The exercise of how one drops out of the first year of high school to “become a poet”, gets a GED, and then proceeds to enter one of the top universities in Korea (notorious for its particularly cutthroat academic culture) right on time at 19 is left to the reader.

Isn’t college admission there based solely on a single standardized test? If so it makes sense that a super-genius could ace it despite dropping out of high school.

No there is also admission based on school grades, essays and achievements(수시). You still have to take the national test and get the minimum required grades though.

I bet this guy Fields Medal recipient did pretty good on the test and didn't need that alternate, is it even available for dropouts by looking at grades before they dropped out?

I just looked into it and it looks like he actually went to a private cram school for a year to study for the national exam then got into Seoul National University.

what is the GED you are referring to here ?

I just read between the lines in the article that he must have gotten something like that since he said in the article that when he dropped out to be a poet he knew he would not have to attend college in two years.

Looking into it, I think they actually translate their version of it as GED too:

https://www.ice.go.kr/en/cm/cntnts/cntntsView.do?mi=10019&cn...