Harvard of Korea Turns Out More Grads Aiming for Hyundai

For generations, a Seoul National University degree typically led to a job in law, the civil service or with a high-paying foreign company. Manufacturers like Hyundai Motor Co. weren’t for the elite.

With Hyundai growing faster than any other global auto brand over the past decade, it’s now attracting graduates from the nation’s top schools. In the most recent study of grads from SNU -- South Korea’s highest-ranked university and sometimes called the country’s Harvard -- more business students in the Class of 2011 said they went to Hyundai Motor than any other employer. Two years earlier, none did.