I did my undergrad in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science here, graduated in 2022.

Pros: good research, great facilities, good programmes, completely free tuition, inexpensive accommodation + allowance, flexibility in course choice, wide material coverage, all pros of Korea (e.g. safety, convenient travelling)

Cons: strict attendance, some lectures of poor quality, competition and relative grading, hard to make local friends/connections, all cons of Korea (e.g. no English whatsoever outside campus)

The school is very much research-oriented, with lots and lots of great resources and facilities to do research. So if you want to do a research graduate or post-graduate course here and you like a particular programme, this is definitely a good place for you.

That said, most profs are good researches, not necessarily good educators. University-wide policy is that every course essential for degree completion is taught in English. Thus, with a few exceptions in Humanities, and some very obscure courses, you won’t have to learn Korean. The professors had to learn English though. And despite that most of them have lived for a certain period of time in the US, some really struggle to teach in English. In worst cases it will come down to the professor simply reading the slides in the lecture. Couple that with a strict attendance policy, you get a pure torture. On a positive note, most of the newly coming young profs are not like that.

Lab/research experience is also very different across different professors. Some are complete grind where you only do what professor tells you to do, and end up working 55+ hours a week. Some are nice and cheerful productive environments where you can even have your name on the authors list of couple papers being an undergrad, and enjoy the research process throughout.

The courses choice is wide and the programme is really flexible about what you do. This is especially true for larger departments like the School of Electrical Engineering – which is in fact, called “School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering” in Korean, and I don’t even know why the word Electrical is even there – you won’t get to learn anything like High Power Electrics. Depending on a course, the amount of theory and hands-on differs significantly from completely theoretical courses to labs with almost zero theory taught. Overall, I would like to get slightly more hands-on experience, but it was alright. The material coverage is on a very good balance in between breadth and depth. Perhaps, it’s trying to get both breadth and depth, which results in a relatively high workload.

And this high workload is something that is partly fuelled by all grading being done relatively. For example, to get an A, you don’t have to score 90% – you have to be roughly above avg + 1 stddev of the normalised score distribution in your group. This encourages some instructors and assistants to either make the workload extremely high, or make the exams extremely difficult just for the sake of difficulty, or both. Yet, if you don’t care too much about your grades, but still keep studying, it’s hard to fail a particular course.

Social life is something that is difficult to have in KAIST if you are an international student. 90% of the students are Korean, and most of them feel shy to/don’t really want to reach out to international students. Reaching out to those people yourself will rarely help. Out of the remaining students most are not too much into socialising. What are the chances that you’ll like the remaining few? Most clubs are also primarily Korean with all their activities conducted in Korean. Should be somewhat easier if you speak Korean, but not necessarily as easy as it would be elsewhere in the world.

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.

School is more research-oriented than lectures. Grading is relative, so your grade depends on how well did other students taking the course. I think this system negatively affects your GPA. Also, I can’t say the school is international-friendly enough. Even if you know Korean, it’s hard to blend into the Korean community(like labs, and clubs…), and that’s why many of them remain homogeneous.

Your experience with thesis-based master’s degree will depend on the academic advisor, so, choose carefully. Some of the professors are chill, some of them are toxic, and some might actually not work on your research field anymore. If you plan to enroll for the coursework, then, it’s nothing special (at most parts). Since the university is research-focused, most of courses I took were rather easy and, at parts, useless (this one is highly subjective). One definite advantage of KAIST might be it’s reputation. It has a solid reputation when it comes to South Korea. If you plan to work in this country, then, KAIST is one of the places you want to study at. I am not sure about its fame across the world. I think it’s not that high.

KAIST is one of the best universities in Korea with many opportunities and the best students. There you will face high competitiveness that is good and bad at the same time, it helps you grow and become more diligent however it might affect your personal life and self-esteem. Generally, it is hard to keep a high GPA, and because of relative grading, you gonna study a lot, probably even sacrificing your free time and personal life.
However, if you are not afraid of that, then go for it. University has very good research opportunities and facilities, and a full scholarship covering your tuition. Certainly, you gonna face a language barrier outside of the campus so it’s better to know basic Korean at least.

I studied aerospace and electrical engineering, I am satisfied with the knowledge I received.

In general, great university with qualified staff and professors.
Pros:
– scholarship
– opportunity to extend study for free
– international community
– variety of research projects. Opportunity to be published even in undergraduate studies
– most courses are taught with high quality
– job opportunities in Korea
– low dormitory costs

Cons:
– Korean community not always welcoming for international students
– relative grading for most of the courses
– high study load and stress level
– high concentration of people on CS major but very low on others