INVESTING IN YOUR FUTURE – SELF FUNDING YOUR MASTER’S AFTER A PERIOD IN EMPLOYMENT - My blog entry to Warwick Blogs

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have a nice job and you are still in your 20s, very energetic and keen to gain more knowledge with zeal to take your career profile to another new levels. Doing a Master’s could be a good idea if want to excel in your professional career.

Why Master’s?

Doing a Master’s can provide an opportunity to gain the specialization in any subject which is either related to your existing job or which is a subject of your interest you always wanted to study.

Studying for a Master’s can also provide you with better job opportunities in future. With work experience, the probability of getting a better job is very high.

And we all miss college days with their unlimited independence and fun with friends. Taking a Masters could actually take you back to those times.

My Experience

I can tell you with my experience that choosing to give up the job and opt for a Masters is one of the best decisions of my life. I am travelling around the world, making new friends and experiencing a global environment of education at University of Warwick.

I had no plans to do Masters till May, 2015. I was working for one of the best transport companies in India. I was able to save some money in my career of 2.5 years (I could have saved more if I would have planned my Master’s earlier). During my job I got interested by the Tunnel engineering and decided to go for Masters in this field, which began in October, 2015.

Being an international student the cost of studies in UK was very high. I was supposed to pay 21000 Pounds as my tution fee and 4500 as estimated maintenance expenditure. So, I was supposed to plan to fund myself with 25500 Pounds. Considering the currency exchange rates of India and UK (currently Rs 1 = 100 GBP), this was a huge amount and I would say it was one of the toughest decisions of my life. My major funding for studies came from my savings, student loan, scholarship from International Tunneling Association and my parents funded me for the rest. I am always glad that my parents supported me at every step and would like to pay my respects to them.

I really wanted to study Tunneling and I decided to take the risk. First thing I did was to gather all my savings which was around 3000 Pounds. I sold my car for 1500 Pounds. I decided to borrow 7500 Pounds student loan from Bank. By this time I had 12000 Pounds. Since I was half way there, I became more confident that I can arrange the finance.

Since pursuing Masters was a sudden decision all the scholarships were almost allocated. But I needed more money to fund myself. Luckily, I was awarded a scholarship from International Tunneling Association worth 5000 Euros (approx. 3850 Pounds).

I decided to work part- time at university to make up for my maintenance expenses (estimated approx. 4500 Pounds). I am doing part-time job which is working out as planned.

The rest of the amount was funded by my parents. They were always there for me at every step.

Things to look out for …planning and challenges

I would like to advise to plan the studies in advance (at least one year) so that you save enough for your studies.

Also, scholarships can be helpful, especially for international students. The list of various scholarships available for masters can be found at- www.warwick.ac.uk/scholarships

I would also advise you to choose your subject of study very wisely. As you are planning to leave your job, it involves risk and hence it should be a decision either based on your interest and/or having good future prospects. So I would definitely recommend you to do some research on the future prospects you can expect from the course.

And finally, Make sure you have all the fun in college while studying, socialize with people, travel with friends and explore new hobbies. Cheers and Best of Luck…!!!