Quick Tour of KAIST

view from 어은동산 (Eoeundong Mountain) on campus | lower right corner is duck pond

KAIST has a really big campus, composed of West, North and East sections. Most of the classrooms are in the North and East section. The West side is mostly dorms. There are cafes scattered throughout with a cafeteria in each section. My home university's campus is probably the size of the West area of KAIST (which is quite sad).

from KAIST ISSS

It takes about 20 minutes by walking from my dorm to the main gate. The campus is filled with greenery and hills. Majority of the students travel around with bikes (most common), electric scooters (good amount), motorbikes (good amount), cars (rare, mostly taxis) and KAIST shuttles/buses. I would definitely recommend purchasing a used bike if you are here for only a semester. Bikes are very convenient since there are areas to park them in front of every building and there are many bike lanes.

bike parking in front of dorm

Some pictures of campus (basically looks the same everywhere) buildings and trees.

view from 어은동산 (Eoeundong Mountain)

unripe persimmon (many of these around campus)

dried up grape vine

roof view of Sports Complex (left) and peering over soccer field

panorama shot from 어은동산 (Eoeundong Mountain)

Industrial Design building has Spun Chairs (designed by Thomas Heatherwick)!

There is a duck pond where ducks, cranes and geese roam around. You'll also see a lot of magpies (my first time seeing them) which is the national bird of Korea. You'll also see many cats around campus because KAIST takes care of them.

I live in a dorm which was arranged by KAIST. The halls are all gender specific. It is very inexpensive especially from living in private school dorms in the US. My dorm costs 660,000 KRW for the whole semester (~4 months). The rooms are shared with one other person. There is a small room with a toilet, another with a shower, and one more with a sink in each room. There is a card reader thing near the entrance where you must insert your ID card for the electricity to work. I made the mistake of charging my laptop while I left the room for half a day only to come back to an uncharged laptop.

The odd numbered floors have a laundry room consisting of 2 washers (free) and 1 dryer (1,000 KRW). The even numbered floors have a lounge area with a microwave and water station. Each floor has a couple study rooms. I heard there is a shared kitchen in the dorms but I am not sure where it is. The first floor has a closet that stores vacuum cleaners and mattress cleaners which you can borrow. Most of the exchange students rented blankets and pillows, which cost 50,000 KRW (includes laundry fee and cleaning fee) since we will be staying for only one semester. I do recommend bringing fitted bed sheets and maybe a duvet cover for sanitary reason (if you mind).

My dorm doesn't have any curfews (heard it's common in Korean universities) but there are some rules regarding disturbing neighbors and your roommate which can cause you to earn demerit points.