Part 1 - From white collar to graduate student:

What would an ‘IT’ job mean for most of us? A good salary at end of the month, weekends at the city centre restaurants, a few onsite travels, or a few years of relocation opportunity be cherry on the cake for some of us. True, but all of them are not blessed with it though, especially being a graduate in India, where over 1.5 million people graduate every year; not to miss, well most of them land up in IT sector.

Even, if blessed with above all, some people won’t just let themselves fall into a monotonous routine; coz that’s how the wheel of growth is meant to move. Light up the flames of passion to achieve new, add on to the fuel at times, thrilling yourself with new experiences, for it ‘being life’ is one and must not be boring, (of course unless you believe in reincarnation).

I have spent nearly six years in IT, and I feel I was one of the blessed ones too, but I always wanted to experience an international graduate program. Well, it could be a different taste of thriller for each one of us, studying was my piece. In this part below, I am going to drive you through my own quest for higher education, what went well and what not.

There are so many countries you can hunt on (Germany, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, UK and more….) if you seek to be an international student, and the choice is mostly driven by number of parameters like,

1.   Amount of Investment considering funding opportunities

2.   Return on Investment (job market precisely)

3.   Availability of course which interests you

4.   Probability of extending stay or citizenship

5.   Weather conditions

Needless to say the order of priority may vary for each one of us. Germany is a good option with just a little investment compared to all but choosing it carries a language constraint with itself. Anyways, if one is willing to learn, it won’t be a hurdle.

While US is still sought as IT capital of the world, Germany excels in manufacture and industrial courses. Trump effects doesn’t seem to affect the education sector, we can still witness a lot of Indians coming US for studies. Education in US on other hand would surely appear costly at first glance, but there are decent possibilities of funding.

Except times during recession, government funds schools and schools support a lot of students, mostly PHDs and a few graduate (Masters) students in form of Teaching Assistantship (TA) or Research Assistantship (RA) or Scholarships. If you end up not getting either of these, you can still try finding an on campus job to bear your food expenses.

Students are generally advised to start searching for funding opportunities prior to enrolling for the school, but graduate students mostly get opportunities after starting the school, networking with faculty and other students. But, this doesn’t mean you start doing it once you reach there, rather am in favor of starting it early before choosing the school, for it may influence your decision for enrolling to a particular school.

Try contacting current students, recent graduates or faculty members and ask them about available funding opportunities. There are favorable chances of smooth visa process if you have the funding granted before leaving. Education Loan is always an open door, which generally requires collateral for loans above 10L, and nationalized banks can offer the minimal ROI but it is not an easy process with them for sure. Do not be afraid letting finance chewing your entire mind; rather start off taking one step at a time.

Give priority to your profile, which I am going to talk about in the second part of this article. One of the important aspect I want to draw your attention to is the annual cost on I20s would always be frightening, don’t let them keep you away from your goal. Students always can and they do cut down costs tremendously. You may shortlist schools after researching on finance, but it might lower down the chances of funding as well as narrow down the options of schools, so you would need to adequately decide keeping both at balance.

I personally did narrow down my own list giving budget all the priority and yes I did manage to get into a school with economical fee, however I could surely have been enrolled into a brighter school with the same score. There are certainly some cream schools as well with low fee. Usnews.com is a popular source to get all that info.

I will write more in my next part of the series, on how to plan and build yourself up to secure admission into a good school.