How to apply for GKS online: every section, in order

• The 2027 GKS-U online window ran from 11:00 AM on September 15, 2026 to 6:00 PM on September 30, 2026, Korea time, and has closed. It was for the Embassy Track only.
• Embassies announce first-round results by October 16, 2026.
  Passed? What to send next
• Missed it, or not through the first round? Some universities take University Track applications into November.
  University Track deadlines
• GKS-G, the graduate programme, opens in 2027, NIIED says. This page covers GKS-U only.
• Looking for the application forms? On the Embassy Track you fill them in online and print them from Study in Korea; the blank forms, including the recommendation letter your recommender completes, come with the guideline files.
  Guidelines and forms

• Create an account on Study in Korea (studyinkorea.go.kr). Enter your full name, date of birth and nationality exactly as they appear in your passport.
• Once logged in: Plan your studies → Scholarships → “Undergraduate Degrees (Including Associate Degree)” → “Apply for the GKS”.

NIIED guide, pp. 3–5

• Agree to every item on both screens: the GKS Applicant Agreement and the consent to collect and use your personal information. The application does not open until all of them are accepted.

NIIED guide, pp. 6–7

• The online application is for the Embassy Track only. University Track applicants apply to the university itself, on its own schedule.
• Your recommending embassy is set by the country you chose when you created the account. If that country is not in the Embassy Track, you cannot apply. Wrong country or date of birth? Change it in My Page.
• Choose one programme — General, Overseas Koreans & Adoptees, or R-GKS — and one or more fields of study.
• Give a personal email address, not a school one: selection notices are sent to it. Phone numbers need the country code.
• Korean citizenship is asked twice, for you and for your parents: answer “Yes” if the person holds it. Under the guideline, you cannot apply while you or a parent holds Korean citizenship, dual citizenship included; anyone who held it before uploads proof of renouncing it.
• Upload a recent photo in which you are clearly identifiable: JPG, JPEG, TIF, PNG only.
• Universities: General and Overseas Koreans & Adoptees applicants choose up to 3 different universities; R-GKS applicants up to 2, Type B only. The guideline asks only for at least one Type B, in any order, but the form marks Choice 1 as Type B — so put a Type B university first. The university cannot be changed after you are accepted.

NIIED guide, pp. 8–12

• A bachelor's degree already held rules out GKS-U; the guide sends those applicants to GKS-G, which opens in 2027.
• You must have graduated, or expect to graduate, by December 31, 2026; graduating in 2027 is too late for this cycle. Still at school? If you pass the first round, your final graduation certificate and transcript are due by that same date, or the pass is cancelled.
• Enter your CGPA exactly as the transcript shows it. The accepted scales are 4.0, 4.3, 4.5, 5.0 and 100; on any other scale, enter a conversion your school has confirmed and upload that proof. The percentage out of 100 is required too: if the transcript does not show one, Appendix A of the guideline converts a CGPA on the 4.0, 4.3, 4.5 or 5.0 scale; on any other scale, work from the conversion your school confirmed.
• The academic bar is any one of: 80 or more out of 100, a top-20% class rank, or a CGPA of at least 2.64/4.0, 2.80/4.3, 2.91/4.5 or 3.23/5.0. A conversion you worked out yourself counts only once your school officially confirms it.
• Next, the GPA and maximum score for each year or semester, as printed. If your transcript gives no per-term grades, put the cumulative figure in the first-year, first-semester fields.
• Language scores are optional for GKS itself, but some universities and departments ask for one — check the University Information file. A score must be valid on the date the call was announced: TOPIK PBT from test 96, TOPIK IBT from test 4, TOEFL or IELTS. Upload the score report as well — the automatic TOPIK lookup does not replace it.
• Have you studied in Korea, or held a scholarship from the Korean government or a Korean institution? Say so, with the programme, institution, dates and visa; short trips for travel do not count. Under the guideline, if you have ever received a Korean government scholarship for a degree programme, you cannot apply; exchange-student and Korean-language (IRTS) scholarships do not rule you out, unless you withdrew from IRTS or its scholarship was cancelled.
• Your recommender's name, position, institution, address, email and phone must match the letter. The letter itself is NIIED's GKS-U form, from someone such as your principal or a teacher, dated within a year of the deadline and uploaded later as a scanned PDF.

Check your GPA against the baseline

NIIED guide, pp. 13–26

• Both are typed into the system, in Korean or English: up to 6,000 characters in Korean or 17,000 in English, each.
• Up to 5 optional supporting documents for the two together, from high school onward. Number them; plain copies are fine, with no apostille or consular confirmation. They go in the one “Awards and Other Certificates, etc.” slot in section VI (the guide also calls it “Other Documents”).
• Draft both elsewhere and paste them in, the guide advises, so you do not lose your work.

NIIED guide, pp. 27–28

• A questionnaire you fill in yourself; no medical examination is needed at this stage. Answer truthfully, and explain briefly wherever you answer “Yes”.

NIIED guide, p. 29

• One file per item, so merge multi-page documents first. Accepted formats: JPG, JPEG, TIF, PNG, PDF, DOC, DOCX. A missing, incomplete or unreadable file can leave you out of the evaluation.
• Everyone uploads: one letter of recommendation (a scanned PDF), proof of your and your parents' citizenship and family relationship, a high-school graduation certificate (or certificate of expected graduation) and the high-school transcript.
• Only if they apply to you: associate-degree certificate and transcript, proof of Overseas Korean or adoptee status, proof of renouncing Korean citizenship, proof of descent from a Korean War veteran, a TOPIK or English score report, a passport copy, and your awards or other certificates — the same up to 5 as section IV, not 5 more.

NIIED guide, pp. 30–32

• Go through every section with Preview: track, embassy, programme, university choices, grades and uploaded files.
• After you submit, the application can no longer be edited.

NIIED guide, pp. 33–34

Embassies announce first-round results by October 16, 2026. The guide asks only those who pass to send originals; embassies forward them to reach NIIED by October 30, 2026, so your embassy's own deadline comes first. If your embassy asks every applicant for paper copies, follow its notice.

• Print the application you submitted (Study in Korea → My Page → Scholarship Application Information) and sign every signature field by hand.
• Send it to your recommending embassy with the original recommendation letter and the original certificates the guideline requires — apostilled or consular-confirmed, with a certified translation if not in English or Korean — in the order of the Application Checklist, which prints as the first page.
• Use your embassy's own method and deadline. A missing signature or original may affect your eligibility for the next round, and originals that miss the deadline may cancel your first-round pass.

NIIED guide, pp. 30, 34–36; dates and submission rules from the 2027 GKS-U guideline