Moving from high school to college in the K-Drama world is like stepping out of a strict military bunker filled with school tests and straight into a festival. The uniforms are gone, the curfews are looser, and the stakes shift from survival to freedom, along with the business of becoming an actual adult, but that’s for future them to deal with, so let’s go have a drink!
College dramas trade the strict classroom desks for group drink outings, campus clubs, and the realization that going to college doesn’t guarantee having a job. Let’s break down the ultimate College K-Dramas.
The Vibe: Cheap Soju, Big Dreams, and Major Crushes
If high school K-Dramas are about the pressure to succeed, college dramas are about the dizzying freedom of finally being allowed to do something else. It’s a world of shared apartments, late-night convenience store ice cream runs, campus rumors spreading at lightning speed, and navigating the social hierarchy of “Sunbaes” (seniors) and “Hoobaes” (juniors).
Campus Tropes to Spot:
- The College Trip Chaos: Every college department goes on a mandatory weekend getaway to a rural cabin where there will most likely be excessive drinking games, accidental romantic confessions, and someone getting lost in the woods.
- The Overpriced Department Jacket: Matching varsity jackets embroidered with the university name and major are the ultimate campus status symbol—and the ultimate tool for dramatic romantic grand gestures (like draping it over a shivering crush).
- The Dark Knight: Drinking is a big todo in these shows, but so is rescuing someone who probably can’t drink as much as someone else, and it’s usually someone who likes them. So expect a person to step in and save another person from drinking that drink by consuming it themselves. It is a big romantic gesture!
The College Watchlist
Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo: The Ultimate Campus Rom-Com
The Vibe: Sunshine, sports, and a cozy-cute romance.
- The Premise: A talented college weightlifter navigating her intense training regimen experiences her first crush on a charming competitive swimmer who likes her back.
- The Chaos Factor: This is the gold standard of comfort dramas. The chemistry is incredibly vibrant, the adorableness is almost too much to handle, the food-eating montages are legendary, and the humor is right on the money. Outstanding, outstanding, outstanding!
Cheer Up: The High-Energy, Campy Mystery Thriller
The Vibe: “Pitch Perfect” meets “Gossip Girl”, in that it is a coming-of-age comedy set in a college cheer squad with a true-crime storyline added.
- The Premise: A fiercely hardworking freshman who is in desperate need of a scholarship joins her university’s legendary but failing cheering squad and needs it to succeed.
- The Chaos Factor: This show is a wild genre-blend. One minute you’re watching high-flying, adrenaline-pumping synchronized dance routines and intense campus love triangles, and the next minute you’re dealing with spooky campus prophecies and a shadowy stalker. It perfectly captures the absolute exhaustion of working three campus jobs while trying to survive the intense, cult-like dedication of a college commitment.
Cheese in the Trap: The Toxic, Psychological Romance
The Vibe: A gripping, somewhat cynical look at campus politics and sketchy seniors.
- The Premise: A hardworking, perceptive scholarship student returns to college and finds herself entangled with a wealthy, handsome senior who seems perfect to everyone else, but harbors a dark side.
- The Chaos Factor: This trades sweet romance for psychological tension. It perfectly captures the mundane, frustrating chaos of group projects where no one does the work and the lingering dread of navigating a relationship with someone you can’t quite figure out.
Hello, My Twenties! (Age of Youth): The Relatable Roommate Sisterhood
The Vibe: “Sex and the City”, but for broke twenty-somethings in Seoul.
- The Premise: Five wildly different college girls share a house where they navigate college majors, relationship drama, part-time job burnout, and the secret they are all hiding.
- The Chaos Factor: Incredibly real and chaotic. From screaming matches over something trivial to deeply touching late-night drinking sessions on the living room floor, this series perfectly nails female friendship in your early twenties.
My ID is Gangnam Beauty: The Sharp Social Commentary
The Vibe: Unmasking society’s toxic beauty standards one iced americano at a time.
- The Premise: A girl who was severely bullied for her looks gets plastic surgery before entering her freshman year of college just to be normal. But she becomes gorgeous and finds out that her college campus has its own superficial beauty-ranking system, and she sits right at the top, exactly where she doesn’t want to be.
- The Chaos Factor: Beauty is chaos here, who has it, who wants it, and what you can get with it. You will fall in love with both the female and male leads, who are a delight to watch. Really, this is a seriously cute show.
You can watch all these shows right now on KOCOWA+.
