Woosong University: No Seat Cap for International Applicants

International applicants aren't measured against a published acceptance rate or a department seat cap at Woosong University: they clear, or don't, a 70-out-of-100 combined interview-and-document score, and the seat quotas that cap each domestic department (2 to 12 places) are explicitly waived for anyone applying from outside Korea.

• Admission: a 70-of-100 interview-and-document score decides entry, and domestic department quotas do not apply to international applicants.
• Tuition: from $3,840/year (the online-first IDegree track) to $28,164/year (the AACSB-accredited MBA).
• Next deadline: July 31, 2026 for applicants already resident in Korea, for the Fall 2026 intake starting September 1; the outside-Korea window for the same intake closed July 10, 2026.
• Language: every catalogued program is taught in English, spanning business, AI, culinary arts, hospitality and design.
• Ranking: Times Higher Education 2026 places Woosong in the 1201-1500 global band and #1 in South Korea for International Outlook for a second consecutive year.

The university sits in Daejeon, a city of roughly 1.5 million people, and enrolls about 13,000 students across 802 full-time faculty, 246 of them foreign nationals. Its international body is drawn from 60 different nationalities, concentrated in English-track colleges such as SolBridge International School of Business, whose AACSB-accredited MBA alone counts students from 79 nationalities.

Apply here if a score-based interview process suits you better than a numbers-only cutoff, and if a fully English-taught degree at a mid-tier Korean university — rather than a flagship SNU- or KAIST-tier name — fits your plans. Business, culinary arts, hospitality, AI and design run the widest spread of programs; the $50 (bachelor/master) or $70 (PhD) application fee is non-refundable, so it's worth confirming eligibility before filing.

The tightest constraint isn't the interview score but the paperwork behind it: a bank balance statement and apostilled academic records, both of which take weeks to arrange from overseas and are worth starting before the interview is even scheduled.

Tuition by level (2026 academic year)

One-off and annual extras

Last verified July 20, 2026, against Woosong's own Tuition & Fees page.

All fees are capped at a maximum 5% year-to-year increase, so a quoted first-year figure is a reasonable guide to what later years will cost. The AACSB MBA sits well above every other program on the list — at $28,164/year it costs roughly four times the cheapest master's track, Global and Human Studies at $7,014. Bachelor's tuition spreads more evenly, from $3,840 for the online-first IDegree track's first four semesters up to $12,592 for the AACSB Business Administration degree, with most other bachelor's programs sitting well below that ceiling.

Health cover changes partway through a student's stay: university-arranged insurance covers roughly the first six months at $100/year (undergrad) or $110/year (grad) on the tuition invoice, after which enrollment in Korean National Health Insurance becomes mandatory at roughly $600/year. Payment can be made at a KEB Hana Bank branch, by virtual-account transfer from any bank, or by overseas remittance to the university's account — the remittance note must carry the student's name and application number.

South Korea draws no EU/EEA-versus-everyone-else line here: the tuition schedule and the D-2/D-4 visa track apply identically to every non-Korean nationality. The one nationality-specific rule on file is procedural rather than financial — Chinese citizens applying to the Korean track file a paper application instead of the online form.

International students live in one of two dedicated dormitories: the International Dormitory on West Campus (undergraduate, double rooms, on-site gym and cafeteria) or Sol-Geo on East Campus, which encourages mixed-nationality roommates in the first year and adds a library, dance studio and two cafeterias to 2–4 person rooms. The official Room & Board line item is $2,352/year for one meal a day (extra meals $4 each), or $340/semester for a summer or winter intersession stay.

The international body spans 60 nationalities campus-wide, concentrated further in tracks like the SolBridge MBA, whose cohort alone draws from 79 nationalities — itself taught by faculty from 15 countries. Students who'd rather live off campus go through roughly five foreign-language-capable real estate agencies coordinated by the university's International Student Support Team; the local convention is a deposit plus monthly rent, with a customary 10% down payment to hold a unit, arranged in the Korean lease style rather than the pay-monthly system many international students expect from home.

Part-time work is capped at 20 hours a week for bachelor's and language-track students, or 30 hours a week for master's and PhD students, with extra hours possible for a TOPIK Level 5+ score or an 'A' grade the previous semester. No work is allowed during a student's first semester, and both the university's international office and the Korean Immigration Office have to approve it before anyone starts.

Daejeon, South Korea's fifth-largest city at roughly 1.5 million people, puts Daejeon Station — on the KTX high-speed line — a 20-minute walk from campus, with the Daejeon Complex Bus Terminal another 20–30 minutes out.

The clearest outcomes signal Woosong publishes is accreditation, not a placement statistic: both the Business Administration bachelor's degree and the MBA carry AACSB accreditation through SolBridge International School of Business, the credential employers in international business recognize regardless of where a graduate ends up working. That accreditation puts the business track on a different footing from the rest of the English-taught catalog, where no equivalent professional accreditation is cited.

Graduate students can also earn while studying without touching their work-hour cap: the Graduate School's in-school work-scholarship program pays for on-campus assistant and research roles, and because that work is credit-linked coursework rather than outside employment, it needs no separate Immigration Office application. The same logic covers library jobs, teaching-assistant roles, and curriculum-linked research or internships — all exempt from the work-permit process that applies to outside part-time jobs, which does require dual approval from the university and Immigration Office before it starts.

On the visa side, a D-2 (degree) registration runs up to two years per issuance, cycling through D-2-1 for associate study up to D-2-4 for PhD study, with D-2-7 covering research students. Once that period or the degree itself runs out, the standard route is a status-change application filed at the local Immigration Office rather than a fresh visa application submitted from outside the country entirely — a distinction worth knowing well before a first D-2 registration nears its renewal date.

Every non-Korean nationality goes through the same visa system — Korea draws no EU/EEA-versus-everyone-else line the way European destinations do. Degree students hold a D-2 visa (D-2-1 associate, D-2-2 bachelor, D-2-3 master's, D-2-4 PhD); non-degree and language-track students hold a D-4. The one nationality-specific rule on file is procedural: Chinese citizens applying to the Korean track submit a paper application rather than the online form.

Visa application fees run about $40 for a single-entry visa valid 90 days or less, $60 for one valid longer than 90 days, $70 for a double-entry visa, or $90 for an unlimited-entry visa. Financial proof for the visa itself is the same bank balance statement used at admission: at least $16,000 in the applicant's or a parent's name, or in the applicant's own Korean account if already resident.

After arriving, an Alien Registration Card is required within 90 days; filing costs 30,000 KRW individually or 40,000 KRW through the university's batch application service, which trades a small fee premium for the university handling the paperwork, and takes about 2–3 weeks to process either way. Any change of residential address afterward has to be reported within 14 days, a rule that catches students who move between the dormitory and an off-campus lease mid-year.

Part-time work needs approval from both the university's international office and the Immigration Office before it starts — up to 20 hours a week for bachelor's and language-track students, or 30 for master's and PhD students, with none allowed in the first semester. Working without that dual approval risks fines starting at 1,000,000 KRW, plus visa cancellation or deportation for a repeat offense. Health cover starts with university-arranged insurance (about $100–110/year on the tuition invoice) for roughly the first six months, after which enrollment in Korean National Health Insurance becomes mandatory at around $600/year.