy to pass. One weird fact about the courses here, 3 out of 6 courses that I have finished required a project submission. The problem is that you may choose any project you want to work on and that any grad student can take the same course regardless of their level, so you can be a master-freshman delivering a project that was done in few months, while competing with second/third year PhD students presenting their thesis work as a project to the same course.. And as mentioned in other reviews, all the grades are relative here, so your grade will be affected by those who are presenting their few-years thesis work as a project (and they are a lot)
– Meetings:
Most of the Koreans struggle in English and every lab has little to no international students. Therefore, the lab meetings and presentations are in korean.. What if you don’t understand korean? In my case when I joined my lab, they tried to switch meetings to be in english, but it was not effective because the korean students can’t express their thoughts and research well in english, so after few months they switched back to presenting in korean. And you have to attend the meetings, you don’t have the option to MaYbE SKiP meetings because you don’t understand what they are saying -_- !!
– Projects:
Every lab works on some projects to get funds.. As an international student, you can’t join some projects because they require korean language, or you can join some projects but sometimes there will be korean involved so you might struggle a bit, or you might be lucky and work on some projects that do not require korean. Some projects are mandatory for the lab members to work on (otherwise your stipend might be affected in a negative way) and some projects are optional, if you worked on them you will get higher salary.
– Lack of research guidance:
This one depends on your advisor and your senior lab mates. In my case, and some of my colleagues, there was a huge lack of guidance from the advisor and the seniors.

Overall, my experience in KAIST was not pleasant (because of my advisor), and some students face the same problem here. But on the other hand, some students had an amazing experience with their studies here.. as I said many times before, your life here depends on your lab and advisor.