By Cloe Kim
Many Korean American youths and young adults have been greatly challenged and pushed to attend high educational institutions by their parents. Their parents have already decided their children’s majors such as Biology, Business, and Law that will make them become lawyers, medical doctors, dentists, judges, or surgeons. Some Korean American parents believe that these careers are the only secure and successful paths for their children. However, even though Korean American youths get into higher academic institutions such as IVY leagues or top rated universities, these Korean American students have high dropout rates and go through an identity crisis or they suffer from depression.
In the Korean American community in Los Angeles, education is the main key factor for a successful career path for a child, and some Korean Americans tend to respect high educational degrees over money. Since Korea is overpopulated within the small size of the land, there is a lack of natural resources thus human power (education) is the only source that guarantees a secure career path for the individual. As Koreans already value higher education in Korea, their perceptions do not change when they immigrate to the USA. Over valuing higher education is much more severe in the Korean American community. Korean American immigrants suffer and sacrifice for their family and while struggling with culture shock, economic challenges, language barriers, separation of family members, and immigration status, Korean American parents highly emphasize and prioritize their children getting into higher educational institutions over all other interests. These parents believe that once these children get into higher educational institutions, the task of parents are all accomplished, and these children will have high satisfaction with their lives. However, as many parents sacrifice their time and money to prepare their children to be accepted to high educational institutions such as IVY Leagues or UCs there are many negative outcomes that follow: high competition to get into high academic standard schools among Korean students, financial burden for college preparation such as private tutoring and SAT preparation academies, family conflicts due to the separation of the family income provider and the caregiver, Korean American students’ lack of gaining independence from parents, lack of finding talents and interests of their own, and Korean American students have a high dropout rate at IVY leagues or other high academic institutions. According to Samuel Kim (2008) Korean American students’ IVY League school dropout rate is 44% and it’s 10% higher than average American students’ dropout rate (Kim, 2008). Although these Korean Americans are challenged and pushed to do extra curricular activities such as a piano, tennis, art, and golf, in order to get into high academic institution, they cannot keep up with the school work. Some Korean American students lack creativity and motivation to finish their education, and they have difficulty gaining independence from their parents. Moreover, even though they graduate from the IVY Leagues or UCs, they get a job that does not relate to their majors or are currently unemployed. These Korean American students are lost because they have not set any long term goals and they do not know their true identity, their talents and interests.
Reference
Kim, Samuel. (2008). First and Second Generation Conflict in Education of the Asian American Community, Columbia University. NY.
