There are many reasons to enroll at UNIST, but above all, its beautiful campus is the first one. Centered around the natural pond Gamakmot, the school is decorated with the romantic lawn, roadside trees, and surrounding mountain whose colors change every season. When I look at the campus while studying during exams, I sometimes think that it resembles a beautiful painting. Among them, I’d like to talk about Gamakmot Trail, which has been newly established, and a favorite of UNIST students, and the UNIPLEX, a cultural complex of the Academic Library.
Gamakmot Trail offers visitors its splendid landscape with sculptures and colorful benches, making it ideal for taking a stroll. In particular, its night view is fantastic. If you sit on a bench on the trail and look around, you can enjoy the lights glistening off the water, the trail’s street lighting, and starry night sky. The UNIPLEX on the first floor of the Academic Library consists of various resting areas such as a café and a space for humanities books. What makes this place special is that it’s open to the public. I hope that if you visit UNIST, do not miss UNIPLEX to stop by!
14th UNI student Lee Yeon-ji
(School of New UNISTars – Class of ‘22)
14th UNI student Son Soo-yeon
(School of New UNISTars – Class of ‘22)
UNIST has clubs with lots of characteristics attributed to diverse students from around the country. Some students join a music club including orchestral music, band music, dance, and other genres depending on their talents and interests and offer busking performances at lunchtime inside the campus, showing off their talents. Some students who are interested in studies join an academic club in their chosen fields, such as life science, chemistry, mathematics, physics, astronomical observation, and humanities. There are clubs related to information security, robots, and automobiles, and students can choose a club according to their interest.
What’s more, the university fields a cheer squad, in support of UNISTAR’s dream, and a theater club that brings a smile to fellow students. Besides, certain clubs are customized for students’ various activities such as stocks, sports, voluntary works, and general arts. With so many different clubs available to choose from, each club member leads an active and lively campus life by preparing for regular performances and various projects.
UNIST offers many scholarship benefits to both freshmen and other enrolled students. UNIST provides diverse scholarship programs to nurture creative science and technology global leaders who will pioneer the future. Its scholarships include a state scholarship to cultivate science and technology talents, a school scholarship funded with budgets secured through patent applications, a life scholarship to help students with dormitory fees and textbook costs, and external scholarships funded with donations and sponsorships. In particular, many students benefit from an academic scholarship based on academic merits.
The school offers full tuition waivers for students with a GPA (grade point average) of 2.7 or higher out of 4.3, and half tuition waiver for students with a GPA of 2.0 or higher from the sophomore year, while also offering full tuition waiver for students with a GPA of 2.0 or higher during freshman year. Furthermore, all students will receive a monthly stipend of KRW 130,000 on the 10th for four months during the semester for their expenses. UNIST scholarships allow students to focus on their studies and research without financial worries.
14th UNI student Kim Ye-rim
(School of New UNISTars – Class of ‘22)
14th UNI student Kim Min-seo
(School of New UNISTars – Class of ‘22)
The biggest reason to enroll at UNIST in my opinion is that students can choose their major freely. When students enroll at UNIST, all freshmen will spend their first year at the School of New UNISTars. During this first year, students take various basic subject courses to discover their interests and aptitude and think about their career. In this process, the school offers students opportunities to speak to their professors and join interesting programs such as “Chemistry and Restaurant” and “Rather Bio than Rice,” in order to help students decide on their major. In fact, I have seen many cases of students around me after spending a year at the School of New UNISTars who choose a different major from what they originally had in mind when entering the university. I also changed my chosen major from Computer Science and Engineering to Electrical Engineering through the school’s various programs and conversation with senior students.
In addition, even if you chose a major after thinking a lot in your freshman year, it is often different from what you expected when you actually take courses in the major of the department. That’s why UNIST’s free transfer system, which allows students to change their major with just a few clicks, even after having chosen it, relieves students’ burden of having to make a major decision, and provides various educational opportunities.
One of the strengths of UNIST is that it offers students many opportunities to think about their career and gain first-hand job experience in related fields. First of all, you can freely secure a lab internship during the undergraduate period. If you have a desired lab to work in, you can freely contact a professor and experience the lab as an intern. However, if you find internship life difficult to cope with, you can also participate in different undergraduate research programs run by the university, such as UIRP, AICP, BTS, etc. These programs have the merit of forming a team with your friends to apply for a program, and you can directly start studying and researching the field domain of interest from the undergraduate level.
In addition to lab internships, the school actively supports students’ startup programs such as the “Maritime Logistics & Services Start-up Audition”. Moreover, in 2023, the construction of the Industry-Academic Cooperation Building for startups is slated to be completed. Besides, there is the COOP program where students can experience internship at a real company. Based on the above, UNIST ensures a great environment for undergraduate students to design and think about their career.
13th UNI student Lee Hyeon-gyu
(Energy and Chemical Engineering – Class of ‘21)
