of importance of going to university, as those lacking formal university education often face social prejudice as well as significant life-long consequences such as stagnant and lower socioeconomic status, diminishing marriage prospects, and low probabilities of securing a respectable white collar and professional career path. In 2016, the country spent 5.4 percent of its GDP on all levels of education – roughly 0.4 percentage points above the OECD average. A strong investment in education, a militant drive and desire to achieve academic success, as well as the passion for academic excellence has helped the resource poor country rapidly grow its economy over the past 70 years from the effects of the Korean War. South Korea's zeal for education and its students' desires to get into a prestigious university is one of the highest in the world, as the entrance into a top tier higher educational institution leads to a prestigious, secure and well-paid professional white collar job with the South Korean government, bank, or a well-known South Korean conglomerate company such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG Electronics. With incredible pressure on high school students to secure places at the nation's most prestigious universities, its institutional reputation, campus facilities and equipment, endowment, faculty, and alumni networks are strong predictors of future career prospects. The top three universities in `South Korea, often referred to as "SKY", are Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University. Intense competition and pressure to earn the highest grades is deeply ingrained in the psyche of South Korean students at a young age. Yet with only so many places at the nation's elite universities and even with a narrower bandwidth of job openings at the nation's most recognized companies, many young South Korean university graduates remain disappointed and are often unwilling to lower their expectations with regards to employment prospects with the result of many feeling as underachievers as not commensurate with the amount of effort and resources that they put in. There is a major cultural taboo in South Korean society attached to those who have not achieved formal university education, as those who don't hold university degrees face social prejudice and are often contemptuously looked down by others as second-class citizens, resulting in fewer opportunities for employment, improvement of one's socioeconomic position, and auspicious prospects for marriage. International reception on the South Korean education system has been divided. It has been praised for various reasons,