Gangnam goshiwon at 680k — who is that actually for?

Mostly it is not students. Gangnam goshiwon are filled by young office workers, people on short contracts, and exam candidates whose academy is there. At 680,000 you are competing with people on salaries.

That said — your school is in Gangnam, which changes the calculation. Here is how it actually breaks down.

Commuting in: Seoul transport is excellent and 25 to 35 minutes is unremarkable by local standards. Areas with a direct line into Gangnam at much lower prices:

- Sillim / Seoul National area on line 2: 400,000 to 520,000, 25 to 30 minutes
- Sadang / Isu: 450,000 to 550,000, 15 to 20 minutes, and line 2 or 4
- Konkuk / Guui on line 2: 450,000 to 560,000, 20 minutes
- Gangbuk side via line 7 (Nowon, Junggye): cheapest, 40 minutes plus

Sadang is the one worth looking at first — genuinely close, genuinely cheaper, and a major interchange so you are not stuck.

The honest maths: 680,000 in Gangnam versus 500,000 in Sadang is 180,000 a month, 1,800,000 over ten months, in exchange for roughly 35 minutes of commuting a day. Whether that trade is good depends on how you value the time — but note the commute is on line 2 with a seat outside rush hour, and plenty of students use it to review vocabulary.

Where paying for Gangnam is defensible: if your class starts at 9am and you know yourself well enough to know that a 35-minute commute will cost you attendance. Attendance is the one thing that genuinely matters for your visa, and a student who moves to save 180,000 and then misses class has made a bad trade.

Otherwise, commute in and put the 1,800,000 somewhere better.