Studying abroad !

For the first time, my blog's creating History. This post is educational. It is about how costly education abroad can be, to dissuade you from such ideas, and ergo, to lessen the competition I have to face. So, how many of those Gandhi notes would one need, to study somewhere abroad? And what documents are necessary? Here is something you can refer...

Lets say you are planning for the Fall Session that begins around August. The Fall Session is when, most admissions happen, and getting a scholarship is most likely.

You have to start planning 10-12 months in advance. Collecting documents in itself, might take you a whole month or even more. Preparation for tests like GRE takes 2-3 months. For TOEFL preparation, about 2 weeks are good enough. You need to book your GRE and TOEFL dates well in advance, September-December is the hot-season for taking these tests, and dates run out like tickets of a cricket match. For booking dates, and other details, refer http://www.ets.org

To take up GRE, you have to pay a fee of $170. For TOEFL it is $150 (Fees are subject to change). So it comes up to 6800/- and 6000/- respectively. In case you go for GRE tuitions (which is not really required), it costs you anywhere between 7,000 to 10,000 bucks.

Barrons is best for GRE and an Indian edition costs you around 300/- bucks. Kaplan is good for TOEFL iBT preparation, and it costs you around 960/- bucks. There are plenty of resources available online, make the best use of it. But don't confuse yourself referring too many books, stick to one book, but practice well.

Then there are a whole lot of documents to collect. Transcripts are most important; transcripts are nothing but registrar-attested copies of your marks cards, and your degree certificate, put inside a cover, and once again attested by the registrar to ensure genuineness. In my case, our university charged me 180/- per copy of transcript. When you order for transcripts, better take a few extra copies, as you may need them even during your Visa interview. Taking transcripts is a big tiresome adventure, especially in a university such as the Bangalore University, and believe me, you'd want to go there only once. I am applying for 5 universities, and I took 10 transcripts of B.Sc and 10 of M.Sc (5 extra for each degree). All together, they cost me about 3600/- bucks.

Banks might charge a nominal fee of 500/- to provide Bank Statements and Affidavit of Support.

Application fee of each university is generally from $0 to $60, sometimes even more. Take $50 as average. Further, since you need to send all your documents by post, it might cost your pocket 1000/- bucks per university, as courier charges. If you take the help of counsellors, they charge you around 10,000/- bucks, and help you with finalizing a list of universities, filling out applications and further follow-up.

Bottomline, keep a figure of Rs. 50,000/- as initial expenditure, the expenses required to register for the tests, and to apply for a course, in 5 universities (to be safe). Further expenses might include Visa fees (around Rs.5,000/-), shopping, flight-charges, tuition fees (which varies from university to university, from $10,000 to $30,000 per annum, sometimes even more; tuition waivers not taken into consideration), and accommodation charges (varies between on and off campus dorms). I have not reached this stage yet, so don't bother asking me.

Any specific queries, I'll surely help you ... just frequently buy me some Pani Puris, and you should have no problems.

Documents you might need to apply include the following:

S.No	Name of Document	Remarks
01	Official transcript	Registrar-attested copies of marks card and degree certificate, enclosed in a sealed registrar-attested envelope
02	Recommendation Letters	From 3 academicians where the student studied, or did a project, or worked. On letterheads, duly signed in each copy, and given in sealed covers
03	GRE and TOEFL score report	Official ETS score reporting has to be done by the student to respective Universities and Departments
04	Bank Statement (or Capability certificate)	To be given on bank-letterhead with banker seal and signature, amount to be mentioned equivalent to US$, i.e. minimum US$ 30,000 (amount varies from university to university). Original statements to be submitted in sealed covers
05	Affidavit of Support (a sponsor certificate stating that he/she will be sponsoring the student, and that they have enough financial resources to bear the tuition fee and living expenses)	Original notarized on Rs.20 non-judicial stamp paper and duly signed. Affidavit of Support has to be given by the person who has provided the Bank statement (Sponsor)
06	Statement of Purpose	Maximum of 2 pages and duly signed by the student
07	Copy of Passport	First and Last page
08	Photographs (Passport size)
09	Bio-data	Mandatory
10	Work experience certificate	If applicable
11	Project certificates and Extra curricular certificates	If any