In the Science High School Dokyun attended, every single student ranked 1st to 10th in his graduating year went to medical school.
He briefly considered dental school and even thought about retaking the CSAT (Suneung) after graduation, but he ultimately chose UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology).
After finishing undergrad, he naturally followed the path of a researcher and entered grad school. He started because he loved studying, but the journey was far from easy.
Just like any other grad student, the poor treatment and low stipends weighed heavily on him.
He said, 'Master's and PhD stipends are usually around 1.3 million KRW ($950) and 1.7 million KRW ($1,250) respectively, and our lab is actually on the better side.'
Whenever he met friends who had landed jobs and settled down, he often complained, 'I'm not even living like a human being.'
Many of his colleagues couldn't endure the conditions and ended up packing their bags and leaving the lab.
He mentioned, 'Out of 100 Master's students, only about 20 stay to finish their PhD.'
"Users are debating the massive brain drain of top students into medical school, noting that even with genius-level doctors, the system is flawed because everyone just chases the 'money-making' specialties while grad students in STEM are treated like dirt."
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