Details

• Republic of Korea
• BaWiSo-19
• Undergraduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

When applying for an exchange you will go through an interview. Keep in mind courses you wanna take, your plan overall, think about why exactly you should go to Yonsei. Also, try to be as confident as possible. Moreover, if you are vegan or vegetarian keep in mind that Korea is not the best place for vegan-friendly restaurants.

2. Accommodation

I started looking for an accommodation 8 months in advance. I´ve found a recommendation on Reddit from someone who had done an exchange semester already. I was looking specifically for an apartment near the university for multiple reasons. Firstly, it saves a lot of time. It was just a 20-minute walk for me from my apartment to the campus. Secondly, there are no rules as in the dorm (for example, in the dorms you can´t really let people stay at your place for a night). Also, Yonsei uni dorms are located on the mountain and sometimes it is challenging to go there after a night-out when there are no shuttle buses. Lastly, in my personal opinion, if you leave near Sinchon station it´s just easier to move around the city (there are also multiple bus stops nearby). Safety-wise it was pretty safe for me everywhere, I was walking in the middle of the night without any fear.

3. Academic life at host university

There is honestly everything you need on campus. Multiple cafeterias, coffee shops, a merch store, a post office, a bank as well as a lot of convenience stores. As for the academic culture, I would say Koreans are quite shy during the lecture. They never answer professor´s questions and don´t ask any as well (unless some points are given for this). Maybe it only applies to English-taught courses, though. Also, there is little practice and a lot of material is just theory-based. I would choose the courses which you will certainly pass because I did a huge mistake choosing only 3 courses. One of the courses was pretty hard and if I hadn´t passed it I wouldn´t meet the minimum credit requirement and would have to return the mobility grant. That´s why it was pretty stressful for me to pass this course. I highly advise you to play safe and take 4 courses.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport is pretty cheap in comparison to Austria. Also, you can choose between options like climate card and T-Money card. All transport is always on time. Korea is known to be a safe country so I wouldn´t worry about that matter. As for social activities, there are tons of things to do! I highly recommend to try exploring different neighbourhoods and not go to only touristy ones. Also, travelling around Korea is great, too. I advise going to Busan and Sokcho (Seoraksan National Park) but there are also other cities worth visiting. Seoul is definitely not a boring city and also sports friendly. Hiking is quite popular among locals because South Korea is 70% mountains.

6. Testimonial

I think exchange semester is a great way to learn more about yourself. I made a lot of meaningful connections and expanded my network. There is only one time in life when you can be as free and as careless as during the semester abroad!