I chose a foreign university for my Master’s due to two main reasons. The first being I wanted to pursue research, however, the situation in India is not that great when it comes to funding. The second reason was in India most masters courses in Political Science are qualitative. Only a few private universities have it as quantitative, and my rationale was if I was investing that much money in India, I would rather invest a little more and study at a more reputed university abroad.
Why I chose Sciences Po, Paris for my Master’s degree
I chose a Master’s in Political Science and Government from Sciences Po, Paris (France) because not only it ranks third in the QS World Rankings for the course, it is also more affordable than the UK or US. Plus, a Master’s degree in the UK is for one year and the US requires a four year undergraduate degree. So, in every way Sciences Po was perfect for me.
My degree is very research focussed and since I don’t have to choose a specialisation, the area of study is very broad. The duration of my degree is two years.
I first got to know about Sciences Po when one of their representatives came to our college, Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai and conducted a session. And, coincidentally, I chose to study here.
Admission requirements
For admission to Sciences Po, I had to fill out a form which required Statement of Purpose, Letters of Recommendation, marksheet, and since the medium of instruction was English in my undergraduation I didn’t require an English proficiency test.
I am an Eiffel scholar and the scholarship has cut my education cost by half. I get a living stipend and I only have to pay for my tuition fee. The accommodation provided by the government authorities is a student residence as a part of scholarship. It is centrally located and rent is deducted from the scholarship.
I also obtained a student loan to pay for my tuition fees and other expenses. I took the loan from a government bank, there was a lot of paperwork involved in. However, since my father is an ex-banker, he handled all of that.
A little intimidated, a lot excited
When I started out with my Master’s course, I felt a little intimidated. All of 22, I am the youngest in my cohort, which is very small— a batch of 16 people from around the world. And, people in my cohort have people who have work experience, research experience and a lot more compared to what I have. It was then that I understood the intensity of the competition to get into the course.
The academic life, I feel, is very rigorous, in my first semester I felt quite lost as everything was so different from India. Here, one of my initial classes was Statistics and I hadn’t touched anything barely related to Mathematics since Class 10.
Quant was completely new and different to me, we also learned coding. Over here, the syllabus is all research-based — be it the readings, the discussions or the assignments.
Finally, I found some footing in the second semester. I didn’t apply for any internships or part time jobs as I was figuring out my way around the course in my first year.
College life at Sciences Po
Despite being from different backgrounds, my batchmates and professors are very supportive. I connect with them easily and the classroom atmosphere is encouraging. Students who are selected into this programme are very motivated and it reflects in the class. I learn a lot from my classmates.
The professors, too, are friendly. When we were learning coding (R programming language) or quant, they knew many of us would be doing it for the first time and they would go out of their way to help us. The professors did make things easier for me. After I complete my Master’s, I plan to stick to academia. I plan to pursue a PhD with India being my focus area.
As I have mentioned before, my residence is centrally located, so most places are close by. The student residence is located at the 5th, Paris. All of us have our own rooms with attached washrooms. Each floor has eight people. There is a common kitchen so all of us cook our own meals there. Because of this common kitchen, I have made a lot of international friends and learned about their cultures, food and so much more.
Paris, amies to tackle homesickness
I have quite a network of friends over here — from class, college, my residence and Indians at Sciences Po group. Most of my closest friends are Indians, other than that there are people of different nationalities and ethnicities— two-three Arabs, one Bangladeshi, two-three Europeans. I travel a lot around the city and my most favourite place is Pantheon.
Courtesy : The Indian Express