1. Employability - Employability Is Fundamental For International Education. If You Study Anywhere Abroad, Then They Are More Often Than Not Training You To Be Employable From Day 1. Whether It Is Your Experience In The Classroom, Or Real-Life Practical Experience, There Are Many Courses That You Can't Even Pass Until You Have Practical Experiences Of Internships, Or Projects, Or Mini-Assignments With Companies In Real Life. Until You Have That You Are Not Even Going To Graduate. So, There Are Enough And More Mechanisms To Ensure Whatever You Are Learning, That Is Something That Is Going To Help You Directly When You Graduate. This Is Why The Graduation Rate To Employment Rate In Most International Universities Is Really Really Good. The Surprising Thing Is That Most International Universities Are Not Like India, Where There's A Placement Office, A Lot Of Companies Are Invited, Students Then Give Them An Interview. Students Have To Do Everything By Themselves. They Have To Approach The Companies Themselves, They Have To Set Their Interviews Themselves, They Have To Do Their Networking Themselves, They Have To Look For The Job Opportunities Themselves, And Despite All These Things, The Graduation To Employment Ratio Is One Of The Highest Globally When You Look At Any Top University, And That Then Gives You The Confidence That When You Study In Those Universities, You Will Build Your Life Through Any Degree From There, Then You Will Be Training Yourself To Become Employable, And Earn A Handsome Salary From Day 1.
2. International Exposure - International Exposure Was My Defining Thing. When I Went There For The First Time I Was Expecting Americans To Be There, But What I Saw In My Class Was The Entire World. I Still Remember, My Class Had 22 People, There Were Americans, Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Europeans, People From Africa, People From South America, There Was Literally Every Continent Mapped On To It.Even The Professors Were From Different Countries With Different Experiences, And When You Deal With Such Diverse Cultures, It Makes You Far More Enriched Within. You Realize How People's Perspectives Change. I Remember When I First Landed In The US, My Mind Opened Up When I Saw The Opportunities In That Country, And I Realized Something About The US Which I Have Spoken About Actively, US Is A Country That Gives You Everything In Excess. You Need Money, You Will Get That In Excess. You Want Entertainment, You Will Get It In Excess. You Want To Study, You Will Get It In Excess. Clothes And Food Are In Excess, Everything Is In Excess There. And What It Tries To Do Then, It Tries To Find Out Those Who Don't Get Addicted To It, Yet Go Beyond These Opportunities To Create Their Own Life. So Many People Say That The US Is A Land Of Opportunities, What They Really Mean Is It Doesn't Really Matter Which Country Do You Belong To, What Is Your Colour, How Do You Look Like, How Do You Speak, What Do You Wear, What Do You Eat, If You Are Smart And You Are Willing To Work Hard, Then That Country Will Offer As Much An Opportunity To You As To Anybody Else. And That Is Something That Hits You Really Hard, And That International Exposure Will Hold You True For The Rest Of Your Life. After That, I Have Worked With Americans, Germans, A Lot Of Asian Countries, And I Was Able To Be Smart About All That Experience, Because I Was Trained At The Age Of 22-24 In An Environment Where I Was Exposed To The Entire World Every Single Day.
3. Diverse Course And Specialization - The Special Thing About International Education Is That Its Curriculum Is Designed For You To Mix And Match. It Is Introduced In India As Well, But It Will Still Take Time To Reach That Point. But Right Now, For Example, If You Go To The US, I Did My Major In Physics, But I Had Taken Statistics Along With Physics. A Lot Of My Friends Were Doing Engineering, But Along With Engineering They Also Opted For Economics Courses, Psychology Courses, Music Courses, So There Is Enough And More Diversification And Choice That Is Given To Students In Picking What They Want To Do. Because Of This, You Don't Learn Just One Thing, Don't Spend Your Life Sticking To One Thing Only. You Actually Diversify Yourself, You Go And Select Courses That Give You Joy, That Make You Employable, That Give You Strong Network And Connections, And Through That, You Become A Far Richer, Well-Rounded Personality As Against If You Would Just Become An Engineer, A Lawyer, And Astrophysicist, For Any Other Degree That You Have Achieved. That Then Sets You To Appreciate So Many Other Things. I Often Say That You Will Grow In Life Only When You Spend Time With People Who Are Not At All Like You, And That Is What Happens In International Exposure. When You Sit In Universities That Allow You To Handpick Whatever Is It That You Want To Do, Just Think About It, You Meet Different Kinds Of People By Sitting In Economics Class, You Will Meet Different Kinds Of People In A Music Class, You Will Meet Different Kinds Of People In A Philosophy Or Engineering Class, That Is Only Going To Increase And Widen Your Scope Of What You Know About Life.
4. World-Class Faculty And Peer Group - More Or Less, This Is A Given. Depending On Where You Are Going, You Will Be Exposed To The Best Faculty Out There. And Here Is The Reason Why It Is Mostly The Best Faculty. In International Universities, Every Professor Gets Two Mandates, One Is Teaching And Another Is Doing Research. If They Don't Do Research Or They Don't Teach, They Don't Complete Their Tenure Or Their Employment. This Means Whoever Would Be Teaching You, Would Also Be Doing Research Regularly. Whatever Specialization That They Are An Expert In, They Would Be Publishing Papers On It Regularly, They Would Be Meeting Many More Experts Globally, And That Is Only Going To Make Them Smarter, Richer, And More Experienced In What They Are Doing, Which Is Only Going To In Turn Help You.Peer Group, As I Said, If The Best Students From Various Countries Are Sitting In Your Class, Then Just Imagine How Open-Minded Would You Become. If You Are Not The Smartest Person In Your Class, It Is Going To Elevate You To A Completely New Level Of Smartness, Because You Would Feel That Competition Every Day. Yes, You Would Be Hard On Yourself That You Are Not Smart Enough, You Are Not Able To Do This Or That, But At The End Of The Day, You Will Be Reminded That This Class Is So Powerful Intellectually, That You Will Have To Work Hard To Come To The Same Level, And That Is Going To Push You Hard, That Is Going To Make You Challenge Yourself Far More Than Anything Else. So This Mix Of Faculty And Peer Group Is So Potent, So Powerful, That When You Find Yourself In That Environment, You Just Completely Change The Game For Yourself. This Is Exactly What Happened To Me. I Was Surrounded By Such Smart People That I Didn't Even Know What I Was Doing Till Now In My Life. I Will Give You A Simple Example. You Might Not Know The Answer To This Question. A Professor Asked In My First Class, 'Why Are There Seasons On Earth? Why Do We Have Summers, Winters, Spring, Autumn?' According To Me, When The Earth Is Near The Sun, We Have Summers, And When The Earth Is Away From The Sun, We Have Winters, But That Is Actually Not True. Frankly, That Is Just A Very Illiterate Way Of Thinking About It. Not Expected From A Physics Student. My Whole Class Knew This Answer. By The Way, The Answer Is, The Earth's Axis Is Tilted, Earth Doesn't Revolve Like This, It Revolves Like This, It Is Slightly Tilted, At 23 Degrees, That's Why We Have Seasons. I Would Not Go Into The Complexity, But The Point That I Am Trying To Make Is, I Was The Biggest Duffer In That Class. And I Remember How I Felt, I Felt Like Shit, I Felt Like, 'Oh My God! Where Have I Come? I Am Sitting In This Class Like An Absolute Illiterate, And Everybody Is Just So Smart.' And What Did I Do Then? I Went Back And Studied. I Went Back And Researched. I Went Back And Worked Hard. I Went Back And Did Everything That I Could To Become A Better Version Of Myself. And That's Why I Topped The Class, That's Why I Got A-Grades In Every Class, Because I Knew That I Had To Push Myself. At The End Of Those Two Years, I Knew Just As Much As Everybody Else. But That Wouldn't Have Happened, If I Was Not Surrounded By Professors Who Asked Such A Fundamentally Simple Question For A Physics Student, And A Class That Knew The Answer But I Didn't.
5. The Pathway To Permanent Residency - Now, This Could Be A Personal Choice. If You Go Abroad To Study, Whether In, US Or UK Or Australia Or Canada Or Any Other Country, You Do Get A Good Way For You To Get A Permanent Residency. In Fact, I Often Say That If You Want To Go To Any Country, Then A Far Far Better Way For You To Enter That Country Is As A Student As Against A Working Professional. It Is Very Difficult To Get A Work Visa. But If You Go There As A Student, Then Number 1, It Is Far Easier To Get A Work Visa. Number 2, As Soon As You Complete Number 2, As Soon As You Complete Your Education, Then You Get A Time Period Mostly For You To Find A Job. Like, If You Go To The US For A Master's Program, Then After That 2-Year Master's Program, You Get An Additional Year Which Is Called OPT, Optional Practical Training, Which You Can Use To Work In A Company Or Find A Job But Without A Work Visa. And Then In That One Year, You Get An Opportunity To Apply For A Work Visa And Get It. Now, These Are Available In Almost Every Country Out There, Through Which You Can At Least Get A Work Visa, And Then Eventually If You Want, You Can Take A Permanent Residency Too. I Know A Lot Of People Who Are Coming Back From International Countries, And That's Absolutely Ok. But I Always Say That If You Spend 2-3-4-5-6 Years Of Your Life Abroad, Earn Good Money, Gather A Lot Of Experience, Learn A Lot, And Then Come Back To India, Then Your Financial Stability Would Be Very Good, Of Course, Your Parents And Family Would Be Very Happy, And You Would Be Able To Contribute As Much As You Want In Your Country. And It's The Best Of Everything That Is Possible, And I Would Strongly Recommend You To Use International Education As A Segway To Find Work In An International Country Or In An International Environment, And Then Consider Whether You Want To Live There Forever Or You Want To Come Back.
6. Empathy, Adaptability, And Confidence - When You See So Many Things, You Study With The Best Faculty, You Study With The Best Students, You Study In The Best Infrastructure, You Get So Many Facilities, Then It Automatically Makes You, Number 1, Empathetic Towards The Needs Of Others. You Realize That When People Behave Differently, Then How To Treat Them. It Makes You Adaptable, Because You Do Not Have All The Facilities, I Am Assuming That You Also Come From The Same Middle-Class Environment As Me, So I Never Had Money As A Student. So I Had To Do Everything After A Good Thought. It Made You Adaptable That This Is Not So Important, That Is Important, I Can Spend Money On This And Not That, So On And So Forth. And Then It Gives You That Confidence, Because Confidence Is The Most Important Thing Once You Know That You Can Navigate Through This. To Get The Confidence Of Presenting Yourself. You Will See Most International Students Are Far Better Spoken Than Other Regular Students. Why? It's Not Like They Already Knew Fluent English, But When You Are Thrown Into That Environment, It Is Equivalent To Something Like Somebody Has Pushed You Into The Sea, And You Do Not Know How To Swim, But You Will Have To Swim To Save Your Life. And That Is What You Do. You Go About Learning How You Are Going To Navigate That, And Then All Those Things Set You Up For Life In A Way That Can Never Be Replicated By Any Other ExperSearch.
7. Self Discovery - The Most Important Reason Why You Should Consider Studying Abroad. Self-Discovery. You Get To Know So Much About Yourself That No Other Experience Can Tell You. You Might Be Staying Away From Home For The First Time. You Are Staying At Your Own Expense. You Might Be Earning For The First Time In Your Life. Almost Every Student Who Goes Abroad From India, Ends Up Working. And They Don't End Up Working Like In A Glamorous Job. Some Work At Mcdonald's, Some Work At The College Library, Some Of Them Take Tuitions, There Are Ways To Just Just Survive, But All These Things Teach You So Much, Because They Help You Manage Your Finances, Your Own Emotions, Your Entire Life. You Have To Wash Your Own Clothes. I Remember, In Order To Save Money, Every Washroom Or Bathroom In The US Has A Bathtub, Because There Is The Culture Of Bathtubs, So I Used To Fill Up 25% Of The Bathtub With Water, Add Detergent To It, And Then I Used To Wash Clothes With Hands. Why? Because It Used To Cost $2 To Wash Clothes In The Machine And I Had To Save Those $2. I Used The Machine Only For Drying, Because It Was Always Cold There, And There Was No Provision To Hang Them For Drying In The Balcony, So There Was A Dryer Machine That Used To Charge About 25-50 Cents. So That's Why I Used To Spend Money, But I Used To Wash Clothes Myself, Cook Myself, Wash Utensils Myself, Clean The Home Myself, Made My Way By Clearing The Snow Away Myself, I Had To Do Everything Myself, And That Teaches You So Much About Life, About Your Own Self, That Nothing Else Will Replace That.
So When You Bring These 7 Things Together, Employability Which Prepares You For A Job From Day 1. International Exposure Which Makes Available The Whole World To You On A Small Campus. Diverse Course And Specializations Which Gives You The Freedom That You Can Pick Any Course That You Want And Expose Yourself To Different Mindsets. World-Class Faculty And Peer Group Which Provides You The Highest Standard For Education Anywhere That You Would Find. Pathway To Permanent Residency. If You Want To Stay There Forever Or Work There, Then The Best Way To Enter The Country Is By Becoming A Student. Empathy, Adaptability, And Confidence.When You Deal With So Many People, So Many Diverse Cultures, You Are Going To Become Far More Adaptable To People's Needs. And Then Finally The Most Important, Self-Discovery. When You Will Manage Everything Yourself, You Will Learn So Much About Yourself Which No Other Experience Can Teach You. You Combine These 7 Things, And You Get Such A Terrific Experience. My US Experience At The Age Of 20-22 Changed My Entire Life, And I Am So So So So Grateful For That Experience Because That Set Me Up For Life. And There Are So Many Really Good Institutions That Want You To Go Out There, And Are Ready To Help You, As I Said, Leverage Edu Is One Of Them. It's Run By A Very Dear Friend Akshay, Who Is From ISB Itself, And I Am So Impressed By His Passion And Drive To Make This Accessible To Every Indian Student Out There. Whether It Is Scholarships, Or Shortlisting Colleges, Or Shortlisting Courses, Or Counseling Help To Figure Out How Do You Apply, Every Single Thing Is Taken Care Of, And Taken Care Of In A Manner That Is Technology-Enabled, That Is Still Passionate Warm-Hearted, And Is Only And Only Centered On Your Success. If You Are Considering Studying Abroad, Then Answer Two Questions. First, Should I Make More Content On Studying Abroad Or Not? Please Tell Me In The Comments Section, What Do You Want To Know Specifically. And The Second Question, If You Genuinely Want To Start Your Study Abroad Journey, Then Why Wouldn't You Consider Leverage Edu As The Starting Point For That Search?
Karan Tiwari,, Signing Off!