This one is going to sting a little, and that is the point. A good counsellor is not the one who tells you what you want to hear. So let's be honest with each other for seven minutes.
The question nobody asks out loud
Why do you actually want to go abroad? Sit with it. There are good answers and there are answers dressed up to look good.
- For the studies and the career: a specific course, a field that's genuinely stronger there, research you can't do at home, a job market you want to break into.
- For the clout: the airport photo, the "settled abroad" status, the relatives who'll finally be impressed, the feeling that an Indian degree isn't "enough". The Instagram of it.
Most people are a mix. That's fine. But if the second list is doing the heavy lifting, you are about to spend a year's savings and two years of your life on a feeling, and the feeling fades by month three. The EMIs do not.
Here is what no agent will tell you: abroad does not hand-hold
Back home there is always a cushion. Family nearby, a known network, someone who "knows someone", parents who smooth things over. In Germany, France, anywhere abroad, that cushion is gone. Nobody is chasing you to attend class. Nobody calls your parents if you fall behind. No one arranges your internship for you. The system is fair and impersonal, and it assumes you are an adult who will figure it out.
That sounds harsh. It is actually the best thing about it — because it means it rewards exactly the right thing: preparation and effort.
Two students, same flight, different outcome
I have watched this happen again and again:
- The one who was ready researched the course and the city, learned some of the language, started applying for working-student roles and internships in the first semester, networked, treated the degree like a launchpad. By graduation they have an offer, a network, and a post-study visa that turns into a career.
- The one who was not came for the idea of "abroad", drifted, took easy cash-in-hand delivery and warehouse shifts instead of field-relevant work, never built a CV or a network, and is scrambling at the end of the visa with nothing to show. Same opportunity. Wasted.
Nobody rescued the second student, and nobody short-changed the first. That is the deal abroad. The runway is given to everyone equally; whether you take off is on you.
Ask yourself the right questions — before you spend a rupee
- Can I name the exact course and three universities, and say why each, without Googling?
- Do I know what the job market in my field actually looks like there, not just "it's good"?
- Am I willing to do the unglamorous work — the language, the applications, the rejections — for two years?
- If I take away the status and the photos, do I still want this?
- What is my plan for the first six months on the ground, when nobody is guiding me?
If the answers are shaky, that is not a reason to quit. It is a reason to get counsel before you commit.
Go for the right reasons, prepared, and abroad will reward you for the rest of your life. Go for the clout, unprepared, and it will quietly hand you the bill. The choice is genuinely yours — make it with your eyes open.
