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Yonsei  /  Essays  /  Prompt 1

Yonsei: Motivation for Application

180 words or less

Please explain your reason for applying to Yonsei University and the department/major. (180 words or less)
What it’s really asking

Why this specific department at Yonsei, and why you. In under 180 words you must name a concrete reason tied to the actual program, not a general affection for Korea or for studying abroad.

Why they ask it

This is the shortest section and the easiest to waste. Yonsei wants to see that you researched the major, understand what makes it distinctive, and have already started moving toward it. It sets up the longer Personal Development section as evidence.

Three ways in
Anchor to a real feature of the program

Name one specific course, track, lab, or faculty research area in the department and tie it to something you have already done.

Lead with a question you care about

Identify a problem or question that grips you and show how this exact program is built to let you pursue it.

Let the why follow the what

Connect a concrete achievement or project of yours directly to the major, so your motivation reads as earned, not stated.

✕  Weak opening

“Ever since I was a child, I have dreamed of studying in Korea at a world-class university like Yonsei.”

✓  Strong opening

“I want to study Yonsei's Economics major because the questions I kept hitting in my school's investment club, why prices move before news breaks, sit exactly where its behavioral and quantitative tracks meet.”

✦ Annotated example · Underwood International College, Economics. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
My grandmother ran a small fabric stall in Tashkent for thirty years, and her ledger was a notebook full of debts she never collected from neighbors who could not pay. 1That contradiction, generosity that should have bankrupted her but somehow did not, is the question that pulled me toward economics. 2I want to study how informal trust networks function as real economic institutions in markets where formal credit barely reaches. 3I am applying specifically to Underwood International College because its economics track is taught entirely in English alongside Korean and international peers, which lets me test these ideas in a setting where two market traditions meet daily. 4Professor research on development finance in East Asia, and the Songdo campus links to global firms, would let me move from my grandmother's notebook to formal models. 5I do not just want a degree in economics. I want Yonsei's particular meeting point of cultures to be my classroom.6
  1. 1Opens with a concrete, sensory image rather than a thesis statement. Admissions readers see hundreds of "I have always loved economics" openings; a fabric stall in Tashkent is unforgettable and signals a real personal root for the academic interest.
  2. 2Names the intellectual question directly. Yonsei rewards "a real, specific reason," so the essay frames the major as the answer to a puzzle the applicant genuinely cares about, not a resume line.
  3. 3Shows a precise research interest, not a vague field. This demonstrates the applicant has thought about WHAT within economics, which reads as intellectual maturity.
  4. 4This is the load-bearing sentence: it ties the choice to a named, verifiable feature of THIS department (UIC, English-taught, international cohort). It answers why Yonsei and not any economics program.
  5. 5Gestures at faculty and the specific Songdo campus, proving the applicant did real homework on the department rather than the brand name.
  6. 6Closes by returning to the cross-cultural angle Yonsei explicitly rewards, and circles back to the opening image, giving the short piece a clean frame at roughly the full word count.
Stuck? Start here
  • Which exact course, track, or faculty interest in this department could I name, and could I describe it in one sentence to a friend?
  • What is the single most concrete thing I have already done that points at this major?
  • If I deleted the words Korea and Yonsei, would my motivation still sound specific, or generic?
Before you submit
  • I named the specific department or major and at least one concrete feature of it.
  • I tied my motivation to something I have actually done, not just felt.
  • I stayed under 180 words and cut every sentence about childhood dreams.

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