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A recent row in the home of a doctor at a large university hospital began when he demanded where the W100 million he earned in the past two years had got to (US$1=W950). His wife, it turned out, had handed over the money to a study-abroad agency in Gangnam, Seoul, to send her 15-year-old daughter to the U.S. ¡°Money meant nothing if I could only send my daughter to a prestigious private boarding school in America,¡± she says. The agency promised her to make sure the daughter¡¯s TOEFL and SSAT scores would rise so she would be accepted by the school. Aside from taking care of the paperwork, the agency offers TOEFL, SAT and SSAT tutorials on the side, making it a kind of glorified crammer. But the daughter still ended up in a regular private school as she fell far short of the agency¡¯s target: a score of 110 or more for TOEFL iBT (the perfect score is 120), and a rank in the top 10 percent on the SSAT.
There are plenty of these ¡°complete study abroad consultation¡± agencies, promising to take charge from preparation, to application, essay, interview prep, and even taking care of students¡¯ grades and wellbeing after they enter schools overseas. Previously, study-overseas consulting targeted college applicants who wanted coaching on their SATs. Now, even elementary and junior high students are taking SAT lectures spurred by the early study abroad boom in Korea.
The agency mentioned above and another in Yongsan district take in only a handful of top-notch customers. They offer TOEFL, SSAT and SAT coaching to elementary and junior high students under the title ¡°Total Management Program.¡± They don¡¯t give consultation to just anybody: you have to introduced by existing high-so customers. And most of the children of Korea¡¯s conglomerate-owning families have gone through one of these agencies.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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