Opportunity – Study Overseas

Back in 2003, there was a big trend of people sending their kids for further studies overseas. I had recently come across this due to meeting friend’s brother earlier in the year.

With lots of questions in mind and thought of its not going to work for me but let’s give it a try so we know where we stand, I decided to go in one of those seminars where they promote overseas studies and these consultants do all the paperwork for you including admissions in foreign universities.

As I enter this seminar hall, it was all glamorous photos of foreign universities as you see in movies with huge lush green campuses and buildings looking like castles. People around me also looked like Indian millionaires who have lot of money and weren’t bothered to spend lakhs on their kid’s overseas study. Overall it was a full on selling for studying overseas. It was so impressive that I will definitely start you dreaming about studying overseas and it certainly did for me.

These consultants walked in suits and started presentation about prospects and opportunities of studying overseas. They presented in a way that potential benefits would certainly be more than expenses you incur. They also explained financial requirements for people who can afford to pay cash and for people who can use student loans to fund this. This was an area of interest to me as we were going to take this loan anyway. Other criterion was eligibility of student, which meant results and they clarified on that too and it meant I was eligible to get admissions. Another criterion was English speaking skills and a requirement to secure the admission in overseas University. They also talked about potential plan that anyone may have about investing now and time to recover the investment. Recovery was way quicker as you would be earning in dollars or whatever currency relevant country has. This was a big selling point for me. This certainly made me think practically and potential study abroad. Regarding finances they also explained that as you go overseas you can work along with studies to partially or fully save for fees for future semesters study. This meant parents/loan needs to fund only on costs for visa, tickets, some shopping and first semester fees, although immigration and university needed evidence of funding for accommodation and university fees for duration of course. This was something I needed to work out with my parents.

I was almost 60% sold in this potential dream, but uncertain about parents affordability and reactions. I was thinking and excited about potential of studying overseas but nervous whether this dream can ever come true.

I excitingly and nervously went home and presented what I heard and saw and also asked my dad to come with me in another presentation of same thing so that he gets firsthand information. Similar to me with lot of hesitation and nervousness he agreed to attend but no guarantees…

Related articles

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Career Choices – Master’s Degree

It was very obvious that I had to study Master’s degree to get a respectable job. It was also becoming obvious that I will be studying MBA (Masters of Business Administration) given that I had graduated with BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration).

Given that I come from a service class family, studying further was the only option for me. Family finances weren’t that good to help me with business prospects. Even though I hated studies since childhood, I had to accept the fact that further studies was way to go.

As it was all obvious and assumed, I also had accepted that I will be studying MBA.

In my early days of final year of graduation, I had actually enrolled myself into a MBA entrance exam coaching classes. It was the way to go in those days. My dad had to pay approx. Rs15,000 for this coaching. This course helps you prepare to appear in the MBA entrance exams across India including some highly reputable institutions like IIM and so on. Total course duration was 1 year and total course fees were Rs30,000. I had started attending this course and gradually came across fee structures for MBA at lot of other colleges across India. I also learnt about rigorous studies required to firstly pass the entrance exam then a group discussion with potential candidates of relevant institute and finally a one on one interview. I also came to know it was largely a money game and lot of it came down to final interview stage or money as most the colleges would ask for large sum in fees. These fees would range anywhere between Rs5 lakhs – Rs30lakhs ($15K-$100K, based on 2003 exchange rates). These are just fees, often colleges ask for donations which are often in similar range and then on top of this there are costs to stay away from home.

Managing Rs5lakhs for my Master’s degree was a tough enough let alone other expenses of donations and staying away from home. At this time there were lots of bank advertising about of study loans or student loans. My parents actually thought about this as affordability was certainly an issue. This was just considering studying in an average institute and not a reputable one. Based on Indian market, there are better job and salary prospects if you have studied from reputable institute. Because of this reputation lot of institutes charge heft fees from students. It was evident that my Master’s degree will be funded by student loan.

How student loan works, bank lend money in the name of student and its secured by parents property or term deposit or anything tangible where banks can recover money in the event of default. Normally parents pay interest only for 2 years while student is studying, then there is 6 months grace period before interest and principal repayments start after completion of studies. Normally it is expected after studies are completed, student is in position to pay this loan off fairly quickly and easily assuming you get high paid job and don’t have family commitments.

At this stage I was thinking 2 things, I want to do something different than others and what if I don’t get a job that pays me enough to repay this student loan. I was considering practical outcomes because firstly I am not one those brilliant students, so chances of me getting into a reputable institute are slim. This means chances of getting a high paid job are also slim; this now comes back to working out on low – average salary for MBA offered in the market and working out payback time frame and loan instalments affordability.

While this was going on, I had also attended my entrance exam coaching classes.

Also in early days of my final year in graduation, I met one of my close friends elder brother. I actually met him before but this time I saw him to see off as he was leaving for Sydney, Australia for further studies of MBA. I wished him good luck and deep in my mind thought that their family must be really well off to send him to study abroad. I also thought what state me and my family are in that we can’t even afford further studies in India let alone abroad.

These thoughts prompted me to think this further and ask question on what’s needed to study abroad…

Related articles

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• Why study abroad? (thehindu.com)
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