By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
It's not the huge number of applicants that captures the zeal of Korea's college fever, but the handful of extraordinary cases among them. About 660,000 high school seniors and repeat applicants are expected to take the state-administered College Scholastic Ability Test this year ― a key preliminary step toward entering college.
One such case is Cho Jae-gu. The 77-year-old grandmother is the eldest person to take the test in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province this year and said she is more than happy to take it.
"I feel like I'm 19 again. I can't believe that I am able to study and dream again," she said.
Cho was brought up in a wealthy family but her conservative father did not allow her to go to middle school, telling her, "Well-taught women are just a headache to the family." This was a typical attitude at a time when sons were cherished but daughters ignored.
Cho has bided her time for six long decades.
During that waiting period, Cho got married, had five children - now all married - and buried her husband.
In 2006, she entered Ilseong Women's Middle and High school, a government-authorized facility for uneducated adult women. It took her four hours to commute to and from school, but Cho said it was a pleasure.
"It was a challenge to get to school by 9 o'clock every morning and sit at my desk. The joy and sense of achievement I had the first time I was able to read English and Chinese characters on billboards has driven me this far," she said.
Taking Thursday's test will almost complete Cho's long, meandering journey to college.
She has been offered the chance to study at the Kyungin Women's College as a Japanese-language major. When she submits her CSAT test to the school, her enrollment will be confirmed.
When she sets foot on the campus next year, she will be making a big stride over the "education divide."
In Korea, 83.3 percent of Korean high school students go to college.