The Perks of Postgrad: Personal and Professional Growth

09 Dec 2016

Hollywood often depicts the student experience as one giant party; if you’re not attending frat bashes until the morning’s wee hours, you’re trudging into lecture in the haze of the night before, or scrambling through a late night cram session before those foreboding Monday morning finals…

But in the real-world, getting through an undergraduate degree can be pretty tough. It can be challenging, it can be expensive, and at times it can be draining. It’s a time of your life that will require discipline, personal growth, and, perhaps most importantly, a passion for your subject.

But all that hard work doesn’t come without rewards – in return, students gain a sharper worldview, a professional demeanour, a myriad of knowledge and the expertise needed to excel in their careers, as well as a fresh zeal for their chosen field. By the time they graduate, most students are so energised by their undergraduate experience that they wish it could never end. Luckily, it doesn’t have to!

There are several obvious benefits of postgraduate study: it provides you with a deeper insight into your chosen field; it enhances your CV; and helps you earn more money, just to name a few. But let’s focus on how postgraduate study can also enhance personal development and character; through intensive, practical study, postgraduate education can refine that discipline, growth, and passion you initially developed in your undergrad years, evolving you into the best version of yourself, and allowing you to thrive in every aspect of your life.

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The postgraduate advantage is not only incredibly worthwhile, but also all-encompassing, bringing a huge return on investment to students around the globe. And if you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ve already considered advancing your world-class education on to the next level. Congratulations! (Or should we say congradulations?)

So if postgraduate education is of interest to you, you’ve certainly come to the right place. Now, it’s onto the hard part – where’s the best place to study? Well, there’s no need to worry because we like you so much that we’ve done the hard work for you! We’ve picked out three of the best universities in the world’s top two study abroad destinations, the UK and U.S., that will not only help advance your career prospects, but will also foster your intellectual, personal, and professional growth in ways you never thought you could achieve…

UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH – UK

The University of Greenwich (UoG) is an outstanding UK university with a longstanding tradition for producing graduate professionals who go on to change the world. UoG helps students put their passion into practice through quality education and unparalleled opportunities for collaboration and research. UoG’s ground-breaking research projects focus on solving real problems in real-time, whether it’s developing new ways to deliver medication into the bloodstream or designing an innovative bomb disposal robot.

In fact, their research has such an impact that none other than the Queen herself has awarded UoG for its research. As if this weren’t impressive enough, a biological study conducted by the Natural Resources Institute at UoG was hailed as one of the significant discoveries made by a UK university in the last 60 years!

Image courtesy of University of Greenwich

Through postgraduate study at UoG, whether it’s in Architecture, Business, Education, Engineering, Health, Humanities, Law, and beyond, you can be a part of life-saving research that changes the world. Plus, you’ll fit right in with more than 5,000 international students spread across the state-of-the-art London and Kent campuses.

Itching to find out more? You can check out a full list of their postgraduate research courses here. Click here to find out if there’s a University of Greenwich representative in your country! Need immediate answers to your questions? Check out their live chat feature, or get in touch via email at international@gre.ac.uk.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – USA

The University of Southern California (USC) is the ideal place for international students looking to earn a postgraduate degree in the heart of America. After all, USC boasts one of the nation’s largest international student populations, and with over 400 postgraduate programmes in 18 different schools, it’s no secret why.

USC puts more than $700 million a year towards its research efforts – not such a difficult feat for a university that has the largest computer science research programme in the U.S. USC is such an influential institution that the entire country relies on its research for new information and breakthroughs in technology. And you could be a part of it! Pretty amazing, right?

USC is renowned for its quality of education and powerful research. And its prime location in the sunshine of LA certainly doesn’t hurt! Want to know more? Visit their graduate admission page, or get in touch by filling out a student inquiry form.

KING’S COLLEGE LONDON – UK

More than 9,000 students a year decide to continue their education at King’s College London – ranked 21^st in the world by QS World University Rankings. Considering the multitude of career and research opportunities available to postgraduates at King’s, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Students have access to international internships, volunteer experiences, opportunities to win awards, and to speak at conferences; the likes of which they’d be hard-pushed to find anywhere else in the world.

Image courtesy of King’s College London

And, once a King’s student, always a King’s student (quite literally)! After graduation, you’ll gain membership into their extensive alumni network of over 170,000 former students. Kings’ vast alumni community comes with a plethora of perks, including sports, clubs, and societies for former students, social events, mentoring programmes, and beyond. And you won’t even have to travel to London to reap these rewards – there are international branches of King’s alumni on all four corners of the globe!

You can find out more about the postgraduate study experience and facilities they offer here. Or, if you have a specific question, you can get in touch via email at studyabroad@kcl.ac.uk

If you really want to be the best you can be, you must learn from the best. The universities listed here aren’t your small town, small-time institutions – they’re world class institutions with a vast, global impact. You won’t just be an international postgraduate student at any of schools! You’ll be a researcher, a contributor, an activist, and a change-maker.

And we can’t think of a better way to spur your own self-growth than creating a positive, lasting impact on the world. Can you?

*Some of the institutions featured in this article are commercial partners of Study International