Realities of studying abroad

I think many kids and their families in metro cities of India dream of studying abroad to better their career prospects. Truth be told, I always see my daughter with what I call as “stars and stripes in her eyes”!! 🙂 and she longs for the day when she will be back to the US (for the uninitiated, I stayed in the US for 14 years and both my son and daughter were born there. My daughter was just 4 years old when she left the US and my son was just 9 years old when he left the US)

Even though studying abroad feels so nice and it is nice, there are a few things to always know before setting on this new expedition (and this is from my own personal experience)

My better half has a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University, USA and I have a Master’s degree in Information Security from Walsh College, Detroit, USA. Both of us finished our degrees years ago but there are a number of things that are still relevant for today as well.

1. Studying abroad is a wonderful and delightful experience and is fundamentally different from the Indian education system but it is very, very, very expensive particularly if you are moving from India when the US dollar is always rising against the Indian rupee.

As an example, the graduate tuition fee for Texas A&M University today is about $3,102.20!! (as a non-resident for 3 hours) (Source: https://tuition.tamu.edu/) Then, there will be additional fees for International students as well which will raise your bill by another hundred dollars!

So, the first point is that studying abroad is very, very expensive (even if you are going from India or staying abroad itself) College education is considered to be an “investment” – so hopefully, you will be able to see the returns in a big way in the future! 🙂

2. Next is choosing the field of study. While there are plenty of subjects to study in the US and there are plentiful resources and the infrastructure is great, it is always important to do research and see if there will be ample jobs in our chosen field of study as well.

Master’s and Doctorate degrees will specialize more and hence jobs might reduce. Hence, before pursuing a higher degree I think it is important to know if there will be plentiful jobs in that chosen field of study and specialization. If you are planning to return to India immediately, then, better to check the Indian market as well.

The Indian market will be behind the US market scene and the job opportunities will come slightly later.

As an example, let me compare the times when we completed our education in US and the job market for similar opportunities in India simultaneously:

When I completed my Master’s degree which focused on Information security in 2011, the US itself was only an emerging market in that field(forget about India specializing in Information Security then) So, what happened then – well, at least I was in the software sector, so there were software jobs open for me then. India did witness a slow rise in InfoSec opportunities nearly 2 years after I finished my degree and returned to India. By then I had started my writing career and I stuck with it after that.

My better half specialized in Computational Fluid Dynamics in US in1997 and I think India witnessed an explosion of opportunities in CFD only 10 years after he completed his degree. Luckily, we didn’t plan to return to India immediately when he graduated, otherwise, we would have had a fantastic degree but nowhere to use it!

So, point 2 study something that might have good career scope for the current scenario as well as for the future in whichever country you plan to settle (which I admit is not easy to figure) Think of it as “why” and “where” of higher education – “Why am I studying this” and “Where will I get an appropriate job?”)

3. Last but not least, you should be able to find a good job after graduation and that should pay decently well, wherever you decide to stay after your graduation. It should hopefully, at least offset some of the tuition that was paid during the course of graduation.

Good luck to anybody who plans on going abroad for further studies! It is a delightful experience for sure but do plan well!