Plenty of students do a full year. The people who tell you two months are usually describing a specific room, not the concept — and the difference between lasting and leaving comes down to three choices you make before you move in.

What actually makes people leave, in the order we hear it:

1. No window. This is the biggest single factor by a distance. Interior rooms are where the five-to-seven-week exits happen.
2. Shared bathroom in a badly run building. A private shower-toilet cubicle costs 80,000 to 120,000 won more and removes the most common daily friction. In a well-run building shared is fine; in a poorly run one it is the thing that grinds you down.
3. Not being able to have anyone over. This is the one people do not anticipate. Month three, you have friends, and you cannot invite them anywhere. For some students this is the actual dealbreaker, not the square metres.

What does not usually cause people to leave: the size. Almost everyone adapts to the space within two or three weeks. It is genuinely not the room being small that breaks people.

So if you want to do the full year in one, the version that works: window, private bathroom, not next to the kitchen or the entrance, and a plan for socialising that does not involve your room. That is roughly 550,000 to 620,000 won in Seoul rather than 420,000 — and it is the difference between a year you chose and a year you endured.

On your actual goal — saving for travel — the maths supports you. Full year in a good goshiwon at 580,000 versus a one-room at 800,000 plus utilities and a deposit is roughly 3,000,000 won saved plus no 5,000,000 tied up. That is a lot of flights.

One honest caveat: give yourself an exit. Goshiwon are monthly with a month's notice, so if it turns out not to suit you nothing is lost. The students who suffer are the ones who decided in advance that leaving would mean failing.