Cha Jae-yi reveals early NYU graduation to ease mother's financial burden

Actress Cha Jae-yi revealed on the tvN STORY program ‘What to Leave Behind’ that she graduated early from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to alleviate the financial burden on her mother, actress Cha Hwa-yeon.

Cha Jae-yi shared that her mother took on multiple acting roles simultaneously, including minor and background parts, to cover the high tuition costs of approximately 80 million won per year. Cha Jae-yi, who is proficient in four languages and achieved a perfect score in SAT mathematics, noted that her decision to graduate early was driven by a sense of responsibility toward her family's sacrifices.

Regarding her education, Cha Jae-yi described herself as a diligent student who studied independently due to her mother’s hands-off parenting style. She also recalled the difficulty of her admission to NYU, noting the competition rate was 30,000 to 1.