At university, being a freshman, my vision was blurred about the course to take. I was torn between Journalism and Information Systems Technology. I wanted to study Journalism because it seemed like an interesting course to take and probably easier than IST. On the other hand my parents wanted me to pursue IST. This was clearly a problem and at the time I didn’t understand why my parents were so adamant about their decision. Eventually I chose IST, now for most people this may seem like a mistake because we are meant to follow our dreams. But in order to follow your dream you have to wake up at some point. We might not think our parents are always right but they are wise, pursuing IST is the best decision I have ever made. I enjoyed the course and most of all the challenges. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I joined the United States International University (USIU) after my high school in 2007. Unlike most of my friends I decided to skip doing diploma’s at IAT or Alliance Francais/Goethe and went straight to university. The reason for my decision then was because I had not decided on my career path, hence undertaking a diploma in specific areas might not have benefited me in the long run.

IST is viewed as a difficult course by most students in USIU and initially I got a lot of discouragement. I was informed that most students who took IST changed their major after a few semesters. Secondly, very few female students enrolled for the course. I expressed my fears to my elder brother who majored in IT and he gave me the simplest advice that changed my perspective on education as a whole “There is no easy course: Journalism is not any easier than IST or Business Administration or International Relations and so on”.

The graduation day was the most exciting day of my life: the sense of achievement and pride was enough to forget all the sleepless nights spent on assignments, projects and studying. The nerve-wracking and happiest moment was the walk to the podium as my name was called out for all those attending to witness my achievement. That moment alone was a taste of what success in the real world was and it got me craving for more. However, once that day was over it was back to the real world what next?

Masters Degree Refines Careers

During my last semester I did my internship at East African Breweries Limited for 14 weeks. Being an IT intern was not an easy of jobs. I spent a number of days wondering if carrying computers from point A to B or connecting a cable to a printer was worthy the three-year IST degree course at USIU! I realized that having a degree was not enough. All that I had picked up in those three years at USIU were basic skills in the IT and professional orientation.

I spoke to my mentor, my brother, and expressed all my frustrations and mostly my fear that I would spent the rest of my life doing something that was not fulfilling or challenging. He advised me to go ahead and do my masters where I could choose a specific course towards my desired career path. I chose a project management course taught in the UK and began the application process.

In May 2010 I met a representative from one of the universities. He informed me that there is a big difference in the UK and American system in terms of teaching methods and that I might find the UK system more challenging than the American systems. He explained that it would be wiser to pick a university outside London because the fees and living expenses would be cheaper for a student and it would be easier to adjust to the new environment in a smaller city.

I applied for the September 2010 intake and because I had to apply before graduating I would only get a conditional offer. A conditional offer meant that I would have to fulfill a few conditions before they could accept my application. In order to get the unconditional offer I would have to graduate before September and with a GPA of 3.0 and above.

Immediately I got my results in late August I sent them to the school and because I had met their conditions my application was accepted. The September intake is scheduled to begin in September 13, 2010 and my results are out in August 30. With the new Immigration Laws in the UK the university would have to send a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) number to me that I would use to apply for my visa. Initially, I expected to get the CAS within 2 to 3 days so I was still confident that I would apply for my visa early enough. A week went by then the second week and still nothing happened. At this point I began to give up on the probability of applying for a visa for the September intake.

Communicating with the school was stressful because of the difference in time and the different public holidays. There was a delay in sending of the CAS numbers to applicants because it was a new system to the university hence they were experiencing backlogs and crashing of systems. The university was also relying on the UK Border Agency which was supplying all the universities in the UK with the CAS numbers.

I finally got my CAS number by the end of the week 3 after a lot of anxiety and applied for my visa on the day the university opened (September 13). The advantage of being an international student is that the university offers an extended deadline for reporting to school which helps for visa application purposes.

Applying for the visa is a fast and easy process with the new system. There are fewer documents required and the information collected by the agency is straight forward. Submission of the application takes 20 to 30 minutes depending on how long the queue is. Once you’ve submitted the forms it’s back to anxiously waiting for the outcome for another 2 weeks.

Incidentally during my last 2 weeks as an intern I was posted to work with the Project Management team. This fired up my desire to pursue my masters in project management. My greatest fear about studying overseas is competing with other students from all over the world who may have had more exposure with technology or who may have more working experience than I hence making it easier for them to apply their experiences to the course. However, I am ready for the challenge and hope that  exposure to a new system and environment will guide me to my ultimate goal, success in the IT profession.

By: Mercy Birgen, a Masters Student at the University of Birmingham