International student success story: From Pakistan to a master’s in finance in the U.S.
Muhammad Rohan is currently earning his master’s degree in finance at the Hult International Business School in Boston, but he’s already thinking of ways to bring what he’s learned back to his home country of Pakistan.
“The very first thing I want to do here in the U.S. is to learn and establish a business model that I can then scale back to my home country,” he says. “Since Pakistan is a developing country, a lot of opportunities that are here in the U.S. are not there.”
Rohan loves diving into data and analytics, and his experience at Hult encourages growth in business analytics.
“I am currently in my first term at Hult, and it’s not just finance but it’s a mix between STEM and finance,” he says. “We have the basic corporate finance, investments, financial management-related stuff. At the same time, we’re also learning a lot about coding languages and data extraction and how to manage databases. That’s something which is going to be really relevant in the coming years due to the growth of AI and big data.”
Before enrolling in his studies, Rohan faced what seemed like uphill financial challenges to cover the costs of studying abroad in the United States. He shares his story of how he overcame those obstacles to begin his master’s program.
Finding funding to study abroad
Rohan had saved for college before starting his education in the U.S., but he was still short of his goal. Before applying to graduate school, the Pakistani rupee lost its value against the U.S. dollar. So what he had saved wasn’t enough to cover his education costs. While Rohan was able to get a scholarship, he still needed more funding to pay for school.
Rohan says there aren’t a lot of student loan options for Pakistani students. “In Pakistan, we do not really have the culture of student loans,” Rohan says.
How MPOWER Financing loans help international students
Because of this, he looked outside of Pakistan, making it a point to explore private student loan lenders who serve international students. Rohan ultimately decided to apply for an MPOWER loan because of the number of MPOWER-eligible schools (400+), MPOWER’s fixed interest rate loans.
“Being an international student, I looked into MPOWER, and overall it just made more sense,” he says. “The payment process was much more stable, and the best part was that the interest rate was fixed. So I don’t really have to worry about my payments fluctuating month to month or year to year.”
As soon as he received his university acceptance letter, Rohan applied to MPOWER and was approved for a loan, he says. “So that is how I am funding my education.”
Study abroad advice for other international students
One piece of advice Rohan has for potential international students hoping to study in the United States is to make sure you know what you want to study before arriving in the U.S.
“Be very sure of what you want to study,” he says. “You don’t just want to waste your money in a program that you may eventually end up not liking.”
Another tip is to have courage and take a risk. It can be overwhelming to study abroad, but he advises students to not be scared of the challenge.
“It’s really challenging, but at the same time, it is possible here,” he says. “The United States has always been the land of opportunity, and it still is. And I believe that if I am putting in hard work, if I am developing the skills, getting down and doing the work, this [is a] challenge I can easily overcome. And also – with greater risk comes greater return.”
