Myth Shattered !!

Have been busy off late with my preparations to head to the perpetual land of Opportunities - The United States Of America- for my MBA. Got done with one of the biggest pain points of travelling to the USA -the visa - over the last week. The Visa interview was pretty simple and lasted only 2 minutes.

Here is how it went about

Visa Officer(VO): So u r going for a one year MBA in US ?
Me : Yes , sir
VO: Looks at my funding and asks who is funding?
Me: Self and funds from School(loans, Scholarship etc)
VO (Looks at my passport): Oh you have an H1B from XYZ company.
Me : Yes, Sir.
VO: Did you work on the H1B?
Me :Yes sir 15months .
VO: Why did you come back?
me : Personal reasons.
VO: Show me your Degree certificates.
Me: Here they are sir.
VO : Oh you have a degree in XYZ engineering. What are you doing in a IT company?
Me : I do ABC stuff for my company sir .
VO(after listening intently) : You visa is approved. Passport will reach you in 2 days
Me :thank you !!

What is the "myth" I am talking of here? Well this is my 2nd visit to the American Consulate in the last 3 years and I found an interesting new addition to the entire visa stamping experience. The new addition is the manager of the Visa processing division of the Consulate who gives the Visa aspirants a pep-talk on do and don'ts of getting a visa. Apart from the usual "Don't lie", "No fake certificates", the one thing which shocked me was this statement by the Consulate manager. "What do you say when you are asked whether you intend to work in USA post your graduation?" So far the unanimous answer to this question in order to get the visa was "I intend to return back to India as soon as I complete my studies and serve my home country" and every damn so called "Visa consultant" wanted us learn this answer by rote. This despite knowing very well that no one wants to return to India without repaying at least some part of the hefty loan taken for the education and not many actually return without working unless of course you are on Full scholarship or have family business.

But the Visa Consulate manager's answer was "If you want to work in USA post ur studies, be honest about it. I mean how many of the visa aspirants for the F1 student visas want to spend 30K USD on US education and then not have the opportunity to repay it in the fastest possible way". This is the greatest myth I am talking off since I have heard the "No work in USA” statement from hundreds of aspirants of the coveted US Visa.

So next time any of you goes for the visa interview, make sure you are honest and confident about your intentions to go to US and the green Signal from Uncle Sam is yours for sure.

Liberalise Education ...

A world reowned Finance Educational Institute whose degree/qualification is recognized worldwide raises objection to another Institution using it's trademarked Degree Name . The Latter institute as a survival tactic claims that the world venerated institute is illegally offering the course in the Country and obtains a Court Order restricting the International Institute from offering the course.Where e Well I am talking of the CFA charter which initially raised objection to ICFAI using the CFA trademark name. So ICFAI turned the table on CFA and asked AICTE( which regulates the Technical education standards in India) to ban CFA from conducting the charter's Examination till further notice as the CFA charter does not have the AICTE approval. AICTE agrees with ICFAI although it is not sure if the CFA degree comes under it's purview and imposes a ban leaving about 2000 students in lurch.

How Sad !! . The CFA is one of the world's largest Financial Chartered body and it's degree is recognized everywhere in the world. In fact the top honchos in many of the Investment Banks and Equity Research firms in India and world are CFAs.And given that India today is opening all the sectors for Foreign Direct Investments and is allowing domestic companies to invest in Hitherto non existent sectors like organized Retail, Micro Finance etc., I wonder why education is being left out.

I am not saying that the government has not done anything but we still have a long way to go. Take for example the Rai University. It is a Private autonomous University which offers all kind of courses. While I can't vouch for Rai's Quality, I know for sure that it will not have many takers in the market . The reason? It is not recognized by UGC ( the Archiac University Grant's Commission) implying that a Undergraduate from Rai University cannot do a Post graduation in any other University in India. ( I heard that Eventually Rai got an Affilation with other Indian university but never a Full university Status)

While I am not vouching for a Free for all pass to create universities, I would like to see something like TRAI(Telecom REgulatory Authority of India) rule over the University System in India and allow other private universities to operate. Remember what liberal educations policy has done to the Singapore ? Today it has become an educational hub of Asia with likes of Insead, France and University of Chicago(Graduate School of Business) having Asia campuses in Singapore . Wouldn't you as an Indian not like to have Stanford University to open it's Asia Campus in Bangalore, India ?

That would be wonderful and will surely give the likes of ISB,IIMs competition on one hand while providing the Indians the opporunity to get world class management Education without having to cross the Atlantic ocean. Hope the day comes pretty soon. Amen.