Throughout the ages, mankind has always been in pursuit of enhanced personal beauty. Thanks to the power of mass media, interest in one's own personal appearance and the ability to make enhancements through cosmetic operation has skyrocketed. The purpose of this study is to examine the cognition that Korean college students have of cosmetic operation and how it relates to their own personal appearance. 
From December, 2002 through February, 2003, a total of 402 college students attending school on campuses in Seoul, South Korea were surveyed. The survey population consisted of 218 men and 184 women. Eighteen questions were included in the survey, falling into 5 basic categories; their personal concept of appearance, the need for cosmetic operation, the operative regions they are most concerned with, the means be which they gather information about aesthetic surgery, and their understanding of board certification. Wilcoxon rank sum test(SPSS version 10.1 for window) was used to analyze the data and show the statistical results. 
The survey revealed that both male and female students consider appearance as important as intelligence. 93% of all respondents feel that they will need some kind of cosmetic operation at some point in their future. Of the desired operative regions, men as well as women gave higher priority to skin surgery than to rhinoplasty, eye surgery, and facial bone contouring surgery. When asked why they might hesitate to undergo an operative procedure, the fear of side effects ranked highest. The results also showed that these students get most of their information on cosmetic operation from the Internet. When asked about their understanding of board certification, only 24% of the respondents could distinguish between board certified plastic surgeons and general physicians.
The results of our survey highlight the high amount of interest Korean college students have in maintaining their personal appearance and the positive understanding they have of cosmetic operation. Even though many of the respondents expressed a desire to have cosmetic operation, most of them were apprehensive of the possible side effects. The results also showed that most of the students were unable to correctly identify board certified plastic surgeons. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that the general public is in need of more information on specialized cosmetic operation and board certification.