[Overseas Graduate School] #3 The story of how I went to graduate school with a public scholarship from the host country

In the previous article, I wrote about the good things about coming to an overseas graduate school and the things that were still tough.

This time, I will write about scholarships.

In my case, coming to an overseas graduate school led to finding a job locally afterward.

However, that choice was not clearly decided from the beginning.

I had a desire to go to an overseas graduate school. I also had a desire to study abroad and, if possible, lead that into finding a job locally.

But it wasn't as simple as just deciding based on wanting to go. The biggest factor was the anxiety about money.

Depending on the location, tuition and living expenses for overseas graduate schools can be a huge burden. For me, having just graduated from a Japanese university, that was a very realistic problem.

Another thing that scared me was choosing a path different from those around me.

At my university, many people went on to domestic graduate schools, and that was the natural path. There was also the option of finding a job in Japan. Choosing to go to an overseas graduate school felt like choosing a slightly different path.

In my case, what turned my anxiety into something quite realistic was the public scholarship from the host country.

I will omit the country name and the scholarship name, but I went to an overseas graduate school by receiving a public scholarship provided by the local European country.

This is not a 'success story of getting a scholarship,' but a story of how I made the option of an overseas graduate school more realistic while having anxiety about money.

If I hadn't had the scholarship, I think I would have delayed my enrollment

To be honest, if I hadn't been able to get that scholarship, I think I would have given up on going to an overseas graduate school at that time.

It's not that I gave up on going abroad entirely. I probably would have aimed for an overseas graduate school again after gaining 2-3 years of experience in Japan. Or, I might have looked for a path to apply directly to overseas companies without going through graduate school.

But at the very least, I think the decision to go to an overseas graduate school at that point would have been quite difficult. That is how great the anxiety about tuition and living expenses was.

Going to an overseas graduate school itself was not the goal, and because I was looking ahead to finding a job locally, I was even more cautious.

I found the scholarship by searching for it myself

I spent a lot of time looking for that scholarship.

I was mainly looking into three things.

• Scholarships provided by Japanese organizations

• Scholarships or tuition waivers provided by the graduate school I was applying to

• Scholarships offered by the country or region where I was planning to study abroad for international students

What I eventually received was a public scholarship provided by the country where I was studying abroad. On the other hand, I was rejected for the scholarship provided by the graduate school.

I felt that it is better to look at multiple possibilities in parallel rather than thinking about narrowing it down to one scholarship. Depending on the system, the requirements, deadlines, and content to be written are all different.

I was able to think it was 50:50 because I had been collecting material

When I applied for the scholarship, it wasn't a complete shot in the dark for me.

Of course, I didn't think I would definitely get it. My feeling was about 50:50.

The reason I could think that way wasn't just because I worked hard on writing the text. It was because I felt I had been collecting material in my own way up until then.

What I learned at a Japanese university. Internships and development experience. The reason I want to study abroad. What kind of career I want to build in the future. Why I want to study in that country. Why that graduate school.

When I lined up those materials, I thought, 'If I can make it into a good story, I might be able to compete.'

However, having the material was not enough.

In my case, I spent about 30 minutes to an hour almost every day for over a month polishing the text for my application documents. Write a little, then correct it. Read it again the next day, and correct it again. Cut out weak expressions. Check if my experience and future story are connected. It was a repetition of that.

What I was particularly conscious of was thoroughly researching what the other party was looking for.

What that country is focusing on. What the university is focusing on. What I have done so far. What I want to do from now on.

It was a process of looking for the overlap.

It was not about pushing only my own experience, nor was it about forcibly conforming to what the other party was looking for. I looked for the intersection where the country, the university, and my experience met, and built my story there.

I did this work quite carefully.

I would like to write a bit more concretely about how I actually constructed the story for my application documents in a future article.

I was really happy when the scholarship was decided

I was really happy when the scholarship was decided.

I thought, 'Oh, studying abroad is becoming a reality.'

Of course, the preparations continued from there. But the worry about money decreased overwhelmingly.

Until then, it was 'I want to go, but I don't know if I can really go.' After the scholarship was decided, it changed to 'There are risks, but I might be able to take on the challenge.'

Also, I was able to write about receiving the scholarship on my CV afterward. Of course, that alone doesn't guarantee a job. However, having gone to an overseas graduate school with a public scholarship became one of the materials to explain what I had been aiming for.

The more you have anxiety about money, the sooner you should look into it

I think there are many people who are interested in overseas graduate school but stop because of anxiety about money. I was the same.

Tuition and living expenses are high. There is also the exchange rate. There is no guarantee that you can find a job locally. There is also the fear of choosing a path different from those around you.

Therefore, I think it is quite natural to feel 'anxious about money.'

But what I can say from my experience is that looking into scholarships was the first step to making my career path realistic.

If you have anxiety about money, first try looking into it.

Check what kind of scholarships are available, what the conditions are, and what documents are required.

Furthermore, once you see what you are lacking, you can gain experience through internships or your current environment, gradually increasing the material you can include in your application documents.

Then, you can think about the overlap between what the scholarship and the graduate school are looking for and what you have done, and take your time to write it down.

Through that process, I believe the option of attending an overseas graduate school will gradually become a reality.

Next time, I will write about what I actually did to build an overseas career starting from a Japanese university.