Thursday 8 November 2012

Testimonials iGradGlobal





Dear Biruda,

Thank you for your support.
I am delighted to inform you that I got admit recommendation from
University of Maryland. Please help to work further.

Warm Regards,
Laxminag Mamillapalli  Hyderabad  Vanderbilt University - USD 20,000 scholarship


“It is been a journey for me , as i started my application process long back in July . Her counseling sessions , preparation for an interview and the care to complete the application is commendable. She guided me through and made sure that I will get an admit . You can reach out to her at any point during the process at any time . She stuck with my decisions and helped me achieve my goals. It was my pleasure working with her and I'm really thankful for the time you took out for the applications.All the best !!!!” April 28, 2011

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Good Value
1st Pradyumna N  hired Biruda as a Career Counselling in 2011

Hi Biruda,

Thank you very much for your support and guidance through out the process. The mock interviews and preparation sessions were really helpful. The follow up mails and skype sessions have been really helpful. You always made sure we are updated with all the details regarding the admission procedure. Thank you very much for that dedication.
Thanks and Regards,
Sourabha J



“I have been receiving career consultation from Biruda since September 2010 till today and it has been a worthy experience. Her in-depth knowledge about every university in the world amazes me. She is a very knowledgeable, approachable and vastly experienced. All through the process, right from giving GMAT till getting an admit, she has been very supportive and helpful. It has been my pleasure and honor to work with her and realize my dreams of attaining a deserving admission in a reputed university.” April 11, 2011
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Good Value
1st Prakash Kamath  hired Biruda as a Career Coach in 2010
  



“Biruda has been very helpful throughout the application process. She is very hardworking, well organized, disciplined and very well knows how to manage things and meet deadlines. The quality of her that amazes me most is that she remembers every small detail of all her clients and never misses any point. Her knowledge about the universities across the world is commendable. She is easily accessible and very patient in listening to the clients and giving them the right advice. I wish her all the success in her career.” May 1, 2011
Top qualities: Expert, Good Value, High Integrity
1st Sanjeev Pandey  hired Biruda as a Career Coach in 2010

This is what I have to say:

I think the Application Counselling program has been really helpful throughout. I can actually feel the
difference it has made to the entire application process. And the fact that I actually ended up referring a friend of mine to join the program speakes volumes about it.

Regards,
Mihir G  - MBA  SCM - University of British Columbia Class 2014



“When I first met Biruda, I didn't even have a clear direction for my career aspirations. Her career counseling sessions helped me understand my strengths and weakness.Using her exceptional knowledge of courses abroad she guided me in the direction of a course which fits me best. Thanks to this guidance I was able to get admitted in 5 out of 6 universities which I applied abroad.
She is also a very enthusiastic person, being around her makes you feel positive! Its been a pleasure knowing her.” April 6, 2011
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
1st Saipriya Kamath  hired Biruda as a Career Coach in 2010


I received a lot of help with regards to enhancing and presenting my profile to attract the B-Schools.
May it be editing essays, filling application forms, sending communications to B-Schools, I always got everything reviewed through Biruda, even at very short notice. The reviewed material was highly succinct.
I never hesitated to call Biruda for even the slightest of doubts and received clear solutions in return. At times, I even called for motivation and received lots of it in return.
To sum it all, I would say I am highly grateful for all the help I received for my applications for MBA. 

Thanks and Regards
Rahul Kewale (Mumbai)  - MBA  ESADE ,Spain  Class 2013


 “She is a schedule-works-best person, and helped me to complete loads of application processes in time thanks to her impeccable commitment in sticking to the schedule. Thanks to her that I managed to go from donno-what-to-do to I-got-5-outof-5-admits. Extremely helpful in bringing out the best out of a person, and in providing expert guidance in matters of college admissions. She knows the pros and cons of vast majority of courses and colleges that its better to follow her advice than to rely on the questionable ratings. Thanks to her that I was able to choose between a couple of very different courses when I was in a big dilemma, and further on to get the best out of the selected course with admission from every university applied.” April 22, 2010
Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, High Integrity
1st Karthik Ananthasubramanian  hired Biruda as a Career Coach in 2009

Hi Biruda,

Thank you for your support and guidance. With your help, I have got into two MBA schools:

University of Maryland, Smith- Admitted with a GA (overall, 19k per year)
(After assuming GA for 2 years, fees: USD 57k)

University of Pittsburgh, Katz- Admitted with a scholarship (overall 7.5k per year)
(After deducting the scholarship for 2 years, fees: USD 41k)

Regards,
Anant Bhatia (Pune)


“After talking to her, all my concerns and inhibitions about the whole Visa procedure just faded away..! she is just so personable and explains the things in a very clear and convincing way. Frankly, I was li'l skeptical about consulting her since she is Bangalore and I was in NOIDA and wondered how all this is gonna be held. But inspite of the distance, she successfully conducted the sessions and guided me no less effective than a face-to-face interaction. I would strongly recommend her service for her expertise and experience..!” June 27, 2010
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
1st Hrishikesh Deshpande  hired Biruda as a Visa Consultant in 2010


 “Her awareness about opportunities abroad is amazing. Personally, she helped me nail down the areas in my profile that needed working on as I was applying to universities in the US for my PhD. In fact, with her inputs I was able to convert 5 out of my 9 applications into admits - many of them with scholarships too. Further, her way of handling the visa application process was admirable - right from conducting sessions by professionals, down to offering highly personalized tips and alternatives. She has a lot of patience, a lot of knowledge and wisdom that people stand to benefit from.” May 18, 2009
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
1st Biren Parmar  hired Biruda as a Career Coach in 2008

Monday 5 November 2012

International Education - expanding horizons




                        Down memory lane… a decade long journey.
   Been there and done that enriches our experiences and helps us tread on this known path with informed certainty. A narration of the various trends in international education follows bellow.
I have been following these trends closely for about 12 years now, as a student in the 1990’s and later as a global admission consultant. I can vividly relate to  how international education has expanded and spread far and wide globally even to developing countries like South Africa , from being a mere concept synonymous with studying in the USA/UK as was the case with our grandparents, owing majorly due to lack of liberal foreign policies and the non- availability of English medium instruction.
Today globalization has evolved global education as well with a dearth of opportunities available to students and professionals with a wide array of subjects, locations, pricing to choose from.
Why International Education??
         The rise in the income levels and global opportunities in terms of social status
         New emerging fields  and Increased financing options
         Availability of low cost destinations like NZ and Singapore and Europe
         Preference of Global resources for jobs  
             You might be overwhelmed to know that the total number of students travelling to pursue global education each from India alone is around  100,00,000  !! and it is equally perplexing to choose from the 3000+ accredited universities that USA alone has to offer , leave aside the other colleges across the globe. So how does one rummage through this maze of information overload and be at the right place at the right time. Here my experience of been a student myself made me wonder what if there was able guidance provided to students to streamline their application process, answer their silliest of queries and guide and mentor them to gain admission to a reputed university.
            The year 2000 saw   a lot of players offering entrance test ( GRE/GMAT/SAT) preparation to necessary to secure admits to globally reputed universities but lacked the expertize of admission  consultants who could advice students/professionals in their choice of careers to make it large in the emerging global careers through Masters, Bachelors , MBA’s and PHD degrees. This advice was offered to students based on either:
·         the student merit and entrance test scores or
·         through tie-ups with Universities where the consultants were given hefty commission for routing students to these universities.
The number of students travelling abroad has grown by almost 10 – 30 % every year. The admission consulting market has seen a huge surge in terms of numbers and revenue esp since last decade , for example I have  counselled 250 students in year 2003 and 500 + students in years 2006 – 2009 each with a revenue growth of 5 times each year  starting with a  mere USD 200 per case to about USD 1000 per case.
            Having placed over 1000+ students globally since the past decade has given me the confidence of setting up iGradGlobal.in .Since this industry has been plagued with lack of processes and systems here we would like to customise/automize the application process for students as much as possible by providing regular alerts, their own planner(with timelines)and also make it location independent and run the process through the use of online media like skype, live chat, webinars and videos conferences etc. for effective and prompt communication. We would also like to provide assistance to students with value added services e like Forex , bank loans , health insurance, ticketing, mobile / internet connectivity , courier etc. and are open to partnering with the best in the industry.
 What sets you apart in this competitive space of Global Admission Consulting is empathy for the students since you are handling someone’s career, fair play to provide what a student truly deserves and offering to be more than a mentor who grooms the student’s overall development since he/she would be working closely with you for almost over a year.
Future road map: There is an upward movement in this industry for those who would like to make this a career choice or business opportunity 
·         The Entrance Examination Training market is around US$ 2 billion in the US and US $ 200 million in India.
·         The US embassy in India has said that the number of student visas issued has increased by 18%, from 39 ,958 in 2010 to 46 ,982 in 2011
·         This could expand in the future and prove to be a lucrative investment option.

Hence it is but worth taking this less treaded professional path which touches the lives of so many youngsters who would be connected with you lifelong through a never erasable faith, trust, confidence and mutual collaboration thus generating great good will and word of mouth for future business expansion.