What Nobody Tells You About the GKS Application

I have always been drawn to the idea that there is so much world left to discover. Different cultures, different ways of thinking, different ways of building things — it genuinely excites me. So when I started thinking about where to do my master’s degree, I wasn’t just looking for a good university. I was looking for a place that would stretch me.

Korea kept coming up.

Not just because of the dramas or the food (though, yes, also that). What really caught my attention was the intersection of culture and technology. Korea is a country that moves fast, builds fast, and thinks differently — and that energy felt like exactly the kind of environment I wanted to be in. When I found the GKS scholarship, it felt less like a coincidence and more like the pieces clicking into place.

Then I actually read the requirements, and reality hit.

Embassy vs. University Track: What Nobody Explains Clearly

There are two ways to apply for the GKS, and most people don’t fully explain the difference — so let me.

The embassy track means you apply through the Korean embassy in your country. You submit your application to up to three universities, which sounds like more chances, but it also means more money (three sets of documents, printed and prepared separately for each school) and your essays have to be written broadly enough to work for all three schools. It’s a balancing act that can make your application feel generic.

The university track means you apply directly to one specific university. One application. One set of essays. And because you’re writing for a single program, a single lab, a single professor — you can actually be specific. You can say exactly why that department, that research focus, that university.

I chose the university track, and I genuinely think it was the right call for me. The ability to tailor everything to one place made the application feel more honest. The downside? You have to ship your physical documents internationally — straight to Korea — which costs more than dropping them off at a local embassy. Worth it, in my opinion. But worth budgeting for.

I applied to Jeonbuk National University, Healthcare Engineering department. And I have zero regrets about that choice.

The 80 Universities Problem

Here’s what nobody warns you about: there are roughly 80 universities participating in the GKS program. Eighty. And to make a good decision, you can’t just pick one you’ve heard of. You have to look at departments, research labs, active professors, ongoing projects, publication records.

I spent weeks just on this part. Spreadsheets, tabs open everywhere, notes that didn’t make sense the next morning. It’s a lot of information, and there’s no shortcut. But when you finally find the lab that aligns with what you actually want to research — that moment makes the chaos worth it.

To make this easier, I built a tool that lets you search and filter programs based on the official folders uploaded by NIIED — the same information, just actually organized. If you’re in the research phase, I hope it saves you some of the chaos it saved me.

✦   Resource GKS University Search Tool Search and filter all 80+ GKS programs by department, research area, and more — based on the official NIIED folders, actually organized. unisgks.vercel.app →

Eight Months of Rewriting Essays

I need to be honest with you: the essays almost broke me.

Not because they were impossible, but because they mattered so much. The personal statement, the study plan — these aren’t things you write once and submit. I rewrote mine over and over for about eight months. Each version felt closer, and then I’d read it again and see everything that was missing.

What I didn’t expect was that the process of rewriting taught me things. About what I actually wanted to research. About how to articulate ideas I had always felt but never put into words. By the end, the essays were genuinely mine — not a polished version of what I thought they wanted to hear, but an honest reflection of where I was going and why.

That said: start early. Give yourself more time than you think you need, and then add three more months.

The Part That Surprised Me Most

When I first looked at the application, I was terrified. The requirements list alone felt overwhelming. But once I actually sat down and started — one document at a time, one section at a time — it became manageable. Not easy. But manageable.

The scariest part turned out to be the beginning. After that, it was just work.

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Right now, I’m waiting to hear if I move on to the interview stage. The uncertainty is its own kind of challenge — but that’s a post for another day.

If you’re thinking about applying, or you’re somewhere in the middle of the process: you can do this. It’s a lot, and it’s slow, and some days it feels like it’s going nowhere. But it’s worth doing carefully.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comments. I’m happy to share more about any part of the process.