Tips for Foreign Studies in Canada

Mihir Trivedi

“It is a big and beautiful world. Most of us live and die in the same corner where we were born and never get to see any of it. I don’t want to be most of us.” – Prince Oberyn Martell, the famous character from “The Laws of Gods and Men”, Game of Thrones.

There’s a saying, “You are always one step away from entirely different life.” That’s very true in case you are planning to go abroad for foreign studies, especially Canada. From deciding the country, the course, the university, your accommodation to your flatmates which can be your fantastic friends or a real pain! I’m Mihir Trivedi and here I’m sharing my experience as an international student in Canada.

In my opinion, anyone who is stepping outside India for study would end up liking that country and would like to get a good job and citizenship eventually. Germany for mechanical and USA otherwise are two great options. However, I chose Canada because that’s the Promised Land for those who are looking for citizenship at the end of the day. Here I would give my opinion on a few most popular countries for study abroad.

USA: Very expensive. Best education. Students struggle a lot at the beginning with finance. World’s top most jobs are here. But lifelong uncertainty of how long they will let you work there.
Germany: Free education. Heaven for Mechanical. Not as friendly as North America.
Australia: Excellent education with high fees. Getting a PR is getting tougher.
Canada: Difficult to get into good University. Colleges give easy entry. Easy PR. Welcoming for immigrants.

I came to Canada at the age of 25 and I already had quite a good work experience and maturity which many people who come here directly after school or undergrad, lack. Having work experience helped me so much that I got an opportunity to work as an assistance professor in my University and I teach C++ and Data Structure to undergraduate students, which gives me financial stability and promising career.

How and When to Begin: If you are planning to pursue Masters you may need to take GRE/IELTS depending upon your university and country. One should be proactive and prepared for these exams during pre-final year of undergrad otherwise you’ll end up wasting a year in India. Get in touch with consultancy for counselling, get connected to people who are already abroad and utilise the time. Fees & Costs: Please note that approx. fees for Masters course can be around Canadian Dollars CAD 50,000 (approx. Indian Rupees 30.00 lakhs, @ Rs.60/- approx. for 1 CAD).Hostel or stay costs and Food, local travel costs are separate. However, you can plan a Bank loan for this from India.

General Admission Process: Graduation program at university requires a supervisor and a student needs to be proactive in terms of convincing a supervisor to accept him. This is just like applying to a job. Once the professor is ready to be our supervisor, our admission is almost there. Sometimes, University just allocates us a supervisor if the criteria matches and they want to offer admission.

Study pattern: Masters is a 2 years course with 3 semesters in a calendar year for Canada. Your program is usually based upon credits not years/semester. For example, in my Masters course I need to get 30 credits (15 credits for thesis and 15 for subjects – 1 subject is 3 credit).

It depends upon the student how long / short s/he wants to keep the course. For example, if I clear 5 subjects and thesis in 1 semester, technically I can finish my masters in a semester. However, practically its not possible. Although, because of this flexibility of take what you can, many people prefer to take the hard way and complete their subjects and thesis (if there is any) before their actual course length.

I’m planning to complete my masters in 5 semesters. I’ll finish my subject which I’ve selected to study e.g. Data Mining, Research Methods, Human Computer Interaction and Introduction to computational science in first 2 semester and I’ll finish my thesis in 3 semester.

Bad Exception: A girl in our program who has taken thesis is struggling a lot to finish her thesis and this is her 3rd year in the university. This is what happens when you dive in without knowing the depth of the water.

Good Exception: One of my seniors finished his Masters in 1.5 years and got hired as a python developer for 85k/year. He paid off his tuition fees while doing on-campus job as assistant professor and porter for residence student.

Things to Avoid: Avoid plagiarism during study. Follow to law of land and do not go for illegal job or illegal extra hours of work to earn more money. Your main purpose is to get better education, high paying job and citizenship / work permit.

Most Important: Right attitude. It’s a very uncertain world out there. Less skilful person with a right attitude might get into a better position than some better than him/her. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and be unsurprised by anything in between.

About My-Self: I’m Mihir Trivedi, son of Jignesh Bipinchandra Trivedi & Anandi Trivedi from Bhavnagar. I did my computer engineering from Vishwakarma College, Ahmedabad followed by working with Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai for 4 years. Currently I’m pursuing Master of Computational Science from Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario, Canada). For any further details, you can contact me via Mobile/WhatsApp (+1 249-360-5901) or Email: mihirtrivedigm@yahoo.in.