Pilot😄

This Blog is for all students and professionals, working in health care. My main focus is to reach out to all the people whoever has a plan of continuing academics or wants to pursue a masters degree in some foreign country.

Hi! 

I am Radha Ryali, a current graduate student at Rutgers school of public health doing masters in Health Outcomes Policy and Economics. I did my bachelors in dental surgery from JSS dental college and hospital, Mysore. I moved to the USA right after my bachelors to pursue masters and this is my story so far,

After graduating and finishing a one-year compulsory rotary internship, I was very skeptical about which career path to consider. I reached out to a few senior who graduated from my college and working in India. They had some amazing insights, although most of them complained about a break in their career trajectory after some days of work. Then I tried reaching out to people who were pursuing MDS, I remember few of them saying that they see it like BDS part 2 and even they were worried about the after degree job hunt. After ruling out these two options, I started thinking about the obvious third option which is moving out of India and pursuing masters in some other country. It seems pretty easy when I say it here, but in fact, it was so stressful to decide which string to pull. As my own brother did the same things even my parents encouraged me to pursue masters out of India and obtain some international exposure. I started reaching out to the people who are already enrolled in a program but I couldn't receive a proper response.

I don't know what stopped them from guiding others in need. I did a lot of networking and was able to reach out to 2-3 seniors and few alum members of my university. Most of them were pursuing their masters in public health. I browsed a few colleges and their courses, but oftentimes I skipped reading the course curriculum and competencies. My eyes directly went in search of something related to public health I thought that is the only viable and meaningful option. I started searching for the best college instead of the best course. I made a list of few best public health schools. I gave my gre and toefl exams. Got the scorecards and started applying to the colleges I am eligible for. The application process is not that easy to go through. It involves a lot of paperwork. While doing this, I came across the consultancy details which my brother opted for during his admission process and I ended up paying them to help me apply to colleges. 

I applied to 5 colleges because the consultancy people told me that odds of me getting into these colleges is bad and better to have more options. I was so stressed about the result. I was not at all confident about my achievements. After a few days, I started getting admission confirmations and ended up getting from all 5 universities. I was so relieved and I opted for the best among them. I ended up at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Luckily the same city where my brother is working. As there was a lot of people applied to the concentration I opted for they asked me to choose some other concentration. I opted for a concentration quite different from my real interest.

After completing one semester of toss and toil I realized my mistake and started searching for other courses and concentrations in my university to which I can transfer to. I was lucky enough to find something which matches my interest and have a promising future, but to be able to come here I wasted a lot of time and money. I thought I alone went through all this drama but later came across five other students who had the same experience.  

In the past few months, a lot of dental and medical undergrad students reached out to me for guidance and to know my experience so far. I don't want them to go through problems which I and some of my peers faced. 

In the next few series of blogs, I am going to post a few things which can be useful for you to make an informed decision and excel in your career doing what you love.