How Can Poor Students of Pakistan Study Abroad

Dreaming is never difficult and always a fun thing to do. However, it is the planning and implementation that turns these dreams into reality. Many students dream about going abroad for higher education. When they start planning about their dream then instead of getting closer to their goal, disappointment takes over them. Reason are the difficulties in the way of studying abroad. One of the biggest and most common problem is insufficient financial resources to study abroad.

It is during the planning the phase when student realizes that a great deal of finances are required to implement this dream. You don’t just have to pay very big tuition fees of the university but you all the expenses of living there, tickets and visa charges are also there. In addition, some expenses await you even before the visa process like the IELTS or TOEFL test and their preparation, study abroad counselor fees and then registration charges of the institute you selected.

Are You Determined Enough?

Most of the students give up their dreams in this phase deeming it impossible to arrange that financial resources. It gives rise to the question whether it is even possible for poor Pakistani students to gain the experience of studying in a developed foreign country. Answer to that is YES! Only question is if you are determined enough. Once you start the journey, you will see the doors of opportunities opening to you in the way.

I can give a perfect example of a student who is now the Vice Chancellor of BZU Multan and one of the most highly qualified and educated people of Pakistan, Dr. Tahir Amin. His family was also not very strong in the means of finances. But he still worked hard and achieved his goals. He first went to Canada for education in Carleton University. He told us that he had no money and didn’t even know if he could even pay the fees of next semester or come back to home.

A teacher had recognized his problems as well as the potential he possessed and he gave him a grant without even asking. After that Dr. Tahir won many prizes, grants and scholarships and studied at Cambridge University in England, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In future, he even became visiting faculty at Harvard University and Brown University.

 He didn’t know at start if he would be able to make it nor did he have any backup. He was only focused to his goals and instead of making excuses, he just worked hard.

Below I have shared the ways how you can study abroad even if you don’t have money. Only thing you must have is determination and focus toward the goal. Do remember, to achieve such dream, you should even be prepared to make sacrifices. By sacrifice, I don’t mean to shed your bled or sell your house but to sacrifice your comfort zone. You don’t get anything sitting at home. Following methods will help you in studying abroad so make sure you have its complete understanding.

Find an Investor:

A lot students who don’t have enough financial resources use this approach. They find someone who would invest money for their education. Depending on the investor, he/ she may have some conditions. Investor may ask you to work for him/her, return money or anything beneficial for him. There are also some investors who would just check your family background and finance you just for the sake of good. There is no specific website or organization of investors. They are just normal people who are willing to help a student pursue a brighter future. An investor can be your relative, friend, boss or teacher who is rich enough.

Get a Loan:

Loan is the most basic and common way of getting finances to study abroad. You can get loan from a bank or an individual. Loan is the money that is kind of borrowed and you must return according to decided terms and conditions. Some individual may give loan without any interest, it is recommended to find someone like that. If can’t find any, you always have the option of banks. The loan you get from banks have to returned with the proper decided rate of interest. Delay in loan can also cause the interest to increase. In order to get loan from bank, you will have submit something like property documents or jewelry as security.

You may be thinking that even if you get loan, how will you return that big of amount. This is a problem however with simple solution. Make sure you go to country where students are allowed to work part time. You will take loan only or the expenses of first year or semester. Once you start the job, you easily earn enough money to support yourself and your study. With a little savings, you can return the loan within a year.

Win a Scholarship:

That is the most favorite way of all to study abroad if you don’t have enough money yourself. There are a lot of scholarships 

offered by government of Pakistan. In addition, there are also many private and international organizations that provide scholarships or grants. However, these scholarships have to be won. You may have to take part in some competitive exam to fulfill the merit. If you can afford first semester of your studying abroad, you will find many scholarships that are offered by the very university are enrolled in. Just see all the possible scholarships schemes offered for Pakistani students and apply for all of them. Here see Top 8 Tips for Scholarship Abroad.

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Usama Ahmed Awan The Editor of StudyAbroad.pk, Usama is a BZU studied Software Engineer, now  a Teacher, Article Writer, Educational Counselor and Journalist. He has been  writing to assist students selecting the right career path.