So I've come to a conclusion ... I hate America and I hate being an American. I don't hate Americans though.
Post #2 has been replaced with my update log. Let's see how my journey to find a loophole goes.
So this is going to be more of a rant concerning some recent discoveries that affect my current life plan. Yup, I'm a young adult who thinks his life is even more ruined than it already was. I'm officially at the pinnacle of my quarter life crisis! If you don't want to hear the rantings of a young person confused about life, feel free to leave. But I am wishing for some advice and guidance from those more wiser than I as well as any engineers that can offer some clarification.
For those of you who are less interested in reading the next post, here is a general overview of my problems (the full version is in post #2):
- I travelled to the UK last winter for a month and fell in love with it.
- Love the people, love the culture, love the scenery.
- So much so, I made it my life plan to move there after university and get a job.
- Currently, I am key on living (and dying) in that damn place!
- Getting a job there comes with a few problems:
- Most English engineering students get their MEng (Masters) - four years.
- Here in the US, I am getting my Bachelors (BEng) - five years (though I am getting two degrees)
- To get MEng, I will have to go to school for another 2-3 years (after the two more I have left for BEng).
- Wasn't going to get MEng for a few years anyways. Wanted to move to UK, work, get it later.
- English students get real-world, practical engineering experience
- I sit in a class for 3 hours a week listening to all theory with no practical.
- UK requires MEng to get various accreditations there (as far as I know)
- I will not have my MEng for probably 5-6 years (money issues).
- English education is more in-depth than mine.
- Probably hard (re: impssible) to get hired in UK with lesser degree, no real-world experience, less knowledge, and no accredidations compared to all the English graduates.
- Does my degree and education really cause as much of a problem as I think? Any English engineers here?
- I am considering doing a study abroad at a UK university for a semester.
- I want to see if I really do love living in the country long term, vs just my vacation.
- I want to experience the more in-depth and practical education.
- I want to immerse myself in the culture I hope to live in.
- And the usual finding myself and exploring the world while I'm young.
- I can directly apply to any university and my university is fine (assuming I take equal courses)
- Bristol Univerversity is an amazing school for all of my degress and it would be very good for me.
- My GPA is more than above the requirements and I am sure I could get in.
- Tuition at Bristol University (the cheapest on my list) is around $7,400/semester (2k more than my uni)
- This does not cover things like housing and food and travel.
- I get around $10,000 a semester from the government to pay for school (although some of that is loans)
- If I apply to Bristol, I will have $3,000 + savings to live off of.
- Total, I was expecting (liberally) it to be around $16-17,000, including the $10,000 aid.
- Sounds pretty doable to me
- Study abroad has lots of problems.
- While I can apply to any university, my government aid ($10,000/semester) will not pay for it.
- Not only will they not pay for it, applying directly to a foreign university will COMPLTELY STOP ALL FUTURE AID.
- My two years left in universiy will cost me around $35,000.
- Without the government aid, I will have to pay all that out of pocket (and then pay back the $30,000 in loans I already have)
- The reason for this is I will have to essentially unenroll from my university while abroad.
- To get the aid, I have to maintain full enrollment until I graduate (or five years have passed)
- Applying directly will cost me the expect $16-17,000 out of pocket plus cost my all future aid.
- You might be wondering how students can do study abroad then and not get fucked up.
- Well they do get fucked over, just in a different way.
- That $10,000 aid can go towards study abroad IF I apply to one of the programs my university offers.
- If using a supported program, I do not unenroll and thus I keep the aid.
- There are about 100 such programs at my university, all with different prices and restrictions.
- Theses programs are 90% done by third parties (with a few direct-university exchanges, but those rarely go through at my university.)
- Each program is for a different foreign university and they all have extreme markups on the prices.
- That $7,500 Bristol tution, well now the third-party charges me over $16,000 for it.
- Are some extra benefits to it (bus pass, airport pick up, welcome dinner).
- But I don't need those, I can eat and ride train just fine. Nor does that stuff cost $9,500.
- So I've already blown my entire term budget on just the third-party tuition fee alone.
- Add another $5,000 to that for living expenses and I'm in the red.
- Now, the government will pay $10,000 of that, but that's not even the marked up tuition cost.
- Before it would pay for the tuition and I'd have $3,000 left over to spend on other things.
- In addition to this, I am limited to which univesities I can study at and to the courses I can take.
- My university and department does not care where I go to school, as long as I take equal classes.
- The government who pays for my university, does care however and moreover requires third-party compinaies with insane markups.
Morel of the story ... I'm fucked off! And feel rather cheated and a victem of a money-hungry country.
So any advice people?
I'm basically graduating with a degree that might not help me get a job in a country where I want it. It will also not really be the degree I was expecting. Electrical Engineering is wonderful but the education I am receiving is super shit and not at all what I was thinking I was paying for. It truly is, more or less, paying for a sheet of paper. I paid to learn things, things that I can't learn simply by reading a textbook; not to just listen to people talk and get a paper that says I am qualified to do something that I really don't know how to do.
In addition to this, I really can't seem to study abroad like I really really want to. I want to do this to get some things out of my life that I currently cannot: a taste of a sweet ass education, immersed in a cool culture, a chance to see what I want.
So that's it from a young guy going through his quarter-life crisis who was hoping to have a very awesome and unique experience but now can't because of the stupid rules placed on him by his government (as well as his sub-level education that isn't at all what he was expecting).