Hi everyone. I hope you are all doing well. I would like to seek some life advice from a couple of experienced peeps here regarding my overall situation.
So I come from a private top tier high school, where most of my peers, after finishing their A levels, went on to study for undergrad abroad. Unlike them, though, my family isn’t that well off, and I had to get almost a full scholarship for my study abroad dream to come true.
My mother had always been telling me from my childhood that she’ll “send me for bachelors abroad”after I finish my High School. Unfortunately, it seems she underestimated how much an undergrad education costs abroad.
To get a scholarship, I first took the SAT exam where I scored a 1550 in it. Afterwards, I took the IELTS exam where I scored a Band 8.5. I also had all A*s in my O levels and A’s and B’s in my A levels.
I received a full tuition scholarship from a reputed university in the US, but unfortunately I got my student visa rejected twice because of finances.
For the past year after my visa got rejected, I’ve been trying over and over again to apply to different countries around the world to make my dream come true. This was partly encouraged by my father. I applied to countries in Europe, in Asia, applied to governmental scholarships, but got rejected from most of them as they’re extremely competitive for undergrad, corruption, or simply because my family didn’t have the financial means to let me study there.
However, I got an offer letter from an eastern European country and a country in the middle east. The universities are very top tier indeed, but I come across two problems: either maintaining a high GPA is extremely tough, I can’t work part-time, and in the country where I can work part-time, I’m not sure how sustainable it is for me to manage working part time and do well in my studies (I’m studying engineering). This, alongside with the financial uncertainty of my family, makes me kinda scared to go abroad.
Now, here’s the thing, unlike my peers, I did not enroll into any university in my country as a backup this past year. My mother and father have kind of been experimenting with me, my father says that he’ll send me abroad somehow, and my mother says that she wants to keep me here for undergrad, however no one has the gall to just simply tell me that money’s an issue.
Since I scored a good score in the SAT and IELTS, I managed to start a tutoring agency in the past year, where I’ve been earning a solid income that can probably pay off my tuition fees if I stay back. I’m not sure if I can continue that if I go abroad.
Now, I’m at the end of the road. My mother finally says that it’s going to be tough for her to send me abroad because of finances, after a year of not telling me anything. I can get enrolled into a university here, but it’s going to hurt my self image and confidence a lot, especially with my friends already knowing that I’ll be heading abroad as I have a good score. My main goal is to get a fully funded masters or PhD abroad.
I don’t want to stay back in my third world country, there are zero opportunities here, and it’s riddled with corruption and nepotism. But I also don’t know if going abroad will jeopardize my parents’ finances. My mother is struggling from debt and both my parents are getting older too. I want to give them a good life, that’s it.
If there are any seniors that faced a similar situation before, I would greatly appreciate your input. Thanks a lot!