So hello everyone.
Today I am going to take you on a big adventure.
I'll be sharing my four years of journey.
How I was able to afford my 1 crore tuition fee
and how I paid most of the tuition fee by myself
starting from my second year.
And how I made it possible even with the inflation on rate.
You can take a look at my I-20.
My tuition fee in the first year was 35k dollars.
And 48k dollars till the last year.
So how I was able to beat inflation?
Even though my tuition fee kept increasing
but still I was able to pay it on my own.
So let's get started.
So let's start the journey
before my first year of college.
I just have one request.
Please do check out my four years of college
in four minutes, so that you understand things.
Regarding my family background,
my mom was a retired doctor
because of her illness.
And my Nani was retired principal
due to whom I could actually come.
I could actually come due to both of their savings.
So basically the journey in 11th and 12th
I had only one goal - to do well in JEE Mains,
Advanced and Boards.
There was only a single target.
But luckily, or unluckily for my parents-
when they got the shock of the tuition fee-
so unluckily for my parents, luckily for me
I got to know from my school, I was in the-
one of the best schools of Amritsar,
Spring Dale Senior School, from there I got to know
that I can go abroad
The road that I had never seen in my mind,
that opened in some way- that's how I felt.
Because in our school, many people
from Universities like University of Waterloo, University of Toronto-
not from big schools but from many Universities of Canada
people were coming for promotion
to attract students to Canada.
Since it was Punjab so there were more promotions from Canada basically.
So that's why I knew that it is an option
but the road to US hadn't opened yet.
But one day there was an event of college board.
I was in my 11th grade- end of 11th grade
If it was in the starting of 11th, things could have been different.
But till 11th, I was only preparing for JEE Mains.
That event acknowledged me. The road to US opened.
And the main reason this door opened
because I always wanted to do Computer Science in college
I knew that if I go outside, I could get CS if I wish to.
Maybe I won't get it in India.
That's why I was certain and this is how I convinced my parents.
Took my ACT, SAT.
Got 27 in ACT.
That was decent.
Started applying.
And you can say this was a privilege or
some advantage I had.
My uncle and aunt were here
so Georgia somehow became a preference.
Not because I had a preference.
Because my Nani we more satisfied, more happy
to let me come to Georgia.
So that's why I applied to Georgia State University, Georgia Tech,
four more schools all over the US
but my score in ACT wasn't that good
And I never used to get good marks in English
So that's why I couldn't perform well in reading
of ACT and SAT.
So that's why I could get into only one school
in the US.
And from there my journey of undergrad started.
Now, the first year tuition fee was 35k dollars.
Now you will ask how I got scholarship.
I used to read stories daily through the Great Indian Dream group.
There's a Facebook group called the Great Indian Dream Group
where I used to read stories daily.
This guy got accepted in University of Michigan
What was the score? What was the process?
This guy got accepted in GaTech? What was the score and process?
By reading those stories- One story of GSU popped in as well.
I knew that if I go here
not just scholarship
but I will also get a good opportunity to be in a Tech city.
For example, if you get accepted by two schools,
one, whose ranking is very good.
It's a great University but the location isn't that great.
But in some other school where you can get a scholarship
the location is great as well
and the fee is less
what would you choose?
I obviously chose this
Atlanta city
where I got a great exposure to the Tech world.
And the fees wasn't much.
Now, the fees- it was still high- 35k dollars.
I convinced my parents because I promised them
in the first year you give me 25 lac Rupees
because the dollar rate at that time was around 70.
And I will handle it myself later onwards.
Now, let's talk about how I managed
from my first year.
So I entered in my first year,
I had two priorities.
Number one, on-campus job,
number 2, to get scholarship from my second year.
That was pretty much guaranteed if you get
a GPA above 3.5
which I got- that's a later story.
But let's first start about on-campus job.
My best friend Naman told me that
there was an availability in dining hall. Why not try it out?
But there, the availability was only of late hours.
From 12 am in the night to 3 am in the morning
these were the only shifts.
I tried, I gave my shot
worked for a week
but luckily I got a job at a math tutoring centre.
I used to get 8.5 dollars an hour there as well.
I used to get same money on both places.
In one place for lifting tables, cleaning the dishes
and in the other place for teaching.
Which one will I choose?
I definitely chose the tutoring job
where I got to learn many things.
And I was able to make 400 to 500 dollars per month
from which I could only manage little expenses.
Because my dorm fee was 700 and around 200 for food.
900 dollars were my monthly expenses in 2016.
And the tuition fee was another thing.
So I didn't manage everything alone.
But I kept managing with the money that used to come from India.
Then came almost the end of first year.
Then I decided that this is do or die situation now.
I have to either learn or die!
I explored all options.
I did courses on Android all over Coursera an Udemy and stuff.
Applied for internships everywhere.
And luckily after 20 applications
I got an internship at one place
where I got my first full time internship salary
by which I got around 10k dollars plus
in my summer semester,
because when you study in the US for a year,
you can do full time internship anywhere in the campus-
off campus as well.
But that should be related to your major.
For example, I was a CS major and I could do software engineering,
systems engineering internship
by which I got help for my next year tuition.
Now let's talk about my next year tuition fee.
Now, in my second year, as I told you that you can get scholarship in GSU
So my GPA was good
and I got campus Atlanta scholarship
which was 100 percent out of state waiver.
Which means, my tuition fee reduced from 35k dollars to 5.5k dollars.
It was 7000 actually, I saved money in health insurance as well
because I bought health insurance from outside of the University
by which I could save 1500 dollars
So that's why it was 5500 dollars.
So through this, all the money I earned from my internship,
from that I paid 5500 dollars for my first tuition fee.
Now, there was another twist in my second year.
Because I performed well in my internship, I got part-time offer.
I told that I did internship in the 10th floor of GaTech's 75th building
if you remember.
I worked part-time there for 20 hours a week.
I used to earn decent money too.
I used to get around 1200 to 1400 dollars per month.
So you think, the student whose expenses were 1000 before
I started getting more income than my expenses.
And I paid my tuition fee as well.
So that was a magical thing that happened to me.
So I kept paying my tuition fee for my second year
and also my housing expenses.
Now there was another change.
My housing wasn't on-campus.
It was off-campus. I was paying only 300 to 400 dollars
because I was in a living room.
I have learned a very big lesson from rich dad poor dad.
That's an amazing book if you haven't read it.
Please read it.
It was written there that always keep
your assets high and minimise your liabilities.
I knew housing was a liability.
So I chose a house next to a library
even though the standard of living was pretty low
I can visit the library in 5 minutes.
Either to study or to start my YouTube channel.
And YouTube helped me a lot as well.
So now, since my expenses were so low,
and income was high, my savings kept increasing.
So I paid my second year's second tuition fee.
Because as I told you I earned 10k dollars.
So easily I could pay the next semester tuition fee.
And my savings increased as well.
Now let's talk about third year.
Now there was a big twist in my third year.
Even though as you know, in tech you get the most salary.
If you are doing internship, full-time job
you get so much money that you can pay your fees easily.
But it was very very hectic.
I realised that I want a change in life.
I want to do more than excel sheets.
Since I was a systems engineer,
so I was working a lot on Excel sheets.
So that's why I wanted to find a software engineering internship.
So I thought, "Let's quit it."
Because if I don't switch my job today
then I will come in my comfort zone and I will not able to do it later.
So I left my internship
left Panasonic automotive,
and I got into the preparation of placements as a software engineer.
I tried each type of projects.
Blockchain, Android development- couldn't do iOS- I didn't have a MacBook
and I tried other things like Java, C#
to see which I like and I liked Android the most.
I learned Android nicely.
Since I learned a little android in Panasonic,
I took a side project there.
So that's why I was able to find my next internship at NCR.
I was benefited a lot.
And that's how I switched my job.
But my income decreased.
I allowed my income to decrease.
I did a sacrifice because I wanted to find a better job
And now in third year, my main source of income
was not internship but part time jobs.
If you have seen my four years of college income,
then you will get to know about my whole income.
So basically I chose part-time job because I
had to find a better placement.
Now why did I do part-time jobs in CS? Because
I had done well in my Basic CS class
I got A grades in Java, Python or Data structures.
You get opportunity to teach juniors
or the ones in their first year
I was in third year, so I taught first year students.
I got around 600-700 dollars there.
My salary reduced to half
but I got the time to prepare for placements.
And now again, because of lower expenses-
my food expenses was also less because of WhatsApp group free food
And my housing expenses were also less.
And my savings were more which is why
I was able to pay my third year tuition fee as well
And with the blink of an eye, third year was over.
And in fourth year, I was actually doing my masters
because I only did my undergrad till my third year
but I felt like I am missing something. I want to learn more.
So I applied for my masters in my fourth year.
I got fully funded masters.
And I completed my masters in an year where I didn't need
to worry about tuition fee once again.
Because I used to get stipend
and the university used to pay my tuition fee as well.
And now let me tell you the key lessons that I learned in my four years,
by which I paid my tuition fee
and by which you can pay yours as well.
Number one lesson, you can always sacrifice on standard of living.
And you can always find high paying internship jobs.
You know that you can get huge signing bonuses from big companies
that can easily pay not just one year
but also like 2 years of tuition fee.
I have seen that a company-
since he negotiated-
gave my friend a signing bonus of around 20k dollars.
So that's why your goal should be to find high paying internships
and if your standard of living decreases a bit
it won't matter because if
you are saving some money,
that can be more worth in the long run.
Now, number two thing that I did was
always use my credit card the most.
There won't be any sponsor here.
Be aware.
I have always bought things at 0% interest from my Amazon and Apple card
by which I didn't need to worry much about payment.
Like for example,
even now I have bought my iPhone
with my Apple card with in 20 dollars/month with 0% EMI and 3% cashback.
So I don't have to worry about anything.
So that's why I only spend 20 dollars a month even though this iPhone is 1k dollars.
So this idea worked a lot.
And next thing that was very very helpful was, I tried multiple things.
I taught students, I explored every possible option.
I started my YouTube channel.
It changed me financially and my overall personality.
I also learned many kind of technologies.
Blockchain, Android development
I attended 17 Hackathons.
I taught so many students and I still think, as Sandeep Maheshwari said
to teach is to learn twice.
It was actually true for me.
After teaching so many concepts regularly,
I got so clear that at the end of the day, I wanted to be
and Android or Mobile app developer in the end
because I realised after teaching so many people
that this is something I enjoy.
I can talk about this as much as I want.
So these things did help me a lot.
And now the most important financial lesson
is about investing.
Now you will say, "I don't have tuition fee for my next semester.
How will I invest?"
The reality is, if you earn decent amount of money in your internship,
for example, I made 10k dollars.
5000 - I paid my tuition fee.
What will I do with the rest 5000 dollars?
What I did was- There isn't good options like FDs here.
You can invest in mutual funds but that isn't safe.
Because what if
the index fund falls down when I have to pay my tuition fee?
What will I do?
So that's why I recently discovered
crypto.com's wallet
I won't advice you to invest in crypto
I am telling you to invest in stable coin in US dollars.
You will get upto 6% annual interest there.
So for example, I get 6.5% interest on Ethereum.
12.5% annual interest on Polkadot.
And you can get upto 12.5% on USDT, Tether stable coin.
Let me show you, I have so much crypto which is easily giving me 6-12%
You may not do in crypto
but if you want to consider, you can on US dollars.
Let me tell you, crypto's own coin has become so big
Crypto is actually the future. I have myself learnt blockchain.
Every investment isn't safe.
But if you are investing in US dollars,
if you are investing US dollars,
that is definitely safe.
And they haven't sponsored me at all. You will find the referral link
in the description below.
So that will be it. I hope you find this video helpful.
It's getting very cold here. I'll see you guys in the next one.
Goodbye!