Hi everyone,
I am trying to be consistent with my newsletter. Like many things in life I can’t. Today I am going to talk about how you can strategize your Higher Study in Canada or any other country for 2024. I will talk about the timeline and preparation strategy. I basically try to teach this to my mentorship students. If you are not my mentorship student you are in luck. You are getting this information for free (basically every good thing in life is free, we are just too lazy to care if we don’t actually pay for them. 🙁). Now it’s your responsibility to execute them.
Thanks for reading Toma Rahman’s Learning Journal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
FINANCES:
Even before thinking about going abroad you should consider finances. I have said repeatedly in my Youtube videos that you shouldn’t just spend money mindlessly because you watched a Youtube video. You should talk to your parents. Are they financially capable (or willing!) to fund your journey. If you have a fully funded scholarship you would be ok with a 15,00,000 BDT Bank statement. But scholarship is not predictable. Worst case scenario you need to have at least 40,00,000 BDT Ballpark. I know this amount varies with the University. I have made several videos on how to calculate that . Here is the link.
CAN I BORROW MONEY TO SHOW BANK STATEMENT?:
Legally No. You have to have liquid assets in your bank account ready to be spent for educational purposes in Canada. There are some people who got away with fake bank statements. More often than not they got refused. This is extremely risky specially in Canada since they ask for so many backup documents like proof of income and Tax certificate it’s really hard to fake the Bank statement. Don’t get reassured by the agency. They don’t care if you get a ban. You will suffer forever. Also your first blood relatives should sponsor you. We all have a rich uncle. In Canada, a rich uncle card generally does not work as long as both of your parents are alive. So parents and immediate siblings can sponsor you. Husbands and his parents can be another source. Not a great source though.
IELTS:
If you think you are ready to take this challenge, prepare your mind for the upcoming battle. Try to be friends with hard working focused people. They will motivate you. Try to find some friends who are taking IELTS preparation. I didn’t have such friends. I had BCS friends. Worked fine. If you think you need help from a coaching center, get yourself admitted there. All the coaching centers are basically the same. The main preparation is on you. Take as many mock exams as possible. I have made several videos on how to make an IELTS routine, what materials to follow etc. Please watch them. If you are not looking for a scholarship 6.5 no band less than 6 is fine. If you are looking at scholarships you should ideally target at least 7. There are people who got funding with 6.5 but they had other stronger points in their profile. Ideally you should finish the IELTS by the First Week of October. I say first week because just in case your result is not good on the first attempt you can try again without missing the university application deadline.
TRANSCRIPT:
I don’t have much to say. Go to your university and get the transcripts ready. Most universities don’t require hard copy transcripts before admission. For now you are ok with one copy. If your result is above 3.00 you are in the safe zone. I am not saying nobody gets a visa with below 3.00 CGPA. In that case the choice of Public Universities gets very slim. Colleges are the option left for you. Visa ratio in colleges are not great. Finish your transcript by October. If you are a running student studying at the last semester of your academic degree you should contact your desired Canadian University grad coordinator. In most cases they allow you to submit an application with a provisional transcript. I did the same. It was the best decision of my life.
EMAILING PROFESSOR:
You should start emailing prof as early as possible. It’s not mandatory for everyone. Its mandatory for most Science students. For business and Arts it’s optional. You don’t have to wait for your IELTS or GRE result to email prof. You should start emailing Professor Ideally from 6th of September to 15th of October. I will write an in depth newsletter on emailing professors. Watch this video. I think this video covers most of the important topics.
GRE:
Most of the subjects don’t require GRE in Canada. GRE is a must for economics students. If you are business students with limited financial means I strongly encourage you to take GRE preparation. Finish GRE before the end of October. A lot of universities offer research based Management degrees with funding options. But they require GRE. I made a well researched video for business students. It was one of the worst performing videos on my channel. Probably the business people have better things to do 🙁
UNIVERSITY SELECTION:
You should apply 2 ambitious, 2 mid category and 1 safe university. How can I know which university is safe for me? You can check their ranking for starters. But this is not a one size fits all approach. A 3.9 CGPA holders safe university is not the same as a below 3 CGPA holders safe university. You have to take a leap of faith sometimes. Even after doing everything the university might not think you are good enough for them. You should strive for those universities. If a university emails you three times a day (Like Canada West -_-) to get enrolled into their program probably you are not aiming high enough. Finish this part by the end of October.
SOP and LOR:
You should start SOP and reach out for LOR at the beginning of November. Your SOP should not take more than 2 weeks. LOR is a big pain. Keep knocking your professors so that they submit the LOR in time. Try to finish them by 15th of November.
UNIVERSITY APPLICATION:
It’s not really easy to submit a good quality application to a competitive university. I strongly suggest you apply as early as possible. If the universities get good quality candidates early they will send out the offer letters. Ideally you should try to finish the application procedures by the end of November. The university deadline for fall semesters ends in January. Please don’t wait for the last minute. You will eventually make some mistakes. Allow yourself some time to correct them. The universities get really slow during Christmas time. Finish early. That’s about it for now. In the next email I will talk about the ways you can find your research supervisor. Until then pray for my good health. 🙂