Why this school
exists at all
I arrived in the United States at sixteen, in the first year of high school, and was admitted to Harvard three and a half years later. I studied economics, have written twenty-three non-fiction books, and have spoken to roughly a million people across Korea. Two things became impossible to ignore. American higher education has priced itself past the families it claims to serve. And the American students who will lead over the next thirty years are growing up without the East — without the language, the habits, or any working knowledge of the half of the world their careers will run through. Minerva showed that the first problem has a structural answer. Seoul answers the second. Plato is built for both at once.
US 501(c)(3) non-profit
Incorporated in California. Finances are disclosed annually through IRS Form 990, and any surplus is reinvested in teaching rather than distributed.
Partner university for credit — agreement in progress
Plato is not an accrediting body, is not WSCUC-accredited, and has not applied to WSCUC. The intended structure is a credit-recognition agreement with a US university that already holds that accreditation, so that the transcript is issued in that university name. Until such an agreement is signed, that structure is an intention rather than a fact.
Every AMCAS prerequisite, completed
Admissions committees care less about the name on the transcript than whether the prerequisites were completed. Biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, psychology, sociology and statistics are all built into the programme.
US faculty, taught in hybrid form
Live instruction from US-based faculty is paired with resident instructors in Seoul who handle day-to-day academic support. All coursework is in English.