Well I'm not going to explain GKS in detail, so if you need a further official information, please kindly check NIIED webpage. As far as I know, this scholarship also provides some sort of funding for master and doctoral degree.
This scholarship is famous (at least among us, UI student) as it is issued by Korea's Ministry of Education. They kindly offers you a monthly stipends (₩500,000/month), settlement fee (₩200,000), insurance coverage (₩80,000), and two-round flight ticket from your home country to Korea. Pretty attractive, right?
Before getting too much hype, make sure that your Korean university (destination school) listed in GKS/KGSP grantee. I think I got this information from NIIED's official webpage so maybe you can re-check it. Only top-20 universities in Korea got the chance to be selected.
After that, in my case, you need to pass two different selection process. The first process conducted in your home university, the later will took place in Korea.
My home university only recommend one student per destination. For instance, UI delegating two exchange students in SNU and two exchange students in Ajou, but only one student in SNU and one student in Ajou had the chance to apply. Well, UI also gave some sort of scholarship if you happened to fail this GKS, but we have to deal with their bureaucracy- so I still believe that GKS is the best option. This university recommendation is important since students can not apply for GKS by themselves.
Then, you have to submit the required documents within the deadline. This one is pretty harsh since they only gave you 1-2 days until the due. This documents consist of student transcript, self-introduction essay and study-plan essay. In Korea, they have a 4.5 maximum GPA index, so if your country adopt a different regime, you have to convert your grade. As for study plan, you only need to explain which subject are you going to take in Korea, and why. Make sure to check the university's syllabi before writing this essay. GKS awardee also required to take at least one subject focused in Korean development, so make sure that you put this course in your study arrangement. I'll suggest you to, at least, prepare your essay's outline directly after you are choosen as an exchange delegate because you don't have much time between GKS notification and submission deadline.
After that, Korean government & university will proceed your application. I'm not sure about the government's criteria of selection. As far as I know, they only choose 5 awardee per university. In Ajou University Spring 2016, along with me, there also a student from Finland, Germany, USA, and France.
The selection process will take more than a month; definitely leaving me hanging. I just got the acceptance news about two weeks before my flight. Some students got the announcement right before their departure to Korea.
If you need references for GKS essays don't hesitate to e-mail me through risti.hayu@gmail.com. I hope it helped. Good luck!
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