Jung Yoon-bum
Freshman, Faculty of Law
yoonbum@hanmail.net

Some thoughts of one freshman

Hi! Everyone. I am a freshman majoring in law at the University of Seoul. Before I start, I’d like to emphasize that what I think about my university is just my personal opinion. So in this piece, I will talk about my university based on my experience.

Like most the new UOS students, I did not have any information about my university at all. Actually, I found out my school just two days before applying. It is a heart-breaking thing to admit that most people also do not seem to know about my university.

For me, the question, ¡°which university do you go?¡±, is one of the hardest things to answer. Because when I answer to it, people usually say things like, ¡°Oh! You are a good student, then where is your university located?¡± or ¡°Is not that Seoul National University of Technology?¡± Recently I found out that our school was once called SNUT.

But sometimes (even though it’s really rare to hear) my university is highly regarded by people who know my school well. Except for my school not being well known, I do like my university. The proverb, ¡°Every cloud has its silver lining.¡± gives me lots of chances to see the good points of my university. First of all, I like the landscape architecture of my campus.

Compared to my ex-university which has ¡®K’ as its first initial of the name (I’ll give you some hints, it’s not Korea University and it’s located in Seong-buk.) my present university is almost flat. As K University has very steep slopes (There was no way of avoiding the hills), when I came back home all I could do was just going to bed. Going to school itself was great exercise.

Second, the concentration and participation of my classmates at the UOS during lessons are very impressive. Though it’s a shame to compare my present university with my ex-university again, my classmates at my old university were terrible when they were taking lectures. It was easy to see students using their cell phone, regardless of the professor and they took it for granted that they could sleep during the class.

Lastly, the students of the UOS are wearing bright and fashionable colors, which shocks me. When I came to see my classmates in the UOS, my prejudice against the students who major in law has greatly changed. (In particular, girls have a better clothes sense than guys.)
And as a conclusion, I will write about what we should do to make UOS better.

First of all, we should select some students through tests and make them be the members of the UOS promotion project. If we select enough students then we can send them to nearby high schools every other Saturday.

It is very simple that promoters should do. Just let high school students know that the UOS has many good graduates and emphasize the UOS’ scholarships are all that they have to do. Through this activity we will give a good image to the high school students. This might not be enough because of the UOS’ ¡®rustic’ image. So if we invest in promoters’ clothing and hair-dos properly, this will change the image of the UOS greatly.

What I am saying may seem unrealistic but I want readers to read this with a sense of fun. At the same time, however, I hope many students think about it sincerely.

After the entrance exam students collect information in preparing for their application to the university.

We would sigh when we see other schools make every effort to advertise their school. Some say we will keep this low public profile as long as we stay a municipal university. Other schools do their best to appeal to high school students. Ewha Womans University sponsors yebidaehak (preparation university) and Kyung Hee University invites high school students to billet with its students at Kyung Hee University’s dormitory.

Konkuk University also invites high school students, explains to them about their university, and it presents a dancing performance by one of Konkuk University’s clubs. Korea University and Sungkyunkwan University hold competitions for high school students. Don’t you think we have to do something than sighing in this situation? Do you think becoming a private college is the only way to escape all problems? Nonsense!

We can do public information activities by ourselves. If we are out of school, we can advertise our school. Then our school, the Great UOS, is not a far away dream. It can be come true. It is time for us to start! We can make a better university by ourselves!
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