My MBA Application Journey -- Part 1

It was early 2012 and I just got a notification from Eindhoven that I was admitted to one of their masters programs but WITHOUT scholarship. I was happy at first, but then the stress of securing any funding haunted me. How am I gonna pay for my tuition and stuffs? It's not like my parents are rich or something or I make lots of money to fund my grad school abroad.

So I left their offer, the second chance to study abroad, right there. I had to refuse their offer. It was all about the money, sadly. (Yes, it was my second chance. The first one was from TU Delft. I turned down their offer for personal reasons back then. I wrote a post about it in this blog.)

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But I still wanted to go to grad school!

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After that emotionally *devastating* reality, I began to think. Think. How am I going to pursue a grad school without any money? What actually are my motivations to go to grad school? What is my passion?

Then, learning from experience, I know exactly that money shouldn't be a problem for not continuing my education. My passion for going to grad school is way bigger than all these money matters, I thought.

There's gotta be some way.

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It took me sometime to realize that I actuay want to do an MBA. An MBA is not just a graduate program, an MBA is more like a way to transform yourself, professionally and personally.

An MBA will definitely upgrade my business skills and knowledge, which I began to develop after working for some time in my current job. An MBA will definitely help me reach my career goals.

And I want to do it abroad, for obvious reasons.

I got the chance to met some US MBA alumns sometime later. Successful people. And they're Indonesians! Really inspiring. I made some connections with them - read: exchange our business cards, be friends on facebook & LinkedIn.

And that just made me more determined to get an MBA. I want to be like them. I want to lead organizations. I want to run things. I want to inspire people.

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Right, so an MBA. How?

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It amazes me where a laptop + a good internet connection can lead me to.

So yeah, basically Google is my friend.

Once you know what you're after, you'll be surprised by the amount of information you can get. And that's just a very small step of your entire MBA application journey.

(to be continued)