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• James Guardino enrolled at a graduate college in Singapore in 2021. 
• This system value him simply $7,000 — a lot lower than what he paid for his Bachelor’s diploma from Temple College.
• Guardino mentioned attending college in Singapore is a humbling expertise.

This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with James Guardino, a 36-year-old graduate pupil at Nanyang Technological College, a faculty that is persistently ranked among the many high universities on this planet. It has been edited for size and readability.

I used to be born in Philadelphia, the most important metropolis in Pennsylvania, and lived within the Delaware Valley for twenty-four years. I grew up within the suburbs, and the thought of leaving the US and transferring overseas by no means got here up. 

That modified in 2006. I used to be enrolled in Temple College — a state-funded analysis college in my hometown — on the time. I ended up placing my research on maintain to pursue music and observe in my mother and father’ footsteps. I went on tour with a band throughout the US for a 12 months. There was one thing liberating about life on the highway.

In 2008, I returned to Temple to check economics. My time in school wasn’t simple as I went again to highschool following the worldwide monetary disaster. Regardless of the challenges, I graduated summa cum laude from Temple’s Fox College of Enterprise in 2011. 

Each the time I spent on a various campus and the experiences I had touring America helped me increase my horizons. I made lasting connections with folks from different cultures and backgrounds.

However like most millennials, I got here out of faculty with debt, which took me nearly a decade to repay. As an in-state pupil, attending Temple was cheaper than different out-of-state universities, but it surely was nonetheless a hefty sum. Within the newest educational 12 months, in-state tuition at Temple begins at $17,136 per 12 months. Out-of-state tuition is almost double the worth, at $30,864 per educational 12 months.

I ended up in Singapore in August 2012, after accepting a job as a facultative reinsurance dealer.

In comparison with the US, dwelling in Singapore within the 2010s felt extra trendy and vibrant — issues have been extra environment friendly, and the general public transport was second to none. I stayed as a result of Singapore was thrilling and filled with potentialities. 

In 2018, I married my long-time girlfriend who’s Singaporean. It has been ten years since we first received collectively, and throughout the pandemic, we determined that Singapore was the place we needed to settle. I obtained everlasting residency – the equal of a inexperienced card within the US – in Singapore in 2020. A 12 months later, I made a decision to return to highschool.

I enrolled on the S. Rajaratnam College of Worldwide Research, or RSIS, in July 2021. It is a graduate college inside the Nanyang Technological College, or NTU, a college that is at the moment ranked nineteenth within the QS World College Rankings, sandwiched between Ivy League colleges Yale and Cornell.

I am pursuing a two-year Grasp of Science diploma in worldwide political economic system part-time, and I am set to graduate in July. The complete program value round 9,950 Singapore {dollars}, or $7,000 for Singapore residents and everlasting residents. As compared, an identical diploma from Yale’s Graduate College of Arts and Sciences would value $46,900 per educational 12 months.

For a similar diploma, worldwide college students would pay SG$14,970, or $11,200, after authorities subsidies, which remains to be considerably lower than charges within the US. 

Attending graduate college abroad is humbling, however price it

I typically heard that I might by no means have time to return to highschool whereas juggling my company profession. It is positively an enormous problem and there is loads of effort that is wanted to make it work. However at RSIS, I’ve discovered that studying is self-directed — the quantity I be taught relies on how a lot time I put into studying and researching. 

Earlier than going again to highschool, I used to be a political danger dealer, so I enrolled in this system to be taught extra about political danger evaluation. It is helped me transition from my job position as a dealer to an underwriter.

There is a massive distinction within the affordability of school within the US and Singapore. Once I went again to highschool, value was an enormous issue that influenced my determination to attend a college within the city-state. The subsidies allowed me to additional my schooling — with out this, I might have struggled to afford graduate college.

I thought of enrolling in an internet or a distant graduate diploma from a number of respected universities within the US, however it could have set me again at the least $30,000, which simply wasn’t practical contemplating my spouse and I wish to begin a household.

Most college students at RSIS are from Asia, so it is not typically I come throughout different college students from the US and even Europe. It is a humbling expertise studying in a rustic outdoors your personal, and studying from the distinctive views of different college students who grew up in Southeast Asia, China, and past.

As an American, I’ve discovered loads of worth in coming to Singapore and attending graduate college. The US has implausible universities, however being right here has helped me higher perceive different cultures. Going again to highschool overseas has felt international and even daunting at occasions, however I believe that is factor for anybody coming from the West, particularly for those who’re keen to place your self in different folks’s sneakers.

I am grateful that many college students in Singapore — even when they are not residents — can safe grants and monetary support. The cash I am saving on tuition has helped me construct a powerful basis for me and my spouse’s future collectively.