In conclusion, this is my third post on A Journey to the GKS Series. Before this one, I had written about how to fill out the GKS application forms, and I had previously written about my experience studying for the GKS application back in 2016. This time, I'll be giving tips on how to write a personal statement that is one of the essays needed for the GKS application. I spent about three months writing both of the essays while I was preparing to submit my application. I remember that I started writing as soon as I decided to apply for the scholarship in November, put it off for around a month, went back and forth to make the required changes, and finished it just a few days ago.

The essay template that included things to include and recommendations for the GKS application forms was really helpful, in my opinion. I've always loved to write, but writing an essay in English for school was especially difficult for me because it's not my first language and I never learned how to write academically. Some of the advice I've given here is something I wish I had known while I was writing my essays for the GKS Application.

Personal Statement Template (2021 GKS Application)
 

Find the identification of your application first. "What motivates me to apply for this program and study in Korea?" Why should I be chosen from among hundreds of candidates by the reviewer? Throughout the process of preparing my personal statement, I kept coming back to these questions. I eventually identified my application's identity as I dug deeper into the explanations; it was a concise statement that would ideally make an impression on the reviewers and accurately represent myself.

I see a Personal Statement as a stage to promote myself. It tells a story about me, my personal values, and significant events that happened in my life that led me to aspire to study in Korea and apply for the GKS. The goal is to convey my story in the most impactful way possible so that no matter how ordinary it is, the reviewer will still remember me after reading hundreds of similar or even better stories. To do this, I don’t think I can merely rely on a list of achievements and experiences I have because they probably aren’t so outstanding among other applicants. That is why I need to put an identity into my application, to make my story stronger than my own name.  

In my case, “an applicant majoring in Family Studies” is the identity that I highlighted. Given that Family Studies is not a common field of study especially in India, regardless of how important it is for our society (don’t get me started into Family Sciences 101. Lol.), I guess it was the strongest point of my application that granted me a seat for an interview in the Korean Embassy. I could be wrong, but the interviewers asked about it during the whole interview session.  

Second, make your essay hook. If you put yourself in the reviewer’s shoes who has to deal with a hundred applications, how will you sort it out? There are sure other points such as grades that are quite easy to determine. But, when it comes to essays, how will you rate it and choose from a pool of applicants? Just like its name, a Personal Statement should be personal yet interesting. Personal; it tells who the applicant is, his/her experiences, achievements, and values. Interesting; no matter how different every applicant’s life story is, the reasons to study abroad and apply for the scholarship might not be so unique, thus, the way it is written should be fascinating and impactful. That is how an essay hook will make your application stand out and assure the reviewers that you deserve one seat until the final round.

There are many ways to write an essay hook; quotation, question, strong statement, metaphor, etc. You may try many different ways before finding the one that matches the big picture of your essay. An essay hook is aimed to attract the reader from the beginning of your essay. This is also related to the whole picture of the essay and the information in the next paragraphs. As I decided to emphasize my major in Family Studies, I open my essay with a story about my own family and what values I grew up with. I also wrote about how people used to ask what my major was about and whether it really was necessary to learn about family sciences at university. I keep this point as the whole idea of my essay which helped me to explain why I had to go to a Korean university.

Third, be reflective. Reflecting is such a habit to me. You know, that tendency to lay awake in your bed and replay what has happened that day in your head and what you could’ve done to make it better, or at least, to make yourself feel better. Well, I learned that doing it isn’t always good. But, when it comes to reflecting on your past experiences and achievements in your Personal Statement, I can never stress enough how important it is. After mentioning all your precious achievements and writing how eventful your life is, you need to explain what lessons learned that you learned, what skills you learned, and how they contribute to who you are today. It might sound cliché to write about how your leadership skills have been sharpened through many organizations, but I don’t think it will do you bad to show that you have learned from your experience.

Fifth, make an outline. To me, an outline always does wonders. You might have ever practiced it for school assignments. It’s really as simple as starting from the points mentioned in the essay instruction; (1) family background, (2) latest education, (3) significant and relevant experiences (working, internship, organization, clubs), (4) motivations to study in Korea and apply for the GKS. You can write down ideas for each point and add a few sentences for the explanation. As you develop each point, you may want to write it in 1-2 paragraphs and keep it as your main idea. This will surely help your writing stay on track, lead the plot, and transition from one idea/point to another without jumbling up.

Sixth, don’t expect to finish it in one night or even one sitting and then submit it on the next day. Only after giving it some time and re-reading it a few days later, you will notice every mistake in your essay, those misspellings-wrong tenses-wrong expressions, even if you’ve been very meticulous especially when it comes to writing. Also, I can never stress enough how you should stop yourself from editing those punctuation marks or misspellings while typing because it will put your idea on hold and take much time to finish your first draft.

Finally, ask someone to proofread your essay and give feedback. I received a lot of help from my English tutor who gave valuable feedback on my essays. Having someone read your essay sort of allows you to get through the pre-review and the nerve-wracking of the application screening process. Also, your essay will look different from someone else’s perspective so it’s important to get their feedback even if it’s as simple as word choices. Especially, because a Personal Statement is an essay about ourselves, we can easily understand it but it can be hard to be objective. Your best friend will tell you some confusing parts, things that you should explain better, or simply tell whether the storytelling is interesting enough.

There are a lot more awesome tips all over the Internet on how to write a great Personal Statement essay. These are basically what I did when I wrote my own for the GKS application. I have no idea exactly which part of my application granted me the scholarship, but I believe that the Personal Statement had its big share. For another essay, Study Plan/Statement of Purpose, you can check my post about it here.
 

A Journey to GKS: Application Forms

I decided to write A Journey to GKS series based on my experience as a GKS awardee in 2016. Just like other awardees, I also received a lot of chats and DMs from people asking about GKS applications. It’s not that I’m tired and annoyed by answering the same questions over and over again, that I decided to post it online, really. That is practically what I’ve been doing in the past four years which, at some points during my student life in Korea, turned out to help me cope with the situation and keep me on track as I was reminded how far I had come.

Just recently I changed my mind about writing and posting it online so anyone can read it and I can re-read it (for whatever reasons), after joining a mentorship program (supported by the Indonesian Student Association in South Korea aka Perpika) as a mentor for the Indonesian students and graduates who are interested in studying in Korea and preparing for the scholarship application. I mentored a similar program from MITI Klaster Mahasiswa back in 2017 called Youth Connection but I guess at the time I wasn’t feeling okay enough to share it. Now that I graduated safe and sound, I guess posting it online won’t hurt. So, this is the second post of my ‘A Journey to GKS’ series, and I’ll try to post the next ones as soon as possible.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post about my journey to GKS, I decided to go for this scholarship application the second I learned about this program. One of my thoughts at the time is how simple the application looks. And it is indeed simple, at least for me who had never applied for such a program and dealt with forms in English. The guideline also states everything clearly. Of course, I got a lot of help from GKS awardees I met online who were very kind to share their experience. But, I tried to do my share as much as possible by doing my research on the Internet in advance, making sure I didn’t irritate them by asking trivial questions I could easily access on the Internet or even the application guidelines, and avoiding the questions which are more on self-preference, such as “Is it okay if my recommendation letter is folded?”

GKS-G (for graduate) and GKS-U (for undergraduate) Application Forms are all over the Internet. It can be downloaded from various sites, such as Study in Korea, Korean Embassy sites, some Korean university sites, and Topik Guide. Along with the application guideline is a separate file of the application forms (although the complete guideline includes the forms as well), University Information, and FAQs files. These are the first references and ammunition that no single applicant should ever miss. You might have your sister as a GKS awardee and you can easily ask every single detail, but really, that kind of mentality will get in your way someday. So, go get the guideline and read it! (Sorry, I’m being too enthusiastic here.)

Thankfully, the application forms have stayed pretty much the same over the years. Minor changes might have been made as well as the regulation changes. However, it does not affect that much to the application procedures, thus making it easy for the applicants to prepare the applications way earlier even before the opening period. And that’s what I did back then. I downloaded the application guidelines from the previous years and noticed that the forms stayed the same, so I started to practice filling in the forms and preparing the required documents.

The first part of the application forms includes the application checklist. Depending on the program you apply to, either Undergraduate or Graduate Degrees, the required documents are slightly different. The application checklist for the Graduate Degree Programs consists of all required documents for three different degree programs (i.e., Master’s, Doctoral, and Research Programs) so the list is a little bit longer. As for the Undergraduate application, three types of documents are required for certain documents (graduation certificate, transcripts, certificate of citizenship, and awards). I might be wrong on this since I had no experience in preparing for the undergraduate application, but here is what I understand about the difference between the original, official notarized translation, and copied documents.

2021 GKS Application checklist (above: Undergraduate; below: Graduate)
 

The original document, like its name, is the original version of a document that can be written in many different languages depending on the country where it is issued. In case an applicant only has one copy of the original document, they can submit the certified copy version which is the copy of the original document certified/stamped by the issuing institution (e.g., school).

Since all documents have to be written in either Korean or English, here comes the second type of document to accompany the original document, official notarized translation. As for the graduation/degree certificate and transcripts, some schools might provide the English translation. Otherwise, an applicant needs to have it translated into Korean or English by a sworn translator. From here, the document has to be legalized again by the notary. In the end, the official notarized translation should be a document written in Korean or English and should have 2-3 different stamps: issuing institution, (translating institution), and notary stamps. The last is the copied document which is the photocopied version (black-and-white document).

The number of copies submitted depends on the application track. For those applying via University Track, they should send only the original/certified copy of the documents to the university of their choice. As the screening process takes place in Korea, the documents should be the very best legalized version. For countries that require an apostille version of the document such as India, some documents (degree certificates, transcripts, proof of citizenship) have to be apostilled or receive consular confirmation from the Korean Embassy in the country where the document is issued.

Notes for my Indian fellows, here is the procedure to get the documents apostilled: legalized by the notary >> Ministry of Law and Human Rights >> Ministry of Foreign Affairs (New Delhi) >> (Korean) Embassy.

If applying via the Korean Embassy, one original/certified copy document, one official notarized translation, and three photocopied documents have to be prepared. Apparently, some Korean Embassies, including the Korean Embassy in India, may apply different regulations. Korean Embassy in India requires the applicants to send only one copy of the original document and the copies will be made by the Embassy.

The next part of the application forms is the applicant’s personal information, which is considerably easy to fill in. As for the applicant’s name, some who do not have a separate family name may find it confusing at first, like in most cases of South Indians. In such cases, simply write the same as your passport name: first name and middle name (if any) as the given name and last name as a surname. For the university and major choices for graduate degrees, some confusions come from the differences between Division, Department, and Major. The best way to solve this is by referring to the University Information file, on the list of majors offered. As for the grades/GPA, use the CGPA conversion table on the guideline to convert various grading systems. If the CGPA conversion table does not apply to the grading system of the applicant’s school, the information on how to do the conversion should be attached.

Applicant’s Personal Information (above Undergraduate; below: Graduate)

For awards and published papers, I believe there is no limit number but I personally mentioned the best two. You may want to mention the rest, if they are quite significant for you, in the Personal Statement. For published papers written in a language other than Korean or English, the original title and other details (e.g., journal name) can be mentioned first, followed by the English title in parentheses.

The next forms to be filled out are the Personal Statement and Statement of Purpose/Study Plan. Instructions have been provided clearly on each part, so I believe it comes back to the applicant’s writing ability to come up with the best way of storytelling which hopefully will impress the reviewers. I have made a post for some tips to write a Personal Statement and Statement of Purpose/Study Plan based on my experience.

Recommendation letters are another important required document for GKS applications. An applicant should receive two recommendation letters from two recommenders. The letter template has been prepared in the application, but the recommenders may attach their own template. Just make sure that they understand what points should be included and that everything should be written in either Korean or English. This letter is confidential, so you may want to clarify beforehand as to who will translate the document if your recommender writes it in other languages.

The last is self-medical assessment/personal medical assessment which is a brief medical history of the applicant. It can be filled in independently by the applicant without going to the hospital or any healthcare center and should be filled in all honesty because you shouldn’t let any wrong information stated in the application forms get in your way in the later selection process of the medical check-up where pretty much everything will be revealed.

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That is the end of the GKS application forms. This is crazily long I know, but I hope you will somehow find this post helpful. 

This post has been updated following the 2021 Application Guidelines. Please do let me know if you find incorrect information that I stated here. I strongly encourage all applicants to read the guidelines by heart as it has much more detailed information.

Tell me when it’s enough.

Tulisan ini merupakan salah satu refleksi dari sebuah drama Korea berjudul “He Is Psychometric (사이코메트리 그녀석)”. Yep, you read it right, I reflected on the drama that I watched and wrote it on my journal lol. Itulah salah satu aspek yang membuat saya menikmati Korean series. Selain karena jumlah episodenya yang pas (tidak terlalu panjang atau pendek) dan akting para aktornya yang luar biasa (terutama pada crying scenes), jalan cerita dan dialognya menurut saya mengandung banyak makna dan mengajak penonton untuk mencernanya lebih dalam melalui berbagai sudut pandang. Terlebih setelah saya bisa memahami Bahasa Korea, setiap scene dan dialog menjadi semakin menarik dan berarti karena ada nuansa-nuansa tertentu yang tidak selalu bisa diterjemahkan dengan memuaskan ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia ataupun English.

Singkatnya, spoiler alert, drama ini menceritakan lelaki bernama Lee Ahn yang memiliki kemampuan psychometric, yaitu melihat kenangan benda hidup dan mati melalui indra peraba. Dia mendapat kemampuan itu setelah kehilangan kedua orang tuanya pada kebakaran di apartemen tempat tinggalnya. Lee Ahn diselamatkan oleh Sungmo yang kemudian berperan sebagai kakak laki-laki angkat yang membesarkannya, dan merupakan satu-satunya orang yang tidak bisa Lee Ahn baca kenangannya. The plot twisted, Sungmo ternyata merupakan pelaku penyulut kebakaran demi menyelamatkan ibunya dari kejaran sang ayah yang menyekap keduanya di basement sampai Sungmo berusia 10 tahun. Drama ini berakhir dengan Sungmo yang menyerahkan diri ke kepolisian akibat kejahatan membakar apartemen yang dilakukannya bertahun-tahun silam dan kekerasaan terhadap ayahnya yang mencoba mengejar dan melukai ibunya lagi.

I was hooked on Lee Ahn’s line when meeting Sungmo in prison, in one of the final scenes.

“I wish someone would tell us when it’s enough. The resentment, the hatred, and the guilt.”

Saya tersadarkan bahwa dalam hidup kita terus-menerus bersinggungan dengan pertemuan dan perpisahan, memiliki dan kehilangan, melukai dan dilukai. Saya sangat setuju dengan kalimat Lee Ahn, dan nyatanya berharap hal yang sama. Ketika seseorang yang penting pergi selamanya dari kehidupan kita, kita tidak tahu kapan harus berhenti meratapi dan merasa kehilangan. Ketika kita dilukai, kita tidak tahu kapan harus berhenti membenci. Pun ketika kita melukai, kita tidak tahu kapan harus berhenti merasa bersalah dan menyesali. Seandainya saja ada lampu indikator sebagai pertanda bahwa kehilangan, kebencian, dan penyesalan yang kita rasakan sudah cukup, sudah mencapai batas maksimal dan ini saatnya untuk reset.

Ada satu kesamaan di tengah rasa kehilangan, kebencian, penyesalan; lelah. Lelah jiwa raga. Jika kita membiarkan diri mengambil jeda sesaat, kita akan tersadarkan betapa melelahkannya memelihara perasaan-perasaan tersebut. Kemudian kita pun mulai bertanya, “Sampai kapan? Satu tahun lagi? Dua tahun lagi? Apa selama ini sudah cukup?” Tidak ada jawaban pasti, bahkan mungkin setelah kita bertanya di sepertiga malam pada saat pintu langit terbuka.

Oftentimes, we just get through busy days and lonely nights until, at some point in life, we sleep without tears on the bed sheet, we laugh without feeling guilty, and we remember them longingly once in a while without feeling pain in our hearts anymore. We, eventually, manage to get through those days when the loss, the hatred, and the guilt are all that mattered. But still, we never know when or how it happens. I believe that time does heal our broken hearts only when we let it so, only when we let go who has gone, keep them in our hearts, and cherish them in our memory, only when we let ourselves move and keep on living

A Journey to GKS: How I Ended Up in Korea

Everyone has at least one turning point in their life. It’s momentum when one believes that his/her life has completely changed and a new one has begun. To me, GKS is one of my turning points. I wouldn’t say that my journey to get the scholarship and my student life in Korea was full of blood and tears. Tough days were there, but there must be a bunch of heart-breaking stories other than mine. God allows us to experience things and difficulties within our ability and even though I unexpectedly had mine, I know that He had been very soft to me all the time. It was the time when I learned different versions of myself I never knew existed. And just now, months after I graduated and managed to finish the program safely I dared to share my experience.  

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The Korean  Government Scholarship Program (KGSP), which has changed its name to the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), is a scholarship program from the Government of the Republic of Korea. This program provides foreigners the opportunity to continue higher education (undergraduate and graduate degree programs) in South Korea. You may click here for more information.

Studying abroad has always been one of my dreams since high school. It turned from a mere dream into a plan once I graduated from university. Given my major is not a common one (Family Science), especially in Indonesia, I knew that I should go overseas to do my master’s degree program. I could’ve just continued my studies at the same university where I graduated, but even my advisor suggested finding some overseas universities, the most possible one is in Malaysia. At the time, Korea hadn’t been on the list as I had no idea if any universities were providing my prospective major.

I only did my research on schools in Malaysia and the US until I ran into a broadcast message about overseas scholarships for graduate programs. The list was quite long so I did a quick scan and started to dig into each based on my country's preference, and Korea happened to be one of them. Back then, my knowledge of Korea was limited to dramas that I got to watch along with my older sisters (if you have three older sisters you can hardly choose what to watch on TV) and then some bands my little sister listened to. So I’ve been a fan of the Korean entertainment industry before coming to Korea, but studying there was never in any of my imaginations because I was skeptical of the idea of learning a new language (there were days when I laughed at the Korean language and how the actors/actresses look, never imagined it would be part of myself in the future).

Surprisingly, the moment I learned about GKS, I decided to give it a go. I did calculations on time and energy that I had (I was working at the time) and knew that I could afford only one scholarship application at the time. So I wrapped up my research on other countries and scholarship programs and spent the rest of the year preparing for GKS applications, which means that I literally gave my all to my first scholarship journey. As a person who was spoiled by her parents and never had experience in scholarship application before, it was quite overwhelming. But, I tried hard to prepare everything myself despite their disapproval. It was actually my way to show them as well as God that I could do it and I would make it (what a confidence. Lol).

I sent my application to the Korean Embassy in Jakarta as I applied via Embassy Track. I learned that the competition on the first round through this track was not a joke, but I simply preferred having three university choices rather than one and I didn’t want to take the risk of having my documents lost on the way (that’s odd, I know, but I’m always more on the safe side). Thank God, I got the interview call and then had my documents sent to Korea after passing the interview process. The next round was having my documents screened by the Korean National Institute for International Education (NIIED) in Korea and once I passed this process, I had to wait for the email from my chosen universities, whether they wanted to do another interview or directly announced their decision. At this round, a lot of awardees say that you’ve already taken your first step in Korea and there will be at least one university that will accept you. The saying was such a tranquilizer for me that I even started to make my packing list (I’m not always this confident, seriously).

I got the first email from Kyungpook National University which was interested in my application and sent me a written interview. While undergoing the university selection process, applicants have to submit the medical check-up form. And it was around that time when things started to go downhill. It should be easy if you have no history of having any acute diseases. I was not a healthy kid myself so I was quite worried that something off would unveil. It turned out that the underlooked mental health checklist was the one that got in my way. I took my medical check-up in a nearby hospital which happened to be a mental hospital where the doctor couldn’t simply sign my form without doing all the tests including the mental one. So, I had to take a written test to get the psychiatrist's signature, which unfortunately turned out that she didn’t want to give.

It was probably the wrong time to take the test. I was tired and drained out after taking several tests in a day. But, I know the result wouldn’t turn out differently had I done it on another day. So, I had to respond either yes or no to 300 questions. I guess the test basically tries to reveal your mental state (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression) through your fears and your response to stressful situations. Unfortunately, my result didn’t come out well. As silly as it sounds, I couldn’t hold back my tears in the counseling room when the psychiatrist showed me the result and told the story of people with similar cases to me and what happened to them. I sobbed not because she couldn’t give her recommendation, but because finally came the day when someone put my condition into words. It might sound like I was being judged and the way she frankly explained it to me was also unpleasant, but nothing was wrong with what she said which made me feel even worse.

You might think I could’ve just taken the test again in another hospital. But, I couldn’t let my money go down the drain, and asking for my parents’ money was not part of the plan. Plus, I had no ample time to do it all over again and get the results on time. More than anything, I started to doubt my decision to study abroad. I knew that the fear of living away from my parents and not being able to handle things independently had always been there all along (I don’t know if anyone at my age could relate). Not only one person pointed it out, but I kept on denying it. So, when it was brought to the surface, especially by a professional, it was painful to the point that I considered withdrawing because I couldn't even trust myself to take a risk.

Surprise-surprise, only a few days after the medical check-up I received the acceptance email from Kyungpook National University. I took it as a yes from God. I had come that far and I wouldn't trade my spot for some future events no one ever knew would really happen. So, with as much courage as I had, I took the mental health test again suggested by the kind nurse who listened to me crying in the counseling room, answered the same questions differently, and managed to receive the psychiatrist's signature to complete my medical form. Later, I got acceptance notifications from Pusan National University and Seoul National University as well, and I ended up choosing the latter for my graduate school in Korea.

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Preparing for GKS applications and undergoing the selection process for months have taught me the pain of waiting and struggling. At one point, it showed me that I could push my boundaries and instead of jumping out of my comfort zone, I tried to widen it and made things that were used to be hard become part of myself. With the permission of God, I could turn myself into such an overconfident head by asking for prayers from people I know (in case my family’s prayers were not strong enough to persuade God. Lol). At another point, I was awakened to things I have been feared to deal with although I know I eventually have to. Confronting my fears wasn’t always pleasant nor that it affected me positively and became part of my comfort zone, but I did my share by trying to face it. At the end of the day, I learned Ikhlas and literally let God do the rest and decide for me. While waiting for the announcement I pictured the day I was rejected, hoping that it would ease the pain later. I also told myself a hundred times that everything would be okay even if I failed as long as the sun still rises; I would cry my eyes out for days, receive comforting words halfheartedly, and wake up one day feeling okay again. 

My journey to be part of GKS came to a beautiful end as I flew to Korea in August 2016 and started the real struggle for 3 years. Some of what the psychiatrist said back then about people with similar cases like me did happen to me too, but I finished it differently. It was a tough year and only God’s mercy and the people I spent my time with in Korea helped me to stay sane and get through it.