I am one of ten thousand lucky students who have transferred as third-year students to universities in Korea this year. When the figure is amalgamated, it might appear as though it is huge. However, the competition ratio averages 15~20 to 1. Students had to beat the competition which is 70 to 1 in the case of the Business Administration. The competition ratio depends on the location and the prestige of a university and the major you apply for. Nowadays, the competition is bigger in the area that students perceive as having a high probability of employment. Universities were forced to cut down the number of transfer students that used to be around 54,000 in 2005 to 40,000 in 2007, and the number of transfer exams offered have been reduced from twice a year to once a year. Considering these facts, one might wonder what this situation spells out about the future education of Korea and the effect it will have on prospective transfer students.
       

 Anguished and outraged students protested when the Ministry Of Education announced their plan to drastically cut down on the number of transfer students admitted starting in 2006. Amongst other measures, these are initial plans to phase out the practice entirely. We need to take a look at a couple of four-year American universities. Harvard announced this year that it will reduce by 50 percent the number of transfer students accepted into its 2007 university year in an effort to accommodate larger freshman classes. Harvard accepted 8.8% of its applicants in 2006. The rate for Yale has traditionally been lower than other schools with the acceptance rate of 3.7%, which is actually an increase from the year before. Other universities in the United States tell the same story. With the increasing number of applications and the decreased number of acceptance offers, the trend for ever tougher competition for transfer seems to be the case here, too.  
       

Given the harsh reality transferring, why do so many students continue to try to transfer and what affects their decision to do so? It can vary from the desire to get a degree from a more prestigious universities or degrees with a better employment outlook and hence better opportunities in the job market to dissatisfaction with their current schools regarding choices of courses, facilities, and extracurricular activities offered. In Korea, nevertheless, the former seems to be the more dominant reason for students' ultimate decision to transfer, which has resulted in a large concentration of transfer applications in the Seoul region and for the majors in areas such as medicine, business, law and education. 
       

 Government's effort to restrict transfers in the Seoul region has not been successful. It only  brings about the increased number of students taking a semester or a year off to prepare exams for transfer. With current economic conditions, a similar situation has happened with the Government Agency. People, who desire secure and respectable jobs, keep applying for government agency. and in some extreme cases until they are in their 40s. The statistics show the majority of people will not succeed in their pursuits. 
       

This article, by no means, intends to scare away or discourage anyone from wanting to transfer or apply for government jobs but instead is written to give the readers a heads up before making the right choices. By the way, I am liberal arts major and yes I also want to become a school teacher one day obviously not without the same concerns raised by most other teacher wannabes. Boy do I want to be a teacher! As the saying goes, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket," I want to leave my options open.