In the last few decades, Bangladeshis going abroad to pursue their higher studies seems to be a common phenomenon but with the increasing competition, some are making their way to the world's top-notch universities as well due to their extraordinary capabilities. With the results of fall 2022 getting published, we will be hearing from Tanveer Mahmood and Md Azhar Uddin Bhuiyan who are teachers of two public universities in Bangladesh and also respectively got into The Pennsylvania State University in the USA and University of Cambridge in the UK this year to pursue their dream of higher studies.
Studying Economics at Penn State: Tanveer Mahmood is a lecturer at the University of Dhaka in the Economics Department who got into Penn State this fall funded through Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA), apart from Penn State he also got offers from Rutgers University, Georgia State University and Rice University. Tanveer Mahmood was also a student of the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka with a very nerdy student profile in his bachelor's and master's.
With his interests being in applied Microeconomics and Econometrics, he started his PhD journey this August. He considers that only a few universities can provide him with the skills that he requires to pursue his research interests, hence he picked Penn State before any other ones.
Tanveer's primary plan is to get back to Bangladesh and continue being in academia after the completion of his PhD. He wants to work on the gaps in econometric analysis in Bangladesh's quantitative research base as well.
Getting into the top universities for higher studies requires going through a hectic application process. While talking about his application process for the universities he mentioned, "An applicant should focus on building an overall profile while applying for admission. Besides good results and good GRE scores, the grad schools want a well-rounded person in the USA."
Letter of Recommendation (LOR) and Statement of Purpose (SOP) need to be attractive enough as well. Tanveer's SOP had a narrative style of letting the admission committee know how affectionate he was about Economics from the very first. When it comes to LOR, he took one from his workplace and two from his faculties.
In addition to that, he thinks having experiences of a few research studies and publications in peer-reviewed journals made his application quite stronger than other candidates. As most of the universities in the USA require GRE for master's and PhD programmes, so it is important but not as much as the overall profile of a candidate.
"Remember GRE score is important but it's not the most important thing in your application. You need to check out what is the average profile of the successful applicants and try to achieve scores similar to that. 'GradCafe' is a good source to find relevant resources," Tanveer mentioned.
With the ongoing competition growing every season, Tanveer advised that students who are in their junior and senior years and want to get accepted into the top universities should start searching for the right programmes and requirements to get into those programmes.
"Prepping for the IELTS and GRE during the vacations and reaching out to professors with research ideas would really help them to get prepared."
From Moot Court competitions to Cambridge's Law dream: While Tanveer Mahmood preferred the USA for the Economics stream, Md Azhar Uddin Bhuiyan preferred to apply to the UK to pursue his dreams of higher studies in Law. He thinks the UK's legal system resembles Bangladesh more than any other in the world. As a law academic and adviser to Bangladesh Competition Commission, he felt the need for higher education because, with the upcoming graduation of Bangladesh to developing country status, the country is going to face newer challenges in protecting rule of law in the commercial sector.
Md Azhar Uddin Bhuiyan is a lecturer in the Department of Law at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). This year he got admitted into the Master of Law (LLM) programme at the University of Cambridge with a Chevening Scholarship. His future plan is to be in academia, preparing the next generation of activists, academics, lawyers and judges capable of dealing with highly complex issues of law. He also wants to advise the Bangladesh Competition Commission better with new knowledge learnt from the best professors in the world at Cambridge.
Since Chevening requires a huge process of application, Azhar gave us some insights about it. "Application of Chevening is a tedious process. You need to write four essays on your leadership experience, influencing capacity, your potential to serve both the UK-Bangladesh relationship and your preferred course choices in the UK. Based on these four essays, the Chevening Secretariat makes a shortlist of candidates to be followed by a one-on-one interview. Finally, the interview determines the scholarship decision."
Azhar thinks the applicants should try to show that they are a complete package starting from academic excellence, to leadership experience, to policy-making as Chevening looks at an application holistically.
For top-tier UK Universities, all require IELTS 7.5 with 7 in each of writing, listening, speaking, and reading. In the statement of purpose (SOP), the students can focus on their research interest, past works, and future plan and how the particular programme can connect their past work and future plan. Letter of Reference (LOR) is very important for admission as top-tier institutions place heavy reliance on the words of professors.
"To get an excellent LOR, the students should consider working with their respective professors in the research projects. If you look around, you'll get plenty of such opportunities. You just need to grab them," Azhar mentioned.
Extra-curricular activities (ECAs) should be subject related if it helps you connect to a network of your career path and choice. In addition, some general ECAs like debating, minor sports etc. always help for Chevening.
But just like Tanveer, Azhar also thinks having publications is always a plus point. Azhar too had a number of international publications when he applied, so he believes they played a very good role in his selection.
For the current student to dream to walk through the path of Cambridge with Chevening, Azhar said, "They should keep studying hard, maintain extraordinary grades, involve themselves with voluntary work, take leadership roles to get the opportunities."
Both faculties made their way into the world's top-notch universities with their hard work and calibre. They also feel like it is persistent hard work which helps you to reach your particular dream of higher studies. It is now or never!
The writer is studying Development Studies at the University of Dhaka.
tahseenjahan17@gmail.com