Shiksha got in touch with one of their students, Vaibhav Patil – who went on to pursue Masters in International Business Management from the Rennes School of Business in France. Let us learn about his study abroad journey.
Q. Tell us your name, which city you are based out of and what are you currently doing?
Vaibhav Patil: My name is Vaibhav Patil and I am from Pune. Currently, I am pursuing my Master's in International Business Management from the Rennes School of Business in France.
Q. How was your experience with the Shiksha Counselling Team? How did you discover us?
Vaibhav Patil: My experience with Shiksha has been really good. My assigned counsellor assisted me in the university application journey and also included me in the process. I was informed about important aspects of the study abroad journey that I was not earlier aware of. I was pretty happy with my overall experience and was happy to recommend the services of Shiksha Study Abroad Counselling to my friends wanting to study abroad for the admission process.
Q. Please share your journey while applying abroad?
Vaibhav Patil: My journey has been tough, to begin with. Selecting the appropriate university from the huge list of universities is a major hurdle. It is important to select a university-based on multiple factors such as course content, programme treatment, university recognition, tuition fees, scholarships, employability and so on. It is here that Shiksha helps you to choose the right university and assists you in the admission process. The Shiksha Study Abroad consultants shortlisted a set of universities based on my preferences and I was happy to make my selection from the list.
Q. What did you think was the most challenging part of applying to universities abroad?
Vaibhav Patil: The most challenging part for me was to find suitable accommodation within my budget. I was lucky as I was able to pursue my accommodation team at the university, to grant me a CROUS – these are publicly owned residences and subsidized by the French government. In short, government hostels. Getting CROUS accommodation helped me save a lot of money because accommodation at a CROUS is not really expensive as compared to other apartments provided by your colleges (CROUS accommodation rate per month: €450 in Paris; €350 on average elsewhere in France). I would say that this was the most challenging part of applying to universities abroad. The rest was taken care of by Shiksha Counselling Services, members of my family and friends.
Q. Tell us about your visa application process?
Vaibhav Patil: The visa process can be daunting as there is a certain amount of mystery attached to the process – you don’t know the outcome. Initially, the visa process was a tad scary as it was my first time applying for a France Student Visa. However, my assigned counsellor at Shiksha assisted me in understanding and meeting the required documents checklist. Minute details such as attestation rules, document presentation and notarization of documents and much more were meticulously shared by my counsellor for a smooth visa processing.
Q. One piece of advice to future study abroad aspirants?
Vaibhav Patil: Keep going. Don’t lose hope early as there will be a lot of obstacles in your journey to studying abroad. However, every problem is bound to have a solution and if not, you always have the Shiksha team waiting to help you. So my advice to all those students interested to study abroad would be, if you have made up your mind about studying abroad, then keep moving till you reach your destination.
Q. Three words that come to your mind to describe Shiksha Counselling Services?
Vaibhav Patil: First will be friendly, second will be helpful, and third will be adequate. Adequate because the Shiksha counselling team is enthusiastic to assist you but they will not spoon-feed you the entire application process. Candidates would also have to be involved in the application/admission process. Personally, it is always better to be involved in the application process with the right guidance from a counsellor than have someone else do everything for you. So going forward, I would advise students to not be spoon-fed. Because being part of the application process will only prepare you for your time ahead at the university. So to sum up, I would like to thank the Shiksha Counselling Services for their efforts and would like to wish all the students wanting to study abroad, all the very best.
We at Shiksha would like to wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
Sagar Sharma completed his Bachelor of Business Administration from Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun with first class in 2015. He has been employed in the education sector for the past five years. Having w Read Full Bio
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