Advises, Opinion

Study Abroad: All You Need To Know

I received a message from my brother asking for guidance on GRE or GATE. I asked him to choose GRE, take coaching and stay serious till he crack it. He was bit surprised and asked me you write so much on GATE and when it comes to me you are recommending to go abroad for higher studies.

I asked him to read my post on GATE or GRE: Which one to choose, to understand me better. I kept trying to go to good university abroad right from MS till PhD. I could not pursue it or ignored that option due to lack to guidance and knowledge about how to pursue father, especially for PhD. I don’t regret the decisions I made and feel that it was really best for me that I completed all my education back in India. After living outside India for almost a decade and spending good time working with top university professors in the world I felt its important to share Study abroad in detail.

In this post I will share what all you need to know to go to study aboard, things one much consider even before applying GRE exam, what will make your journey a successful one.

Affordability
Going abroad for studies is not free, we need to fulfill few requirements and pay some fees and other costs (may be you will get them back in couple months). These costs include, coaching classes for GRE and TOFEL, running for recommendation letters, official transcripts of your degree, applications fees, flight charges and minimum living expenses would cost you minimum 3~4 Lakh Indian Rupees.

There are two ways to get this money, one is from family if they can afford it, second is to take education loan. Ironically education loan is more expensive than personal loan in India. I will discuss how to deal this money issues in coming posts under study abroad category.

Make Own Living
Some universities give fee exemption and a little scholarship every month for student survival. If you get admission with full fee waiver and scholarship then consider yourself as one of the lucky chap. Otherwise, you must be willing to study and doing some kind of job to pay your bills (room rent, food and other stuff). For me it was hard to imagine making living and studying as I am average student need more time to complete my assignment and actually learn the subjects. Studying and making my living was totally out of question for me.

GRE, TOFEL and IELTS Exams
As we are not native English speakers and most of us are rural backgrounds with little or no exposure to English as it must be there, we face huge difficulty while preparing for these exams. On the same time as our strength in math will help us to compensate this.

All these exams and their coaching is expensive.

Good University Admission
If you are not from IITs or some top school in India, cracking to top universities in US, Canada, Australia and UK is very difficult. If you are not from a good university landing in a part time job (for living in case of no monthly scholarship) or a permanent job would be damn difficult. With the visa getting expired you will feel more insecure and troubled.

Remember you are not going anywhere less than middle tire universities to have a great career. Otherwise better stay in India and nail it down to IITs and then go abroad for job. Dont compare going to US for MS with IITs to know more why do read MS in US or M.Tech in IITs.

There are ways you can still knock the doors of top engineering schools without a Bachelors degree from IITs or top universities in India. I will share this in coming posts.

Open For Non-English Speaking Nations
If we move toward developed non English speaking nation, all conditions will be relaxed and opportunities will increase. But one same, do keep in mind that you learn the language of the nation you are going, to make best use of your time.

In many countries, this will fetch your free tuition, and a monthly scholarship to take care of your expenses. If you are too weak in English and have issues with GRE then try this option. While trying to go non-English speaking countries make sure you have the list of top university and you apply in top 10.

I see great teaching faculty in many universities. A great teacher will make sure you learn the subject that eventually help you land a wonderful career.

Hope this will help you have an idea about what it takes to go abroad for studies. I will be writing few more posts related study abroad its advantages and disadvantages, common mistakes and issues. To get all the updates do subscribe to InI, likes us on FB and follow in Google plus.

Wish you all a great luck ahead

12 Comments

  1. Supresh

    I want to apply for PhD abroad (japan). Please guide me on the same . I have done m tech in computer science from state university and would like to pursue my Phd from Japan.

  2. Akansha pathak

    Respected sir,
    I have completed my engineering in Biomedical branch. And now I want to go for mtech. I actually wanted to go for psu but since from btech in Biomedical I am not eligible for any psu. Is it possible that I go for mtech in ece/ee and then get eligible for psu. Please enlighten me. I am not getting a correct answer to my query. If u could please help.
    Thanku.

  3. chandan

    Plz giude me abt the scholarship scheme if I belong to sc & I am a final year student of e&c branch…& plz guide me abt ms studies in germany for gud job career. ..

  4. Spumby

    thanks for shearing such a wonderful article with us, this is really helpful for me brother.

  5. Ujjwal Kumar Sen

    Hello,

    I like your blog very much, but I don’t want to go abroad for study, I believe any one want to do something and become something he or she cab easily can achieve in India.

    Because Indian Market is really good for us.

    Thanks for Your Suggestion and information regarding GRE, I hope it would be helpful for many.

  6. sourav

    I completed my M.tech from NIT DUrgapur in Operations research. All the credit goes to you. I followed your post rigorously and finally now i am doing that i love to do. Actually i did my B.tech in electrical engineering from NIT Jaipur and gradually i understood that Electrical is not for me. So i left the job and it was a hell of a time i faced which can not be elaborated here. All i want to say is among many things your inspiration was the key to ignite the real passion inside me and i found that Statistics is all that i love and understand. I dont have to strain myself. Now i want to do Phd (as inspired n ignited by you Zaheed) from abroad and this time i want to hit the best option. I dont want to settle for compromised solution. So again I am in great need of your invaluable post to achieve my dream which you helped to see and then again you helped me to make that dream real.

  7. Jay

    Zahid is a typical hypocrite. Studied in India, used government subsidies in education at IIT and now working abroad.

    He says -“… Otherwise better stay in India and nail it down to IITs and then go abroad for job. …”

    And see what, he also recommending it to others.

    1. admin

      And make Indian Economy strong. Dont forget the project and company they start In India because hypocrite like me : )

  8. Vikram

    Hello Zahid Sir,

    I had been following the updates on your inspirenignite website till last year, but still follow some of the updates on facebook page. I graduated with a B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NITK Surathkal last year (May 2013) and joined PhD program at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore immediately after my undergrad. After I read this page, I couldn’t resist but mention that one can apply for a direct PhD at NUS/NTU Singapore if he/she has a good GATE score (Typically above 97-98 percentile). In these two universities, GATE score is considered as an alternative to GRE score. Ofcourse there are other criteria (such as research publications, interview with prospective supervisor etc) to select a candidate for PhD at NTU and NUS.

    So, instead of discouraging someone to not apply for PhD at abroad universities, you could suggest them to keep their option open until they hear admit/reject from NTU or NUS if they are keen on pursuing PhD. As far as PhD at NTU is concerned, every PhD student is given generous scholarship. So he/she doesn’t have to bother about living expenses.

    Both of these universities are very well reputed and also Indians don’t have to worry about non-English speaking community here 🙂

    I hope this piece of information would help students who are interested in pursuing PhD at abroad universities by applying through their GATE scores.

    1. Sarang

      Pls. give me information on how to get admission with GATE score.I want to go for Post Grad. studies in Mechanical Field.
      Thank You.

    2. Zahid

      Thanks Vikram for sharing great piece of information. I am sure this will help many students. I am planing to write few more posts on study abroad and life there.

  9. Javed

    As salamu waalikum
    EID MUBARAK

    thanks for sharing about GRE.
    We look forward for other posts which you have mentioned in your above post

    thanks
    Javed

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